MANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazil will not recognize the winner of this weekend’s election in Honduras as a legitimate president, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said yesterday, setting the stage for a potential showdown with Washington.

Honduras will hold elections on November 29 in hopes of ending a political crisis that began when soldiers toppled leftist President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, installing Roberto Micheletti as the country’s de facto leader.

Asked whether Brazil would recognize the president emerging from elections in Honduras, Amorim said: “No, it will not.”
Washington — which condemned the coup — has not announced an official position on the election but has suggested it will support the outcome by saying recognition of the presidential election was not contingent on Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Neither Micheletti nor Zelaya — who has been holed up inside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa since he snuck back into the country in September — are running for president.

Recognizing the election would be paramount to legitimizing the June coup, Amorim said on the sidelines of a climate summit in the Amazon city of Manaus.

“A coup is not acceptable as a means for political change,” he added.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s foreign policy adviser, Marco Aurelio Garcia, said on Wednesday that the United States risked souring relations with most of Latin America if it recognizes the Honduras election.