The Argentine foreign minister on Thursday called for more international pressure on the Honduran de facto government to force it into a deal with ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, speaking at a conference of political parties from Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, said most Latin-American countries agree that more punitive steps should be taken against the post-coup government and that Zelaya must be returned to office.
Taiana reiterated that Argentina would continue to support Zelaya’s reinstatement and the restitution of constitutional order in Honduras.
He said the Argentine government refuses to recognize any government formed through a coup.
The current Honduran government led by Roberto Micheletti came to power after a June 28 coup that ousted Zelaya. Zelaya, who was forced into exile abroad, insists he has never resigned his presidency, and vows to restore his power.
Representatives of the rival leaders have met three times under the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. But the talks failed as the interim government refuses to accept Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Costa Rica on Friday hailed the strengthening of commercial ties with Mexico after a cooperation agreement was signed between the two countries.
The agreement, signed on Thursday by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who was on an official visit to Coast Rica, and his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias in San Jose, covers cooperation in such areas as education, science and tourism.
The agreement would give a fresh boost to bilateral exchanges after the 1995 free trade agreement, said Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz.
The free trade agreement has helped strengthen bilateral ties over the past 14 years and both countries now deem it necessary to expand their cooperation to other areas, Ruiz said.
“We consider it an opportunity to pick up the best practices that have been done since the signature of the first treaty and to update the ruling frame of our relations with Mexico,” Ruiz added.
According to the Foreign Trade Ministry, two-way trade has tripled over the last 10 years, rising from 411 million U.S. dollars in 1998 to 1.193 billion dollars last year.
Mexico is the main importer of Costa Rican products including palm oil, almonds, meat, batteries and metal parts.
The ministry said Mexico has now become an important source of foreign investment in the past five years with 271 million dollars, which accounts for 4 percent of the country’s total investment inflows.

U.S. social leaders on Friday condemned the ongoing economic embargo of Cuba that was set by Washington almost 50 years ago.
The Reverend Lucius Walker called U.S. policy toward Cuba ignorant, while Shaka Barrows said it is the duty of every American citizen to help to eliminate Cuban travel restrictions.
Walker said his organization, Clergymen for Peace, will continue sending humanitarian aid to Cuba despite pressure from the U.S. government.
Walker led a delegation of 130 people from the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Europe that arrived in Cuba on July 24 with 100 tons of humanitarian aid.
Barrows is a member of the Solidarity We Will Defeat Brigade, which arrived in Havana on July 20 to celebrate 40 years of aid to Cuba.

The suicides of three Asian students at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Southern California in the past three months have revealed the extremely severe competition at the top ranking U.S. universities and tremendous pressure the students have faced.
Long Phan, a graduate student from Caltech, was found dead in his apartment last week.
Early this month, Caltech senior Jackson Wang, a mechanical engineering major from Hong Kong, was found dead in his dorm.
Last month, Brian Go, a computer science and math major student from Maryland, was found dead in his student dorm.
Wang and Go committed suicide by asphyxiation by helium inhalation. Although Phan’s death is still under investigation, it is most probably another suicide case.
The high suicide rate among students has put the university on alert. The university board of trustees held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue and Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau recommended the formation of a mental health task force in response to the two, and perhaps three, suicides on the campus in the past months.
In a letter to faculty and students, Chameau said he would recommend to the board the establishment of a task force “charged to look across Caltech to identify ways in which we can improve the mental well-being of members of the community and more effectively address mental health issues, including suicide risk.”
“One consequence of these illnesses may be that the person loses hope in finding a solution to their problems,” Chameau wrote. “Suicide is not the solution. The answer is treatment for the illness that causes them to lose hope,” he added.

The interim government on Friday lifted a curfew imposed in most of Honduras after a coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
However, the curfew, imposed since the June 28 coup, was maintained in areas around Honduras’ border with Nicaragua to guard against Zelaya’s return.
Government spokesman Rene Zepeda said the curfew would continue in El Paraiso in the east, and Concepcion de Maria, El Triunfo and Guasaule in the south, from 6 p.m. (0000 GMT) to 6 a.m. (1200 GMT).
Honduras plunged into a political crisis when Zelaya was forced into exile after angering the army, the legislature and judiciary by seeking a constitutional amendment that would allow him to seek re-election. Zelaya had denied such intention.
Meanwhile, Zelaya, whose return to Honduras as president has been rejected by the interim government, continued his efforts to garner international support. He was to visit Mexico next week at the invitation of President Felipe Calderon.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a communique that Zelaya will arrive in Mexico on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Honduras with Calderon.
Calderon and Zelaya will also discuss the mediation process led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, “which has a strong support from the international community.”