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Ousted Honduran leader to meet with Clinton
2009-07-07
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States boosted ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday when President Barack Obama called for his reinstatement even though he had opposed U.S. policies. Zelaya, a leftist toppled in a June 28 coup that has isolated the Central American state, was to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington. The meeting will signal the Obama administration's support for Zelaya, who was ousted in a dispute over presidential term limits. Underlining this, Obama said, "America supports now the restoration of the democratically elected president of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies." In a speech in Russia, Obama added: "We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not." The United States had already condemned the coup in the impoverished coffee and textile exporting country. But Washington had until now let the Organization of American States take the lead in seeking a solution. Zelaya's leftist allies in the region led by Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez, a longtime U.S. adversary, have been the most vocal in demanding his return. THE CASE FOR REMOVAL Defying international pressure, caretaker President Roberto Micheletti, appointed by Honduran lawmakers after the coup, insisted the ousted leader was legally removed. The interim government, which thwarted Zelaya's attempt to return on Sunday by blocking his plane from landing, says the ouster was a constitutional transition carried out by the army and supported by the Supreme Court because Zelaya had illegally tried to organize a vote on changing presidential term limits. "I am confident Secretary Clinton will recognize the rule of law is the reason we are here and that Mr. Zelaya should account for his unconstitutional position," Micheletti said in a national broadcast on Monday. A commission of Honduran private sector representatives flew to Washington on Monday to seek trade guarantees and argue for the interim government. Zelaya, a timber magnate, angered opponents by shifting to the left and allying with Chavez after becoming president in 2006. He had been due to leave office in 2010. "This is the responsibility of the powerful countries too, especially the United States, which has a lot of force ... and should take measures," Zelaya told Telesur regional network. Speaking in the Nicaraguan capital Managua, he said statements from Obama and his administration so far had been "firm" in favor of his return to office. His ouster has been a test of regional diplomacy and of Obama's ability to mend Washington's battered image in the hemisphere. The OAS late on Saturday took the rare step of suspending Honduras -- only the second country after Cuba to be barred -- for its refusal to reinstate Zelaya. The OAS suspension will complicate Honduras' access to multilateral loans. Washington has held back from issuing a legal definition of the ouster as a coup. Such a definition would force a cutoff of U.S. aid to the third poorest country in the hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua. The State Department requested $68.2 million in aid for Honduras for the fiscal year 2010, more than the $43.2 million in the current year, covering development aid, funds for U.S. arms as well as military training and counter narcotics aid. (Additional reporting by Patrick Markey and Mica Rosenberg, Frank Jack Daniel in Caracas, and Matt Spetalnick in Moscow; writing by Frances Kerry, editing by Alan Elsner)
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