TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNS) — Days after deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned secretly to the country, there were signs that the leaders who ousted him were considering negotiations, and the foreign minister said the Vatican might help mediate a solution to the crisis. On Sept. 24, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Pineda Fasquelle of Tegucigalpa spoke with both of the main players in the political standoff. The bishop visited both Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who heads the de facto government that ousted Zelaya in a coup June 28. As he left the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya took refuge after returning to Honduras Sept. 21, Bishop Pineda told reporters he hoped the visit would be a “first step” toward dialogue. Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno, director of Radio Progreso, called the events “hopeful signs that we could be nearing a way out” of the three-month-old political impasse. The overtures came after several days of protests in which at least one person was killed and various others injured or arrested.
