The president-elect of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, announced today that tomorrow he will go to the Brazilian embassy to accompany the former president, Manuel Zelaya, to the Tegucigalpa airport, along with the leaders of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, and the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez.
“President Fernandez, President Colom, and I are going … to the Brazilian embassy, if access is open, to accompany President Zelaya to the international airport to make his exit,” said Lobo in a press conference.
“If it’s clear, I will go too,” Pepe Lobo insisted, joking about the possibility of problems with the logistics as there may be clusters of people near the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya has been enclosed since September 21st.
The president-elect made an agreement with President Fernandez that Zelaya would be granted a pass to leave Honduras once Lobo assumed the presidency on Wednesday (tomorrow).
Pepe Lobo claimed the need for Zelaya to depart from the country, “Can you imagine starting a government with a president in an embassy? There, locked up? It is unfair and not worthy of a president.”
“My duty is to do whatever is necessary for giving peace to the nation, we are not doing anything illegal,” the president-elect said.
“I met with the Chief Public Prosecutor (Luis Rubi), the Deputy Prosecutor (Roy Urtecho) and two judges of the Supreme Court, and they have prepared the way; they are going to issue the pass, and Congress is aware of what was signed,” according to Mr. Lobo.
Manuel Zelaya said that he intends to return one day to Honduras, which he is scheduled to leave tomorrow.
“My idea is to return one day, I do not know how long it will be, but return one day, I am a Honduran,” said Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy, where he remains imprisoned for four months and he will leave tomorrow after the inauguration of Porfirio Lobo as president.