Tegucigalpa: Honduras' de facto government relaxed restrictions on protests and opposition media on Monday as crisis talks dragged into a third week with no agreement on toppled president Manuel Zelaya's return to power.
Zelaya, forced out of the country by soldiers in a June 28 coup, slipped back into Honduras last month and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy. De facto leader Roberto Micheletti responded by deploying soldiers around the embassy, imposing curbs on press freedoms and banning large marches.
Micheletti promised to lift the emergency measures on October 5 after strong international criticism, but the decree was only finally reversed in the official gazette on Monday.
A pro-Zelaya radio station and television channel which had their equipment taken by masked soldiers after the executive order are still off the air.
Negotiations on how to resolve Central America's worst political crisis in decades are set to begin again on Monday. The Organisation of American States insists Zelaya be reinstated, which has become the main sticking point in talks.
Micheletti's negotiators said on Friday the Supreme Court should decide if Zelaya can return to office.
But the court ordered the leftist president's ouster, arguing he violated the Constitution in a bid to allow for presidential re-election, and is unlikely to allow him back.
The coup has brought back memories of Central America's ugly past of civil wars and state-backed violence in the 1970s and '80s. It is also a foreign policy headache for US President Barack Obama, who has promised better relations with Latin America and an escape from the United States' past Cold War policies in the region.
Zelaya called a proposal presented by the de facto rulers last week a "joke."
"We are waiting for Mr Micheletti to present a serious proposal. If they bring the same one presented on Friday we will take that to mean they are not interested in dialogue," Zelaya envoy Victor Meza said late on Sunday.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, October 19, 2009, 23:44