Ousted president back in Honduras despite US criticism

DEFYING US criticism, ousted president Manuel Zelaya returned for a second day to Honduras’s land border to try to put pressure on the coup leaders who threw him out of the country last month.

In a move that risked alienating his most powerful ally in his bid to return to power, Zelaya also said US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is not adequately informed about Honduras’ “repressive regime”.

Clinton criticised Zelaya as “reckless” when he came to this town on the Honduran border with Nicaragua on Friday and took a few steps on Honduran soil as police and soldiers with orders to arrest him stood yards away.

He returned on Saturday and insisted he would not give up his fight to regain power, although he showed little appetite for a confrontation with security forces, saying he had held back from entering Honduras to avoid provoking a massacre.

“You know if I get close and they want to arrest me, people will defend me and there will be a massacre,” he told reporters.

The US, the United Nations and Latin American presidents have roundly condemned Zelaya’s forced removal from power on June 28 and are demanding he be reinstated.

US president Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras and threatened to slash economic aid. But he has yet to take measures directly against the coup leaders, and there are tensions between Washington and Zelaya, a close ally of Venezuela’s anti-American and socialist president, Hugo Chavez.

Zelaya has asked Obama to take tougher measures against the de facto government, and he said Clinton was not fully aware of its repressive policies.

“I think she has to be given the correct information so that she comes to see what is happening in Honduras and her words are to complain about the coup leaders, not the heroic people that are resisting and accompanying me so that things return to normal,” he said.

Zelaya’s enemies say he was acting illegally in trying to extend presidential term limits and his removal was authorised by Honduran laws. De facto leader Roberto Micheletti has resisted international pressure to back down.