Tegucigalpa, Dec 3 (DPA) The Honduran Congress began debate on restoring the country’s ousted president Manuel Zelaya amid tight security in central Tegucigalpa.
The session started at 1900 GMT, three hours later than originally planned. Central Tegucigalpa has been cordoned off by military and police forces with five security rings, to safeguard the debate in Congress, Honduran media reported Wednesday.
Several hundred supporters of Zelaya – who was ousted by a military coup June 28 – gathered before the unicameral Congress building to demand his immediate reinstatement.
Congress Speaker Jose Alfredo Saavedra said as he launched proceedings that he hoped the legislature’s resolution would embody “the will and the aspirations of the Honduran people”.
Zelaya was sent into exile June 28 and secretly returned to Honduras Sep 21. Since then, he has been sheltered at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.
Post-coup authorities have vowed to have him arrested for treason, violations of the constitution, abuse of power and other charges as soon as he sets foot on Honduran soil.
Zelaya himself demanded reinstatement prior to Sunday’s presidential election, which had been scheduled before the coup but which Zelaya and part of the international community considered illegitimate in the post-coup setting.
Zelaya insists that constitutional order can only be restored by his return to the presidency.
Congress has been in recess for weeks, and it only reconvened Wednesday. Zelaya condemned the delay in debating his reinstatement, while at the same time insisting since early November that he would refuse to return to power even if Congress reinstates him, because it would serve to legitimise the coup.
Conservative Porfirio Lobo won Sunday’s election and is set to be inaugurated as the next president of the troubled Honduras Jan 27.
Observers said it was possible, even likely, that the legislators would create a commission to evaluate reinstatement, as a ploy to gain time.
Lobo’s National Party has said that its legislators will oppose reinstatement. The Liberal Party of both Zelaya and coup leader Roberto Micheletti, which holds the most seats in Congress, remained divided.
