MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Honduras sides on conflict agree to a tentative dialogue under OAS

John Biehl, special envoy for OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza is optimistic.

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti have agreed to begin talks next week under the auspices of the OAS (Organization of American States) in an attempt to find a way out to the institutional crisis.

“There’s going to be a summons to dialogue. On the one side the de facto government and the other side has accepted. That has been agreed”, said Friday John Biehl, special envoy for OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

Dialogue could begin before the visit on October 7 of ten Foreign Affairs ministers from the Americas and Mr. Insulza. To prepare for the visit four OAS staff, that had been expelled last Saturday by the de facto government, arrived Friday in Tegucigalpa.

However a face to face between Micheletti and Zelaya who is holed in the Brazilian embassy since September 21st, has not been scheduled or planned.

Following several frustrated negotiation attempts, OAS suspended Honduras from the organization on July 5 following the June 28th coup, “we must try that an agreement is reached, soon and avoid it does not turn into a dilatory strategy from either side”, cautioned Biehl.

“I feel there’s sincerity, openness. The willingness to dialogue and find a solution has increased and there’s a strong support from the international community. Passion is moving aside and rationality is moving in”, added Biehl.

But dialogue is facing several difficulties under the current state of siege which was imposed last Sunday by Micheletti. The decree restricts freedom of movement, assemble and of the press, and included silencing of two media loyal to Zelaya, Radio Globo and Channel 36.

However there are signals that changes may be on the working: the business community, the current Congress, the Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme Court of Justice which supported the ousting of Mr. Zelaya are not convinced the restriction of rights is the appropriate atmosphere for a dialogue.

Micheletti has said he is willing to consider lifting the decree but “later on” according to events, while Zelaya in an interview with a Uruguayan newspaper stated he’s prepared to face Supreme Court charges, “once he is reinstated in office”.

Meanwhile the business community has presented a plan to exit the situation and the Honduran Army has said it is optimistic about a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile a group of Brazilian lawmakers arrived in Tegucigalpa and have met with Zelaya at their Embassy. There’s growing disappointment in Brazil over the fact that Zelaya, who is a refuge in the embassy, has turned the compound into a political station clearly involved in local politics, conditioning the country’s diplomacy.

Micheletti on his side was visited by a group of Republican US Congress members who expressed their support for the constitutional mechanisms applied by his government to oust Zelaya.

Earlier this week the US representative before the OAS described Zelaya’s surreptitious return to Honduras as “stupid and childish”.

According to the Honduran political calendar, presidential elections are scheduled for the end of November and there is ample consensus among all sides involved trying to solve the crisis that Hondurans must go to the polls as established.