Fears for a return of the country's war-plagued past spread in Honduras as negotiations for a solution to the political crisis remained deadlocked and both sides were urged to resume talks in three days.
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Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias (2nd L) stands with Carlos Lopez (L), representative for Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti, Rixi Moncada and Aristedes Mejia (R), representatives for deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, after negotiations in San Jose July 19, 2009. Talks to resolve Honduras' political crisis dragged into a second day on Sunday, with negotiators for deposed President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders deadlocked over his proposed return to power.[Xinhua]
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The two-day talks on ending Honduras' political crisis failed Sunday in Costa Rica due to both sides' non-compromising stances.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who is mediating in the crisis, said he would spend 72 hours to try to convince Honduran post-coup leader Roberto Micheletti to accept his compromise plan, which would let ousted President Manuel Zelaya serve out the final months of his term.
Micheletti's negotiating team has rejected the plan, saying a provision calling for Zelaya's reinstatement was "unacceptable".
Arias called on both sides to resume the talks by Wednesday and seek a solution to avoid internecine violence in Honduras, where a great number of people possess weapons.
"Many Hondurans have arms. What happens if one of them fires on a soldier or a soldier fires on an armed citizen?" he said, adding that civil war was one of the possibilities.
Representatives for Micheletti, who took power hours after Zelaya was forced into exile on June 28, accepted Arias' call for a 72-hour reflection, but a spokeswoman for Zelaya's team described the post-coup regime as "intransigent" and threatened not to return to talks.
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Mauricio Villeda, (L) representative of Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti, speaks with Milton Jimenez representative of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya during negotiations in San Jose July 19, 2009. Talks to resolve Honduras' political crisis dragged into a second day on Sunday, with negotiators for deposed President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders deadlocked over his proposed return to power. [Xinhua]
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At the end of Sunday's talks, Carlos Lopez, Micheletti's foreign minister and head of the negotiating delegation, told a press conference that they would never accept Zelaya's restoration as head of the government.
"We made a counter proposal... under which the constitutional president, Roberto Micheletti, agreed to step down in exchange for Mr. Zelaya returning to face trial for his crimes," he said.
