Tensions mount in Honduras

2009-07-04 22:16

Tegucigalpa - Honduras headed toward international isolation on Saturday after the country's coup leaders said they would pull out of the Organisation of American States, amid fears of a violent showdown here.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza - who warned of increasing tension and polarisation during a brief visit to Tegucigalpa - dismissed the threat to withdraw from the body, underlining the interim government was not recognised internationally.

"It's a government which for the 34 member countries and for the international community does not legally exist," Insulza told Chilean radio on Saturday.

The OAS was due to vote on whether to suspend Honduras - which would be the first such move since the exclusion of Cuba in 1962 - in Washington on Saturday.

Amid the political and diplomatic deadlock, thousands of frustrated Hondurans prepared to protest again, and Catholic leaders warned of a potential bloodbath if ousted President Manuel Zelaya returned to the country.

Thousands on both sides have demonstrated daily since Zelaya was sent away in his pajamas last Sunday, and sporadic clashes have broken out between the army and protesters. An unidentified number of people have been injured and detained.

The archbishop of the Honduran capital read out a message from the Honduras Bishop's Conference calling for Zelaya to stay away, on national radio and television.

'Please think, because afterwards it will be too late'

"The day of your swearing in, you clearly quoted the three commandments of the law of God: to not lie, to not steal, to not kill. We think that a return to the country at the moment could provoke a bloodbath," cardinal Oscar Rodriguez said.

"To this day no Honduran has died. Please think, because afterwards it will be too late."

A pessimistic Insulza said here late on Friday that those who ousted Zelaya last weekend did not plan to reverse the situation, and denounced a "military coup".

Honduras "ceases its compliance with the charter of the Organisation of American States... with immediate effect", deputy foreign minister Marta Lorena Alvarado said on national television late on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Supreme Court meanwhile said it had told Insulza that the removal of Zelaya was "irreversible".

Insulza met here with politicians and legal and religious figures, but not the interim president, Roberto Micheletti, whom he does not recognise.

Micheletti's supporters said the army was justified in ousting Zelaya - on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court - because he had called a referendum to change the constitution that they claim he planned to use to extend his rule.

The interim government has said it may consider holding early elections to end the impasse, but now looked set to try to hunker down until scheduled elections in November.

- AFP