Honduras rulers renounce OAS charter

By Enrique Andres Pretel

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras's interim rulers spurned a demand from the Organization of American States on Friday to restore leftist President Manuel Zelaya to power and said they would no longer recognize the OAS charter, deepening Central America's worst political crisis in decades.

The OAS, the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body, was expected to suspend Honduras's membership, and the interim government's latest action could be a preemptive move to distance itself from the organization or even a step towards quitting it.

"The OAS is a political organization, it is not a court of justice," said deputy foreign minister Martha Alvarado, announcing Honduras would renounce the OAS charter.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said in Tegucigalpa that he found no willingness by the caretaker government to reinstate Zelaya despite broad international condemnation of the coup.

"I'm afraid to say my efforts were unable to achieve this," Insulza said after talks with interim government officials.

Zelaya was ousted on Sunday in a dispute over extending presidential power and term limits. He is an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez but leaders from across Latin America, as well as U.S. President Barack Obama, have demanded he be reinstated.

The bloodless overthrow in the impoverished coffee and textile exporting country of 7 million people has created a test of Washington's commitment to defending democracy in Latin America.

Insulza held talks with members of Honduras's ruling Liberal Party and the Supreme Court, which ordered the coup, to try to convince them to reverse Zelaya's overthrow.