Honduras is accusing Brazil’s government of instigating an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian Embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who has taken refuge there.
“Since the clandestine arrival to Honduras by ex-president Zelaya, the Brazil embassy has been used to instigate violence and insurrection against the Honduran people and the constitutional government,” the secretary of foreign affairs for Honduras’ de facto government said in a statement late Saturday night. The statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if Brazil did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be. “No country is able to tolerate that a foreign embassy is used as a command base to generate violence and break tranquility like Mr. Zelaya has been doing in our country since his arrival,” the statement said.
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Zelaya was removed from power in a military-backed coup in June. Claiming he is still the president, Zelaya returned to Honduras on Monday and has been staying at the Brazilian embassy since then. On Friday, Zelaya said he and supporters were victims of a “neurotoxic” gas attack that caused many people to have nose bleeds and breathing difficulties.
Roberto Micheletti, who was named president after the coup that removed Zelaya, said his government did not launch a gas attack on the embassy. Watch Zelaya and Micheletti talk about the standoff Journalists, including CNN correspondent John Zarrella, were kept several blocks away from the embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, and could not confirm whether a gas attack had taken place.
