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The Organization of American States met in a plenary session and gave the government of Honduras, led by Roberto Micheletti, 72 hours for the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya Rosales as the constitutional President of the country. The deadline expires on Saturday, July 4. President Zelaya, who had said he would return to Honduras on Thursday, 2, announced he will return at the end of the deadline decreed by the OAS. The decisions of the Inter-American Agency include severe penalties for Honduras if there is no compliance with its demands. This implies that Honduras’s membership in this body would be suspended, an unprecedented situation in the OES history, with the exception of what happened in Cuba.



Other international organizations like the World Bank, IDB, and ETUC have threatened to freeze all the aid to Honduras. Similarly, all Central American countries approved to disrupt bilateral trade. Some governments, led by Venezuela, Ecuador and Cuba have requested the return of their ambassadors as a measure of pressure. For its part, the Honduran military and Micheletti insist on justifying the coup, arguing that Zelaya had violated the constitution.



Several international organizations, including the trade union movement, continue conveying in favor of the immediate return of President Zelaya to his constitutional functions. So far, the governments of most Latin-American nations have closed lines around this requirement. The OAS Secretary General, Chilean Jose Miguel Insulza, is conducting intense negotiations to facilitate the return of Zelaya. Meanwhile, Honduras is facing an intense internal struggle that has divided the country and is being kept on the edge of a confrontation. Global Union Federations in the region, alongside with the TUCA is developing a range of activities supporting the prevalence of democracy in Honduras.