Breakthrough near in Honduras crisis: UN

Breakthrough near in Honduras crisis: UN

NEW YORK — The head of the United Nations General Assembly signalled Friday a breakthrough is imminent in talks to resolve the political crisis in Honduras.

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann spoke in New York as thousands of supporters of Honduras’s ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, held rallies in the Central American country.


“I have a feeling that we are moving in that direction rather quickly,” the former Nicaraguan revolutionary, who is also a Catholic priest, told a news conference at the UN.

Insiders suggested that a timetable had been laid out in which Zelaya, a rich landowner whose leftist policies led him to become a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, would return to his country as early as next week. He would be allowed to complete his term as president through to January in return for making clear he has no intention of seeking to extend his rule, they said.

The Honduran military forced Zelaya into exile June 28 after he ignored a Supreme Court order to halt a bid that seemed aimed at seeking constitutional approval for abandoning presidential term limits.

The next day, the Honduran Congress named in his place Roberto Micheletti, who has argued Zelaya’s expulsion was not a coup because the military acted under the authority of the Honduran Supreme Court.

Serving as mediator, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias opened two days of talks Thursday in his country between aides of Zelaya and Micheletti, but he said late Friday the two sides remained deadlocked.

In Caracas earlier Friday, Chavez described the talks as “dead.”

But d’Escoto Brockmann referred cryptically to "conversations" he has had that, he said, led him to believe "there will be a solution" soon.

It was understood he spoke with Leonel Antonio Fernandez Reyna, president of the Dominican Republic, who met with Zelaya when the deposed Honduran president arrived in the Caribbean country Friday.

"I feel confident that a solution will be arrived at very soon,” D’Escoto Brockmann said. “By soon, I mean very few days. A week is soon, but I believe sooner."

U.S. President Barack Obama has said Zelaya must be reinstated “even though” he has frequently spoken out against the United States.

Suspension in U.S. and international loans have been proposed to put pressure on the provisional regime to strike a deal. But insiders say the Pentagon’s suspension of military aid has been “key” as the Honduran military assesses its potential effect over the coming months.