President Porfirio Lobo said on Wednesday that ousted Manuel Zelaya was welcome to return to Honduras whenever he wanted, and not face prosecution.
“President Zelaya can come back to Honduras whenever he wants,” he told a news conference after an EU-Central America conference in the Spanish capital. “It’s a question that we brought up with the (Honduran Supreme) Court and they understand that they cannot put him in prison.”
“As we have already had problems with the international community, imagine what it would be like with an ex-president in prison. It’s impossible.”
The president attended the EU-Central America conference in Madrid after agreeing not to participate in a wider EU-Latin American summit on Tuesday in Madrid due to a boycott threat by some leaders over his planned presence.
South American nations, apart from Colombia and Peru, dispute his election.
Lobo Wednesday also called on Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to send investigators to Honduras to probe the killings of eight journalists since the beginning of the year.
“I would like very much to clear up these killings,” he said, adding that the United States was already helping with the investigations.
