Political crisis in Honduras deepening

MEXICO CITY — The political crisis in Honduras deepened Friday after ousted President Manuel Zelaya declared "totally dead" a U.S.-brokered agreement that he believed would restore him to power.

Zelaya, ousted in a military-backed coup four months ago after ignoring a court order to stop efforts to revise the Honduran Constitution, said the accord had collapsed after Honduras' de facto rulers formed a new "reconciliation government" without him.

The week-old deal had sought to bring representatives of Zelaya and his enemies into a transitional government as a way to ease the crisis and legitimize elections scheduled for Nov. 29.

"The accord is a dead letter," Zelaya said on a Honduran radio station. "There is no sense in continuing to fool the Honduran people."

He called on supporters to take to the streets and to boycott the November vote, which he branded a "fraud" designed to "whitewash" the coup.

In Washington, U.S. officials who sponsored what had been hailed last week as a breakthrough and "victory for democracy" said they were disappointed with the setback.

"We urge both sides to act in the best interests of the Honduran people and return to the table immediately to reach agreement on the formation of a unity government," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

"They need to move beyond the present state of chaos and uncertainty and resolve this in a ... peaceful, negotiated way."

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, which also helped negotiate the agreement, lamented the impasse and called on the parties to move forward "without further subterfuge."

Under the accord, Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, the de facto government's leader, had agreed to let Congress vote on whether to return Zelaya to the presidency, as the international community has been demanding. But congressional leaders, who backed the coup, have yet to call a vote.

The accord also required the formation by Thursday of a temporary "unity Cabinet" with representatives of both sides.

Just before midnight Thursday, Micheletti went on national television to announce a new government that did not include Zelaya or any of his supporters.

Micheletti said he consulted political parties and a "wide spectrum of civil society" to put together the new government. He said Zelaya did not propose any candidates but still could do so.

The controversy is an embarrassing development for the Obama administration, which dispatched senior diplomats to settle the crisis a week ago but which has also sent mixed signals in opposing the coup, the first in Central America in 16 years. Washington had been firm in supporting reinstatement of Zelaya but more recently seemed to wobble.

Kelly, the State Department spokesman, earlier in the week said solving the crisis was "now a Honduran process," suggesting international pressure would be scaled back. Many supporters of the coup in Honduras are convinced Washington will recognize the victor in the upcoming elections, even without Zelaya's reinstatement.

Micheletti had signed on to the deal precisely as a way to secure international recognition of the November vote. Most of the region's capitals had warned elections overseen by a coup-installed government would not be deemed legitimate.

In also signing on to the deal, Zelaya agreed to let Congress decide his fate even though the legislative body previously endorsed the coup. He apparently believed there was room for political jockeying and that he would be able to muster the votes for reinstatement. But he failed to anticipate that the Congress would not convene to vote.