Zelaya Denied Safe-Conduct to Mexico

The government of Honduras on Wednesday denied a request from the government of Mexico for a letter of safe-conduct for Manuel Zelaya to leave Honduras and travel to Mexico where he would be granted asylum. According to Honduras' Minister of Foreign Relations, Carlos López, the request was denied because the Mexican government did not clarify what kind of asylum it would grant Mr. Zelaya, and thus the Honduran government felt that there did not exist the "appropriate conditions" for complying with the request. The Ministry of Foreign Relations first learned of Mexico's solicitation on behalf of Mr. Zelaya at 6 pm on Wednesday, and that a jet (a Gulfstream) of the Mexican Air Force was in flight to Tegucigalpa to pick up Mr. Zelaya. As negotiations between the Honduran and Mexican governments stalled, the aircraft was redirected to El Salvador.

Additionally, Mr. López explained that there was an initial understanding that Mr. Zelaya had agreed to sign a statement saying that he respected both the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord signed on October 30 by him and interim president Roberto Micheletti and the vote by the Honduran Congress rejecting his reinstatement as president. Mr. Zelaya apparently changed his mind about signing the statement, thus adding to the mix of confusion surrounding his departure and sealing the decision of Ministry of Foreign Relations to deny him safe-conduct papers. Mr. López noted that Mexico's request for safe-conduct was made for Mr. Zelaya and his family, but he said that this did not make sense, given that members of Mr. Zelaya's family have always been free to leave and enter Honduras whenever they wished.