Businessman Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday was sworn in as the president of Honduras and issued a call for national and international reconciliation to overcome the crisis besetting his country since last June’s removal of Manuel Zelaya.

With the presence of just two regional heads of state — Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic — but a multitude of other vice presidents and representatives from countries as far away as Taiwan, Lobo opted to treat the crisis as a situation that has practically been surmounted and thanked the international community for its efforts to help reestablish normality in the country.

“We have just come out of the worst political crisis in our democratic history, but … we have managed to avoid all the great dangers that confronted our nation,” Lobo, 62, said at a ceremony lasting about six hours.

“We’re ready and willing to confront the future united,” emphasized Lobo, the winner of the November 29 election, which many of the world’s nations refused to recognize as legitimate because the balloting took place under a government they regarded as installed by a coup.

Zelaya supporters, backed by human rights organizations and most foreign governments such as Venezuela and Bolivia, said a free and fair vote was impossible in Honduras given the repression imposed by Roberto Micheletti’s government.

Before barely a score of foreign delegations and diplomats, the new president gave assurances that he wants “a necessary and indispensable reconciliation with the international community.”

His first act as president was to sanction the decree approved Tuesday night by the National Congress granting political amnesty to the officials and others involved in the crisis caused by the June 28 deposement of Zelaya.

Lobo interrupted his speech to ask congressional speaker Juan Orlando Hernandez to bring him the decree and he signed the document saying that the amnesty for political crimes was in keeping with the “principle of reconciliation.”

Amid boos, the new president thanked Costa Rican President Oscar Arias “for being interested from the beginning in a fair and peaceful solution” to the crisis, and Fernandez for signing the accord to facilitate the trip into foreign exile by Zelaya, who had been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa for four months after sneaking back into the country.

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UPDATE:

Honduran legislators have the final say over a U.S.-brokered agreement that could return deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya to power, and diplomats urged them not to delay. All sides in the 4-month-old dispute spawned by Zelaya’s military-backed ouster on June 28 declared the negotiated solution a victory, and it drew praise from figures as diverse as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Venezuela ’s Hugo Chavez.

Zelaya hopes to be back in office anytime now, but the Honduran Congress, which received the plan on October 30th, has not set a date for voting on his return. Meanwhile, preparations for the Presidential elections on November 29th continue.

Negotiators for ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya and current Honduras President Roberto Micheletti last week reached an agreement to bring an end to a months-long political standoff triggered by the June 28 events that led to the departure of Zelaya, says the Latin American Herald Tribune.

The deal, set to be signed on Friday, leaves it up to Congress to decide on Zelaya’s reinstatement — with a recommendation from the Supreme Court — and also includes several points contained in a proposal made by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in his role as mediator in the crisis.

The deal could allow the ousted president to serve out the remaining three months of his term. If Congress agrees, control of the army would shift to the electoral court, and the presidential election set for Nov. 29 would be recognized by both sides.

On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the deal “an historic agreement.”

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Businessman Arturo Corrales, a member of Honduran President Roberto Micheletti’s negotiating committee, held a surprise meeting with deposed leader Mel Zelaya at the Brazilian Embassy to analyze the dialogue being pursued by the two camps to resolve this country’s political crisis.

Corrales told reporters upon leaving the Brazilian mission, where Zelaya has been holed up for about a month, that they had exchanged ideas “with an eye toward the future” and reaching a “final solution” to the crisis.

The meeting, which lasted about an hour, came about after “a very kind invitation” by Zelaya – said Corrales, the former head of the Christian Democrats – and he attended it with the aim of “exchanging” views on certain matters “that have been on the dialogue table.”

“We exchanged information about what had occurred at the dialogue table. He asked me questions, I gave him my views, he gave me his views, in a very Honduran fashion, very friendly, very broad, very much with an eye toward the future,” the businessman said without providing any further details about what they discussed.

Corrales said only that “this information will be an essential part of the final solution to the country’s situation.”

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A draft accord to resolve the crisis sparked by the June 28 ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya seemed to fall apart when the government headed by Roberto Micheletti denied that negotiators had agreed on the crucial point: reinstatement of the deposed head of state.

