Tegucilapa, Honduras — Although only a couple of miles from each other, the two men who claim to be the president of Honduras passed another day without meeting on Wednesday as residents of this capital city used a break in a curfew to store up supplies and hunker down for what could be an extended political standoff. (…).

“We need to sit down face to face,” Manuel Zelaya, the deposed leader, said (…)

At Mr. Zelaya’s old office, the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, has similarly portrayed himself as the one eager for a resolution to the crisis. (…)

The aggressive tactics of the police and soldiers drew strong condemnation, especially the firing of tear gas on Monday at the headquarters of a Honduran human rights organization. A large group of people were inside, filing complaints about police and army abuses at the time, according to Amnesty International. (…)

Meanwhile, at the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called on the de facto government to immediately restore Mr. Zelaya to the presidency. (…)

Onetime allies, Mr. Zelaya and Mr. Micheletti now find themselves on opposite sides of a political chasm. Mr. Micheletti, together with the Honduran courts and military, orchestrated the ouster of Mr. Zelaya in late June. He was accused of trying to modify the Constitution to extend his term. (…)

“Politics is not theater,” he said. “There is no script that one follows. It’s dynamic. You play it day and day and see what happens.”

Źródło: The New York Times, 24.09.2009

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