Brazil asks Zelaya to reduce number of followers at embassy

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Tuesday that he had requested ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to reduce the number of his followers at the Brazilian embassy in Honduras.

According to Amorim, after returning to Honduras on Sept. 21, Zelaya had been staying in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa with a retinue of some 60 people.

“We are going to continue urging Zelaya to reduce the number of his followers,” Amorim said during a meeting with the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Brazilian Senate.

Amorim said he had talked with Zelaya over the phone upon his return to Tegucigalpa, and that Zelaya had promised to return to power by peaceful means and through dialogue.

“I would say that despite the protests, we succeeded, because there were not any violent acts done by Zelaya’s followers.The incidents which cost one life were repression acts carried out by the coup-government,” Amorim said.

All the countries represented by the Organization of American States as well as the entire international community had refused to recognize the de facto government, he added, noting that it was a situation without precedent.

On Sunday, the Honduran interim government warned Brazil that it would lose its diplomatic status if it did not hand him over to the authorities in 10 days.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded that his country would not capitulate to the ultimatum and was not going to “negotiate with those who have usurped the power.”