Brazil will not recognize any new government that may emerge from this weekend’s general elections in Honduras, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said here on Thursday.
Brazil demands that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya be restored.
Honduras is scheduled to hold general elections on Sunday, with an aim to bring an end to the country’s political crisis, ignited by a military-backed coup in June, in which President Zelaya was ousted and exiled to Costa Rica.
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The elections will be organized by the post-coup de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, who became interim president after the ouster of Zelaya.
Brazil won’t recognize the legitimacy of the elections even though neither Micheletti nor Zelaya are running for president, said Amorim.
Recognizing the results would be tantamount to legitimizing the June 28 coup, Amorim said on the sidelines of a climate summit between Amazon basin countries and France.
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“A coup is not acceptable as a means for political change,” he said.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner have both voiced their rejection to the elections in Honduras.
Lula and Kirchner demanded the restitution of Zelaya’s presidency as a way to re-establish constitutional order and democracy in the country.
“The elections to be held on Nov. 29 will not be recognized and (otherwise) a very dangerous precedent will be set,” said Lula.
The return of Zelaya to office was a common position of much of Latin America and the Caribbean region, according to Lula.
However, Washington has expressed its position to recognize the winner of the Honduran elections.
Earlier on Thursday, Amorim held a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but failed to reach a consensus.
Zelaya issued a statement on Monday, urging the international community not to recognize the elections.