Zelaya negotiating deal to leave Honduras

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Mexico is working to get ousted President Manuel Zelaya out of the Brazilian Embassy, a refuge where he has spent nearly three months in a failed effort to get his office back and prevent the election of his successor.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said late Wednesday that it asked the interim administration installed after the coup that removed Zelaya to guarantee his safe passage out of the country without being arrested on treason and abuse of power charges.

Honduran officials said the interim government agreed to let Zelaya go if he was willing to accept political asylum, but Zelaya said he would not accept a departure under those terms.

"I want to leave as a distinguished guest, not as political refugee like the interim government wants," Zelaya told Radio Globo late Wednesday.

The interim government had been insistent Zelaya would be arrested on the charges that led to his June 28 ouster for ignoring a Supreme Court order against holding a referendum on changing the constitution, but recently it began hinting Zelaya could leave for exile or political asylum in another country.

Zelaya said his reason for leaving is to seek out a neutral site for a meeting with Honduran President-elect Porfirio Lobo to "find a peaceful solution to the situation in the country."

Zelaya said he wanted a negotiated solution for his departure — one "that respected the law, and respected my office" as president.

He suggested he wanted a status that would "allow me to continue my (political) actions abroad." He operated a sort of government-in-exile from other Latin American nations after being ousted.

"I will not accept any political asylum," Zelaya said. That status might hinder his campaign to drum up opposition to the forces that removed him from the presidency

Oscar Raul Matute, the interim interior minister, said Mexico had filed paperwork asking for safe passage for Zelaya but had failed to include whether Zelaya would be recognized by Mexico as Honduras' president or as just a citizen being given refuge.

"If the government of Mexico wishes to give him asylum, we will consider that petition as long as it fulfills all the requirements," Matute told CNN en Espanol.

Honduras' Congress, which is dominated by Zelaya's own political party, voted 111-14 last week month against restoring him to office to serve out his term, which ends Jan. 27.

Zelaya said he had talked with both Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Dominican President Leonel Fernandez about leaving Honduras.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said it was looking "to contribute to the easing of tensions in Hondurans ... through dialogue and negotiation."

The interim government's foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, told Channel 5 television that a Mexican plane had approached Honduras late Wednesday to fly Zelaya out of the country but that had it diverted to El Salvador.

"Honduras will only offer a safe-conduct pass to Zelaya to travel to another country as a political refugee, and not in any other way," Lopez said.

A Mexican government official, who agreed to discuss the issue if not quoted by name, said a plane had apparently been sent or would be sent to Honduras as a result of the talks. The official also said the negotiations were focused on exactly what title Zelaya would be given.

On Tuesday, Porfirio Lobo, the man who won the Nov. 29 election to replace Zelaya, said he supported amnesty for Zelaya and for all of those involved in the coup that deposed him.

Although Zelaya has refused to recognize the election, Lobo has said he hopes to open dialogue with the deposed leader and start a national reconciliation process after he takes office.

Lobo's options, however, are limited. Even once he takes office, he cannot grant Zelaya amnesty from prosecution. That power belongs to the same Congress that overwhelmingly rejected reinstating Zelaya.

Western Hemisphere countries united to condemn Zelaya's ouster but are divided on whether to recognize Lobo's election.

The United States, which cut off some aid over the coup, and a few countries in Latin America have said Hondurans had the right to choose a new leader in regular elections that had been scheduled before Zelaya's overthrow.

Other nations, however, including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, have rejected the election, saying that would legitimize Central America's first coup in two decades.