Zelaya returns to Honduras

[bcholmes]

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is taking shelter at the Brazilian embassy in Honduras amid an effort to initiate political dialogue in that country, Brazil's Foreign Relations Ministry confirmed Monday.

The ministry didn't immediately release a statement on the matter. Brazilian Foreign Relations Minister Celso Amorim, however, later said he had been in contact with Zelaya.

"I spoke personally with him and welcomed him to Brazilian territory," Amorim said during a visit to the Brazilian mission of the U.N. in New York, according to the Estado news agency.

Amorim said that Brazil's government had no involvement with Zelaya's arrival at the embassy in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. He called Zelaya Honduras' legitimate president, however, and said that Brazil would intercede with the Organization of American States to assure Zelaya's safety and right to hold peaceful dialogue while in Honduras.

"If the OAS is not for guaranteeing a democratic government, what's it for?" Amorim questioned.

— "Brazil Confirms Manuel Zelaya At Embassy In Honduras", Wall Street Journal

There's a pro-Zelaya rally going on in Toronto tomorrow; I hafta be at a Haiti event, though.