MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Expelled Venezuelan diplomats challenge Honduras de facto government

Uriel Vargas: Venezuela does not recognize Micheletti, “so we are not leaving”

Venezuelan diplomats rejected comminatory orders to abandon Honduras in 72 hours saying their expulsion was decided by an illegitimate government which is not recognized by the administration of President Hugo Chavez.

“We do not recognize the government of Roberto Micheletti. It’s a coup born government”, said Uriel Vargas Chargé des affairs and first secretary of the Venezuelan diplomatic delegation in Tegucigalpa.

Early Tuesday the de facto Honduran government gave the staff of the Venezuelan embassy 72 hours to leave, accusing them of threatening to use force and meddling in internal affairs. All Honduran embassy staff would also leave their diplomatic mission in Caracas, said an official statement.

Asked what would happen if they were forced to leave (as happened with ousted President Manuel Zelaya), Vargas said that would be the missing pearl for the Micheletti government necklace of illegalities: “violation of international conventions”.

Varela said that Ambassador Armando Laguna was not in Honduras and reiterated that Caracas only recognizes President Manuel Zelaya as the legitimate elected leader of the Central American country.

Also on Tuesday the European Union announced that it would limit contacts with the interim government, which forced the ouster of Zelaya on June 28, following a new funding freeze.

But Roberto Micheletti, the man who took power after Zelaya was flown to Costa Rica and expelled, has maintained his hard line position and promised Zelaya will be arrested if he returns to Honduras as he intends to.

Nobel Peace laureate and crisis mediator Oscar Arias on Sunday warned that Honduras was on the brink of civil war and pleaded for crisis talks to resume after a 72-hour break.

Zelaya, who has promised on various occasions to return to Honduras, said Tuesday he would come back with a crowd gathered in neighbouring Central American countries after Thursday, when Arias' deadline was due to expire.

“I have a large border with El Salvador; I have a border with Guatemala and with Nicaragua. The journey could be by air, land or sea,” Zelaya said on Honduran radio from exile in Nicaragua.

Representatives of the interim leadership on Sunday rejected a proposal by Arias that Zelaya return as president in charge of a “reconciliation” government.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a key backer to Zelaya, who turned increasingly to the political left after taking power in 2005 as a Liberal. Chavez said Tuesday that Zelaya's expulsion had also been an attack on Venezuela and regional leftist countries.

Sweden, current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement that the EU would continue to restrict political contacts with the de facto government “until a peaceful negotiated solution has been found.”

The 27-nation bloc on Monday suspended 65.5 million Euros in aid to Honduran institutions, although not humanitarian aid.

Many Honduran lawmakers, judges and military leaders believe Zelaya triggered the country's crisis by pushing ahead with a June 28 referendum, without congressional approval, on changing the constitution.