Mediator expects Honduran de facto leader to resign
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Chile's former President Ricardo Lagos, also a member of Honduras' Verification Commission, said Thursday that he expected Honduran de facto leader Roberto Micheletti to resign before the presidential elections.
Lagos said he trusted Micheletti, who had offered to resign once a government of national unity is established.
Now, Honduras was "a country with all international aids being frozen," Lagos observed. He reasoned that therefore, both Micheletti and the ousted President Manuel Zelaya were interested in resolving the crisis.
Lagos added that the issue at stake was not Zelaya's restitution in power. Rather, the problem lay in the fact that Zelaya and Micheletti interpreted the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Agreement differently. The agreement, which was signed last week, stipulates that the Honduran Congress must decide on Zelaya's restitution.
Lagos said that restoring the pre-coup status quo would depend on a majority in the Congress, which "unfortunately is very fluid."
If Zelaya was not restored to power before the elections, it would be quite a regrettable scenario because the legitimacy of the elections might later be called into question, Lagos remarked.
On Wednesday, the Verification Commission of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Agreement rejected Zelaya's restitution before the presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 29.
