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Ousted Honduran leader to meet with Clinton

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-07 19:13

TEGUCIGALPA: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was due to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday just over a week after he was toppled in a coup that has pushed the Central American state into international isolation.

The high-profile meeting with Washington's top diplomat will shore up support for Zelaya after troops foiled his attempt to fly back into Honduras on Sunday and clashed with his followers in the capital city. At least one person was killed.

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya waves from a car as he leaves a shopping mall in Managua July 6, 2009. [Agencies]

The talks with Clinton in Washington will also signal that President Barack Obama's administration wants to give clear support to Zelaya.

Related readings:  Zelaya's homecoming botched, Honduras in chaos  Honduras slides toward greater instability  OAS expels Honduras' membership over coup  Zelaya says he's optimist, will return to Honduras  Honduras isolated over coup, protests worsen

The United States has already condemned the June 28 coup in the impoverished coffee and textile exporting country and is urging dialogue to achieve a peaceful constitutional solution to the crisis.

Defying international pressure to reinstate Zelaya, caretaker President Roberto Micheletti, appointed by Honduran lawmakers after the coup, has insisted the ousted leader was legally removed and should be arrested if he returns to Honduras.

Zelaya, a timber magnate who irked opponents by shifting to the political left after his 2006 election, was forced out at gunpoint last week and flown into exile by the military in Central America's first coup since the Cold War.

"This is the responsibility of the powerful countries too, especially the United States, which has a lot of force ... and should take measures," Zelaya told Telesur regional network.

Speaking in the Nicaraguan capital Managua, he said statements from Obama and his administration so far had been "firm" in favor of his return to office.

His ouster sparked widespread international condemnation, from the White House to his Latin American leftist allies, and is a test of regional diplomacy for the Obama administration as it tries to mend Washington's battered image in the hemisphere.

The Organization of American States late on Saturday took the rare step of suspending Honduras for its refusal to reinstate Zelaya.

Interim Government Maintains Stance

Honduras' interim government insists Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transition carried out by the army and supported by the Supreme Court. It argues Zelaya had illegally tried to organize a vote on changing presidential term limits.

"I am confident Secretary Clinton will recognize the rule of law is the reason we are here and that Mr. Zelaya should account for his unconstitutional position," Micheletti said in a national broadcast on Monday.

A commission of Honduran private sector representatives flew to Washington on Monday to seek guarantees on trade and make the case for the interim government, which cannot officially hold talks with the US administration.

The OAS suspension will complicate Honduras' access to multilateral loans. Washington has held back from issuing a legal definition of the ouster as a coup -- such a definition would force a cutoff of US aid to the country, the third poorest in the hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua.

The State Department has requested $68.2 million in aid for Honduras for the fiscal year 2010, more than the $43.2 million in the current year, covering development aid, funds for US arms as well as military training and counter narcotics aid.