No Resolution in the Talks

The two sides in the Honduras governmental battle spent the day in mediation Sat and did not resolve the dispute by the deadline Mel Zelaya set for returning to the country as president. The president of Costa Rica is the mediator trying to reach an agreement. He put out a seven point proposal that suppoesedly Mel's people are somewhat willing to agree to but the current people in charge have not been willing to accept. They said they will try to talk more today, but Mel already said he will take his own actions if there was not agreement Sat. night.

The seven points are:
1. Reinstate Mel as president to finish his term in Jan.
2. Install a national unity government with representatives of both sides governing until Jan.
3. Mel gives up his efforts to amend the constitution to seek another term in the future.
4. The elections get moved up from Nov. 29 to Aug or Sept. supervised by international authorities.
5. The control of the armed forces is transferred from the president to the election tribunal one month before the election so Mel has no control over the election process.
6. All parties involved are given amnisty for anything either side did politically in this crisis, i.e. they don't prosecute Mel and he can't prosecute them when he returns.
7. An international pannel with representatives from the OAS is put in place to monitor the government and make sure everyone is in compliance.

It seems like a workable resolution to the problem, returning him to power, but limiting his power and having watchdogs supervising. So far the people who removed him are not willing to accept it because they said they would not agree to any proposal that reinstates him as president under any conditions. That's a strong line in the sand that may not move.

Mel has said his plans are to return this week to take back the presidency one way or the other. I don't plan on sticking around to see all that go down. I will be leaving on Friday to go home for a month and hopefully the problems here will resolve during that time so I can return to a stable country once again.