EU suspends aid budgeted for Honduras

Pressure for a resolution to a political standoff in Honduras has increased after the breakdown of talks between the two sides over the weekend. The European Union on Monday suspended aid to the Central American country, which has found itself increasingly isolated since the June 28 military-led coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Representatives of Zelaya over the weekend failed to reach an accord with representatives from the interim Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti, who was named by congress hours after the military detained Zelaya and sent him to Costa Rica.

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Clinton Helps Push Honduran Foes to Negotiations

If the Latin American left knows anything, it’s the value of political theater. When leftist, coup-ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to return to his country on Sunday in a private jet, buzzing the Tegucigalpa airport before soldiers blocked the runway, many inside the Organization of American States and the Obama Administration considered it a reckless stunt that might hamper a negotiated solution to the crisis. But as it turns out, the aerial spectacle may have aided their cause: it finally coalesced hundreds of thousands of Zelaya supporters on the ground and helped prompt Honduran coup leaders, already facing international condemnation, to reconsider their hard-line stance against any brokered settlement

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Emergency OAS meeting held over Honduran coup

Thousands of protesters demanding the return to power of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya pushed through riot police at Tegucigalpa’s airport and surrounded the terminal Saturday, but there were no reports of violence. The airport continued to operate, CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul reported. In Washington, the Organization of American States held an emergency meeting Saturday evening to discuss expelling Honduras from the 35-nation hemispheric organization

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U.S. ‘hits the pause button’ on aid to Honduras

The United States put some teeth in its diplomatic signals to Honduras Thursday, stopping some aid programs temporarily to the Latin American country as it grapples with its two-president crisis. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States already “hit the pause button” on some aid programs, even before State Department lawyers make a final ruling on whether to halt assistance.

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Ousted Honduran leader delays return till deadline passes

Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday he will not return to his home country until at least Saturday, after a three-day international deadline to reinstate him. Zelaya had said earlier he would return to Honduras on Thursday. Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said Tuesday that Zelaya would be arrested on multiple charges if he returns

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Unions declare strike to protest Honduran coup

Three major public-sector labor unions in Honduras plan to begin a general strike Tuesday in support of deposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-led coup, a union official told CNN. “It will be an indefinite strike,” said Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union SANAA. “We don’t recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy and we will mount our campaign of resistance until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power.” He estimated that 30,000 public-sector workers, as well as some private-sector workers and peasant farmers, could join the strike.

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