AS mediation talks reach a stalemate, Guyana continues to stand firm in condemnation of the recent military overthrow of the democratically elected government of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Guyana’s Honorary Consul in Barbados, Norman Faria, joined with Ambassadors of Venezuela and Cuba in the island to support the continued campaign by “all democratic minded peoples and their governments” regionally and internationally to have Zelaya reinstated.

Speaking at a news conference at the Venezuelan Embassy, Faria reiterated his government’s earlier concern that the events in the Central American country jeopardises the democratic political institutional process and legitimate exercise of power.

Faria also noted the denouncing of the coup by CARICOM members states including Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica and Belize. Faria said this was taking place against the backdrop of deepening of ties between the English speaking Anglophone countries and their Hispanic and Francophone neighbours in the Caribbean, Central and Latin America in general. He referred to Guyana’s expanding ties with its neighbours Venezuela and Brazil, including the building of a bridge across the Takutu River and highway linking Guyana more closely with Brazil as well as the PetroCaribe assistance from Venezuela. “As economic and cultural ties deepen, this expression of support for the Honduran people in their just cause augurs well for our future and the continued well being and prosperity for all our peoples. This backward action on behalf of minority privileged interests by the Honduran military has resulted in acts of violence against the Honduran people at all levels, as well as diplomatic personnel. It must be condemned and the legitimate government put back in place.”

Before he was appointed Consul in 1994, Faria was chairman during the early 1980s of the Barbados-based friendship and solidarity group Friends of Nicaragua which supported the Sandinista government now back in power. Nicaragua is a Central American neighbour of Honduras.