Honduras closer to deal on Zelaya return

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – An international plan to return deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power suddenly gained new life Friday after interim President Roberto Micheletti reversed course and moved close to accepting the deal, the chief intermediary between the two sides said.

“I think both are willing to solve this without violence,” John Biehl, a diplomat representing the Organization for American States, told McClatchy Newspapers. “Things are looking very good, completely different than before.”

Biehl has been echoing the warnings of others that failure to end the 3-month-old power struggle could unleash a wave of bloodshed and doom the Nov. 29 presidential elections that are seen as key to returning politics to normal.

In a sign of the improving climate, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza confirmed plans to come to Honduras on Wednesday.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias put forth the international plan. It would have Micheletti step aside so that Zelaya could move from the Brazilian Embassy back to the Presidential House.