Zelaya: U.S.-brokered pact did not resolve crisis
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TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS -- Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said Friday that a U.S.-brokered pact failed to end a four-month political crisis after a deadline for forming a unity government passed.
The State Department expressed disappointment at the development, with spokesman Ian Kelly telling reporters, "It is urgent that this government be created immediately."
"The accord is dead," Zelaya told Radio Globo from the Brazilian Embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa, where he has been holed up under threat of arrest. "There is no sense in deceiving Hondurans."
Hondurans had gone back to work as normal Friday, and streets were busy with shoppers and traffic. But Jacinto MartÃnez, a construction worker, said the crisis is draining.
"I am tired of so many things happening in Honduras, and I just want things to go back to the way they were," he said. "People want a quick solution to this problem."
Forged last week with the help of U.S. diplomats, the pact gave the two sides until midnight Thursday to install a government with supporters of Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who was named interim president by Honduras's Congress after Zelaya was ousted June 28.
Jorge Reina, a negotiator for Zelaya, said the pact fell apart because Congress did not vote on whether to reinstate the deposed president before the deadline for forming the unity government.
The pact did not require Zelaya's return to the presidency; it left the decision up to Congress. Zelaya interpreted that to mean that Congress had to vote on the issue by Thursday.
Supporters of Micheletti disputed that. They said that the pact required that members of the unity cabinet be in place by Thursday but that there was no deadline for Congress to meet.
-- Associated Press
