THE Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, said that the organisation “will not accept a return to the past in the continent,” and it will not make any concessions to a regime proclaimed following a military coup after the illegal arrest of the constitutional President of Honduras, Jose Manuel Zelaya.

“In our region, military taking part in coups are not accepted,” Insulza said, adding: “We will not acknowledge the same power that provoked the constitutional break-up”. The OAS will only be open to dialogue, he said, “If it contemplates the return of President Zelaya to his legitimate position.”

In a joint press conference with the President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes – with whom he will travel to the capital of Nicaragua to attend the meeting of the Central American Integration System (SICA), and the Rio Group, Insulza reiterated his condemnation of the coup d’etat by the military, who arrested and expelled President Zelaya in a violent and illegal manner.

Besides informing that the Foreign Ministers of the OAS Member States will meet in Washington today in a Special General Assembly, Mr. Insulza advised that, in the case of Honduras, Article 19 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter could be applied. Article 19 determines that any unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order constitutes “an insurmountable obstacle to its government’s participation in sessions of the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation, the Councils of the Organisation, the specialized conferences, the commissions, working groups, and other bodies of the Organisation.”

Mr. Insulza insisted that the only path opening for the authorities proclaimed on Sunday morning is that of “international isolation.”

The highest OAS representative praised the reaction of the institution and stressed that the official condemnation issued by the Permanent Council “distances the organization from dark periods in the history of our continent”, and sets it at the head of the fight for democratic values. “We want to change it; we are trying to achieve it, because we are convinced that its future relies on its ability to end all the negative issues that hurt our countries so much in the past.”

In the OAS “of today they are all equals, they are all ruled by the same principles, and democracy is the fundamental principle,” he added.