Honduras’s
Micheletti Says Zelaya Exile Was ‘Error’
By Andres R. Martinez and Blake Schmidt
(Bloomberg) - Acting Honduran President
Roberto Micheletti said forcing deposed
President Manuel Zelaya to leave the
country, instead of arresting him, was a
mistake.
“There was an error by a certain sector,”
Micheletti said today in an interview in
Tegucigalpa. “It wasn’t correct. We have to
punish whoever allowed that to happen. The
rest was framed within what the constitution
requires.”
Micheletti repeated that the military was
following the law when soldiers seized
Zelaya at his house early June 28 because he
had ignored court rulings and was illegally
seeking to change the constitution in order
to run for office again. A mistake was made
when Zelaya, still wearing pajamas, was put
on a plane to Costa Rica instead of being
held for trial, Micheletti said.
Now, Honduras finds itself vulnerable to a
military attack from its neighbors because
the U.S. has cut off military support,
Micheletti said. The U.S., Brazil and other
countries in the region condemned Zelaya’s
ouster and have urged Micheletti to
negotiate a solution with the deposed
government.
Micheletti said the country has six months
of food reserves it can draw on in the case
the world toughens sanctions. The $14.1
billion economy’s main exports are coffee
and textiles.
“We have to be more creative to survive on
this island that they’ve put us on,”
Micheletti said, seated in his home near a
green bust of himself and surrounded by a
collection of Chinese, Japanese and Middle
Eastern swords. “Little by little, we’ll
recapture the trust of other countries.”
Zelaya, Chavez
Micheletti, 66, says he has been watching
mostly action movies to relax in the
evenings since he became president, a hobby
he picked up from his Italian father who
owned a movie theater in his hometown of
Progreso in northern Honduras. Micheletti
was president of Congress before Zelaya’s
ouster.
Zelaya, a former cattle rancher, cannot
return as president and would only be
allowed in the country to face the Honduran
courts that have charged him with abuse of
power, treason and fraud, said Micheletti,
who was named as president by Congress after
lawmakers ratified Zelaya’s removal.
Supporters of the interim government say
that Zelaya became too closely aligned with
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his
plan for “21st-century socialism” after
being elected in 2005. Zelaya signed the
nation up for aid programs including
Petrocaribe, which offered oil at discounted
prices.
Approval of his government fell to a record
30 percent in February from a high of 57
percent in January 2007, according to a
nationwide poll by CID-Gallup.
Honduran Business Leaders
Honduras’s business leaders are “paranoid
about Chavez, and that’s probably
unwarranted,” said Kevin Casas Zamora, a
former vice president of Costa Rica and
fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The
real and perceived closeness between Zelaya
and Hugo Chavez is the absolute essence of
this crisis as seen from the lens of the
Honduran elite.”
Since being ousted, Zelaya has visited
Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica, El Salvador and the U.S. to build
support for his return. On July 5, the
military and police blocked the runway at
the airport in Tegucigalpa to prevent
Zelaya’s plane from landing. The ousted
president spent less than 30 minutes in
Honduras without being arrested when he
crossed by foot on July 24.
Micheletti said he supports talks mediated
by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, which
after several days of meetings and at least
two proposals from Arias have yet to result
in an agreement. Arias’s latest plan called
for reinstating Zelaya as president, moving
up elections and forming a unity cabinet.
Regional Support
Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, the United
Nations and the Organization of American
States have all condemned Zelaya’s removal
and asked for him to be reinstated. Some
nations, including the U.S., have cut off
some financial aid.
Zelaya has denied that he intended to change
the constitution to end term limits. He has
called Micheletti’s government “dictatorial”
and said supporters are holding “permanent”
demonstrations for his return.
Micheletti said that by removing Zelaya from
power, Honduras has stopped Chavez’s
influence from spreading in the region.
Chavez’s brand of socialism will never gain
a foothold in Honduras, Micheletti said.
“All we had done over 20 years in our fight
for democracy was going to end up in the
hands of one man, a new dictator, and a
small group of leftists bent on staying in
power,” Micheletti said. “I don’t think
Chavez has any more chances here.”
Honduras’s Finance Ministry has estimated
that seven weeks of protests since Zelaya’s
ouster and lost economic aid has cost the
economy $40 million a week.
The deputy director of the Latin American
Business Council of Honduras, Jesus
Canahuati, said business leaders would
accept Zelaya’s return as president to end
the political stalemate.
“If the Costa Rica mediation calls for
Zelaya’s return, businesses will accept it,”
Canahuati said in an interview Aug. 13. “If
Micheletti agrees to it, we won’t oppose the
San Jose accord.”
Micheletti, who served in Congress for 29
years, said most businesses still oppose
Zelaya’s return to power.
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