Zelaya may return to Honduras even if he faces arrest

Zelaya may return to Honduras even if he faces arrest
Tyler Bridges
August 15, 2009 5:21 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Ousted President Manuel Zelaya's closest collaborators in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, are advising him to return to Honduras even if that means that the de facto government now in power will arrest him immediately.

They say that Zelaya's return would dramatically scramble the political landscape in this small Central American country, where Zelaya's replacement, President Roberto Micheletti, seems intent on withstanding widespread international pressure to step aside.

Driving the thinking of the Zelaya advisers is the Micheletti government's steadfast refusal to sign an agreement crafted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias that would restore Zelaya to power for the remaining five months of his term with limited powers.

''I think Zelaya ought to go to San Jose (Costa Rica), sign the agreement and come to Honduras,'' Victor Meza, the senior official in Zelaya's cabinet as minister of internal security, said in an interview. ''A majority of his ministers here have come to the same conclusion, that he needs to come here. He'd be taken out of prison on the shoulders of the people to the Casa Presidencial.''

More:
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565632766357929991

"Foremost among his objectives: to be allowed to seek re-election."