Honduras' ousted president, interim government sign pactTEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his opponents have agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal that he said will return him to power four months after a coup shook faith in Latin America's young democracies.
The power-sharing agreement reached late Thursday calls for Congress to decide whether to reinstate the leftist Zelaya. While the legislature backed his June 28 ouster, congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that ends Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimizes presidential elections planned for November.
"We are willing to be cooperative in Congress with the agreement of the negotiators," Porfirio Lobo, a National Party lawmaker who is favored to win the Nov. 29 presidential elections, said Friday. "The best decision for Honduras will be taken."
While officials did not explicitly say the deal would return Zelaya to power to serve out the remaining three months of his term, the ousted president was clearly confident that it will.
"This signifies my return to power in the coming days, and peace for Honduras," Zelaya told opposition Radio Globo.
Zelaya told The Associated Press that he expects Congress will take "a week or so" to make its decision. In the meantime, he said he will remain at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he took refuge after slipping back into the country from his forced exile.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said Friday surrounded by jubilant supporters.
Soldiers still surrounded the embassy and floodlights still interrupted sleep but it has been several days since troops have crowed and meowed in the wee hours to keep those inside awake.
That's right, Zelaya. You're not going anywhere. The Honduran Congress will merely vote, once again, to oust you for violating the Honduran Constitution. The Honduran Constitution explicitly limits Presidents to one term, and states that the President shall, at no time, ever, call for himself to be re-elected.
Zelaya violated the Constitution, and the Congress and Supreme Court asked the Military to remove him from the country.
So, now to get the egg off his face, after months of calling this a coup, Obama is forcing the Honduran Congress to restate it's position.
They will vote and the outcome of the vote will be the exact same thing. Zelaya will not be allowed back into the country.
End of story.
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