Post-coup leader offers to step down

Honduras’ interim leader said he is willing to step down if it helps end his country’s political crisis but only if ousted President Manuel Zelaya isn’t allowed to regain power.

Roberto Micheletti, the former congressional leader who was selected by politicians to serve out the final six months of Mr Zelaya’s term, presented the offer as a means to end the nearly three-week standoff over Honduras’ military-backed coup.

At the same time, he also accused unspecified parties of handing out weapons and planning an armed rebellion.

The interim president said he was willing to leave office “if at some point that decision is needed to bring peace and tranquillity to the country, but without the return, and I stress this, of former President Zelaya”.

The resignation offer was presented by a Honduran delegation to the Washington-based Organisation of American States, Mr Micheletti told reporters in Tegucigalpa. It was unclear if the OAS had received the proposal.

Mr Zelaya was not immediately available for comment, but the offer appeared unlikely to resolve the standoff over the June 28 coup, in which soldiers seized Mr Zelaya and hustled him out of the country on a plane. Talks on ending the crisis are expected to resume on Saturday in Costa Rica.

If Mr Micheletti were to resign, under Honduran law the presidency would pass to Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera. The Supreme Court backed the coup.

Mr Zelaya insisted he intends to return as president, saying that point is not open to negotiation. On Tuesday, he said Hondurans had a right to stage an insurrection against Mr Micheletti’s internationally isolated government.

Asked about the possibility of an armed rebellion, Mr Micheletti said: “I don’t think we will get to that point. Our country is peaceful. I don’t believe Hondurans will pick up arms to kill other Hondurans.”

However, he charged that some people were trying to foment a rebellion. “This morning we were informed that they were handing out some guns,” Mr Micheletti said, without specifying who “they” were.

Mr Micheletti, a member of Mr Zelaya’s own political party, was named by Congress to serve out the presidential term after Mr Zelaya was accused of violating Honduran law by ignoring the courts and Congress in pressing ahead with plans for a constitutional referendum viewed by many as a power grab.

Mr Zelaya denies he was seeking to change the constitution so he could serve another term.