There may be a deal to bring the coup in Honduras to an end. From the Latin American Herald Tribune:
Negotiators for ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya and current Honduras President Roberto Micheletti have reached an agreement to bring an end to a months-long political standoff triggered by the June 28 events that led to the departure of Zelaya.
The deal, set to be signed on Friday, leaves it up to Congress to decide on Zelaya’s reinstatement — with a recommendation from the Supreme Court — and also includes several points contained in a proposal made by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in his role as mediator in the crisis.
The deal could allow the ousted president to serve out the remaining three months of his term. If Congress agrees, control of the army would shift to the electoral court, and the presidential election set for Nov. 29 would be recognized by both sides.
Al Giordano is less sanguine about the deal:
US officials and commercial media organizations are popping champagne corks prematurely over a reported US-brokered ”œdeal” to return Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to (limited) power, but the two sides that reportedly signed the agreement already disagree over what exactly it says.
…Micheletti’s claim that a Congressional vote to restore Zelaya would require Supreme Court authorization is a flat out lie, according to a source with Zelaya inside his Brazilian Embassy refuge in Tegucigalpa: ”œThat is what the golpistas have put out, but that is NOT the accord… The Supreme Court gives its non-binding opinion to the Congress, but the key is that all of this takes time, time that the golpistas want to keep taking.”
…The real problem could be the authoritarian Supreme Court. Micheletti’s invention of a non-existent clause in the agreement, one that requires the court’s approval of it, points to where the stalling tactic will come from. This is the same Supreme Court that carried out the coup d’etat on June 28 and has micro-managed the regime’s affairs all summer and fall on a level that would not be appropriate or legal in most countries. Because Honduras’ 1982 Constitution is such a self-conflicted document with many articles that contradict each other, the court has been cherry-picking which laws to discard and which to interpret, often badly.
* Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Fabiano Maisonnave in Tegucigalpa
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 October 2009 17.00 GMT
Coup leaders in Honduras have accepted a US-brokered deal allowing the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, to return to power and resolve central America’s gravest political crisis since the end of the cold war.
The de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti said it would sign an accord reinstating the leftist leader in a national unity government, raising hopes that a dangerous standoff which has increased tension across the region will end without further bloodshed.
“It is a triumph for Honduran democracy,” said Zelaya, who was toppled in a military coup four months ago. “This signifies my return to power in the coming days, and peace for Honduras.”
If it holds – analysts cautioned things could still go wrong – the deal will be a significant foreign policy success for the Obama administration and boost its standing across Latin America. Speaking from Pakistan, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called it “an historic agreement”, adding: “This is a big step forward for the inter-American system.”
Under the deal Zelaya will return to office and share power with his adversaries; both sides will recognise the result of a 29 November presidential election, which will choose a new leader. If not re-elected, Zelaya would step down in January when his successor is sworn in.
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wtf? he isn’t up for reelection
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — Honduras’s acting president Roberto Micheletti formed a national unity government without the backing of Manuel Zelaya, the ousted head of state, Agence France-Presse reported.
Micheletti said in a statement read on national radio and television late yesterday his Cabinet was created under a U.S.- backed accord to end the country’s political crisis, AFP reported. Zelaya said earlier he wouldn’t present candidates for the new administration unless Congress reinstates him, the news service said, citing his adviser, Rasel Tome.
Zelaya and Micheletti agreed last week to have Congress consult the Supreme Court before lawmakers vote on whether the ousted leader should be restored to power. While the U.S.-backed accord required a unity government to be created on Nov. 5, it didn’t set a deadline for the vote in Congress, AFP said.