“We have managed to achieve a consensus on a unified text that will be submitted to the discussion and analysis of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and Mr. Roberto Micheletti,” a member of the ousted leader’s Cabinet, Victor Meza, told reporters Wednesday outside the Tegucigalpa hotel hosting the talks.

The same message was conveyed separately by Micheletti delegate Vilma Morales, a former Supreme Court chief justice.

Both Meza and Morales said the contents of the draft would remain secret until Zelaya and Micheletti rendered their opinions.

By Wednesday evening, the Micheletti camp had thrown a bucket of cold water on hopes for the restoration of Zelaya, whose term ends in January.

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Talks between representatives of ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya and the government led by Roberto Micheletti began on Wednesday under a warning from the Organization of American States (OAS) that time is running out for a solution to the crisis sparked by the June 28 military coup.

The consequences of failure would be “profoundly negative” for the Central American nation, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said in his speech opening the dialogue.

Honduras, he said, must “return to the democratic institutionalism that reigned” prior to the putsch and thus, free itself of the sanctions reluctantly imposed on Tegucigalpa by the OAS and the international community.

Insulza is heading a delegation of diplomats and officials from the OAS, Spain and the United Nations who are hoping to accomplish what two previous mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias could not: persuade the Micheletti government to accept Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Yet the OAS mission is attempting to build on Arias’ plan to resolve the crisis, the San Jose Accord, which Insulza described as the essential basis for the current talks.

He listed what he regarded as the five key aspects of the accord: Zelaya’s return to office; a “guarantee” that he won’t press for an assembly to rewrite the Honduran constitution; formation of a national unity government; a political amnesty for both Zelaya and Micheletti leaders, and mechanisms for international supervision to ensure the pact is honored.

Zelaya accepted those terms weeks ago, but Micheletti has been adamant in rejecting the reinstatement of the Zelaya, whose term ends in January.

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Honduran coup master, President Micheletti

The Honduras government announced Monday the lifting of a state of siege imposed 10 days ago, reports Latin American Herald Tribune.

“We have revoked the (state of siege) decree in the Council of Ministers,” the former head of Congress and now head of government, Roberto Micheletti, told a press conference in the capital.

“Everything, the entire decree, is completely revoked,” he said, accompanied by several members of the cabinet and by U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Micheletti also said that those responsible for expelling Zelaya from Honduras on the day of the putsch would be “punished” for their “error” in exiling the ousted head of state to Costa Rica.

While stressing the end of restrictions on constitutional freedoms, he said that the two pro-Zelaya media outlets shut down under the state of siege would have to apply to the courts for the restoration of their broadcasting licenses.

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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday that Brazil “does not accept ultimatums from a coup-making government,” in response to the 10-day period the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti gave Brasilia to define the status of Honduran President Mel Zelaya, who is holed up in its embassy in Tegucigalpa.

The deposed Honduran leader is “the legitimate president of Honduras” and his status is that of a “guest of the Brazilian Embassy” in Tegucigalpa, Lula said at a press conference during the South America-Africa Summit in Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

Lula responded after being asked about the period of “not more than 10 days” that Micheletti gave Brazil to define the status of Zelaya, who has been staying in the diplomatic mission since he snuck back into Honduras last week.

“Zelaya was expelled from power in the most shameful way possible,” Lula said.

“For me, the solution is simple: the coup-makers must leave the presidential palace,” the Brazilian leader said. “Zelaya must return to power and elections must be called.”

Zelaya, for his part, said Sunday during a Mass that “dialogue” is the only way out of the political crisis his country has been going through since he was ousted nearly three months ago.

Micheletti’s de facto government has given Brazil a period “not greater than 10 days” to define the status of Zelaya, and it announced that it would not receive the ambassadors of Spain, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela.

Read more here.

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Ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya, who remains holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in this capital, is in good health despite an alleged toxic gas attack on the diplomatic mission by the de facto government, a priest accompanying him told reporters Saturday.

“The president is well. Doctors examined him and he’s fine,” Father Andres Tamayo, part of Zelaya’s inner circle, said by telephone.

