As the two men who claim to be the Honduran president arrive on Costa Rica's doorstep for the mediation process, some are questioning whether this country's president, Oscar Arias, is capable of resolving a situation that's polarized a nation.

Others are speculating on whether Arias brings pre-existing biases to the table. Honduran human rights activist Ramón Custodio has called for Arias to be more neutral, after the Costa Rican president's past pronouncements that President Manuel Zelaya should be reinstated.

“It's a very complicated situation,” Arias acknowledged at his last scheduled press conference before he initiates the discussion tomorrow. “But we are going to come to a resolution because we have the future of many Central Americans in our hands.”

Arias would not offer a prediction on the outcome of the discussion.

“I will not talk on substantive issues,” he reiterated on Wednesday. “That will be left to the dialogue tomorrow.”

Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for similar peacemaking work, accepted the job of mediator on Tuesday, after receiving word that both the ousted President Zelaya and the man who took his place, Roberto Micheletti, both agreed to the discussions and his participation.

Zelaya, who was dragged from bed and forced onto a plane to Costa Rica on June 28, arrived here again late afternoon Wednesday, this time in a private jet from Washington, D.C. He is accompanied by Patricia Rodas, who served as his foreign minister before the president's ouster. Micheletti and his delegation are expected to arrive Thursday morning.

Just off a plane from Honduras, Jessica Figueroa from Honduran daily La Prensa said few people in her home country think the situation can be resolved in Arias' house in the western San José neighbourhood of Rohrmoser.

“In reality, no one thinks that Arias can accomplish a resolution,” she said. “President Zelaya and President Micheletti are not friends. Well, they were friends once, but it ended very badly... Zelaya and Micheletti are standing firm and no one thinks they'll waver.”

Given Arias' forceful denouncements of Zelaya's removal from office, some question whether he will come to the negotiating table with an open mind.

Reflecting this skepticism, a reporter from TV station Univision asked Arias Wednesday, “How will you receive the presidents? Are you going to receive Micheletti as a golpista (coup leader)? And Zelaya as the president of Honduras ?”

Though he stumbled over his words when pressed to answer the question, Arias responded that Zelaya is the president elected by the people and Micheletti is the acting president following the coup.

However, a growing international chorus has voiced approval of Arias' role as mediator, including the United States, European countries and Cuba. But Nicaragua's government, a close Zelaya ally that until recently resisted handing over the rotating presidency of the System for Central American Integration to Arias, told the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario it does not support the San José talks.

The dialogue is expected to begin Thursday afternoon.