“We awoke fine this morning, though still with the supposed information that (soldiers) last night were going to break into” the building, Tamayo said.

The priest said that on Friday Zelaya and his supporters who accompanied him on his surprise return to Honduras this week suffered the effects of gas released from chemicals-filled bags placed outside the embassy.

He said Friday that “independent doctors” examined the president and found that he had an irritated throat and stomach problems, among other symptoms.

Marco Giron, a doctor who is inside the embassy with Zelaya, said that the doctors found symptoms of nausea, dizziness, fainting fits, throat irritation, nose bleeding and hematuria (presence of blood in the urine) in around 60 people inside the diplomatic mission.

“They’ve now recovered. We imagine it was due to international pressure that they stopped leaking that type of gas,” he said, adding that “the president is in a good state of health and spirit.”

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Saturday that one of its delegates was allowed inside the embassy in the Honduran capital to verify the state of health of all the people inside.

In a brief communique, the ICRC said it entered the diplomatic mission on Friday at Brazil’s request and with the approval of the de facto regime led by Roberto Micheletti, but made no specific reference to Zelaya.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned “acts of intimidation” against the Brazilian Embassy, although Micheletti denied that authorities have interfered with phone lines or launched a gas attack on the building.

Zelaya was arrested and expelled from the country by the military on June 28, when a plurality of lawmakers designated then-Congress speaker Micheletti as head of government.

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The de facto Honduran government led by Roberto Micheletti responded to Monday’s surprise return of ousted President Mel Zelaya by imposing a nationwide curfew.

The government’s decision was made public in a national radio and television announcement while hundreds of Zelaya’s supporters remained gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where the deposed leader was hiding.

In a brief communique, the Micheletti government said that the curfew was imposed because of “events that occurred in recent hours” with an eye toward “protecting people’s tranquility, lives and property.”

The Honduran Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the Brazilian Embassy and the government also said that Brazil would be to blame if any “violent acts” took place “inside or outside” the embassy.

The protest note also stated that “such interference in the private matters of Hondurans is reprehensible and, thus, it is energetically protested … (given that it) constitutes a flagrant violation of international law.”

Furthermore, Micheletti himself asked the Brazilian government to turn over Zelaya to Honduran justice.

The Micheletti government acted hours after Zelaya held a press conference at the Brazilian mission in the capital to ask his supporters to gather outside the building.

Read more here.

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Foreign ministers from the Organization of American States ended their two-day visit to Honduras without reaching an accord with the current Honduran government to reinstate ousted President Mel Zelaya, reports Latin American Herald Tribune.

“The commission regrets that on this occasion it was not possible to obtain support for the San Jose Accord,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, upon reading the statement issued at the end of the mission.

The San Jose Accord is the set of proposals put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in his capacity as mediator between Zelaya and the post-coup regime led by Roberto Micheletti.

The OAS delegation issued a call “to all sectors of Honduran society to favorably consider subscribing to the San Jose Accord which … contains the elements necessary for dialogue and reconciliation, for the restoration of the constitutional order and the state of law.”

“And for the prompt reintegration of Honduras into the hemispheric community,” it added.

“The commission considers essential the prompt return to democratic normality that guarantees all Hondurans security, prosperity and development,” the OAS foreign ministers said.

Shortly before wrapping up their visit, the delegation met at the presidential residence with Micheletti, who reiterated his rejection of reinstalling Zelaya as president and said he was ready to confront the “serious consequences” that that would have for his government.

During their visit, the OAS delegation met with local authorities, as well as members of political, social, business, religious and other sectors, some of whom support the Micheletti government and some Zelaya.

Besides Stagno, the delegation includes the foreign ministers of Argentina, Jorge Taiana; Jamaica, Kenneth Baugh; Mexico, Patricia Espinosa, and Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, as well as Canada’s top diplomat for the Americas, Peter Kent, and OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza.

The Micheletti government says Zelaya’s ouster was not a coup, insisting that the soldiers who dragged him from the presidential palace on June 28 were simply enforcing a Supreme Court ban on the president’s planned non-binding plebiscite on the idea of revising the constitution.