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Honduras President ousted - world leaders condem coup
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Soldiers surround the presidential residency in Tegucigalpa, Sunday, June 28, 2009. Soldiers arrested Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya and disarmed his security guards after surrounding his residence before dawn Sunday, his private secretary said. Protesters called it a coup and flocked to the presidential palace as local news media reported that Zelaya was sent into exile. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Early Sunday morning, June 28, 2009, the President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was taken from his home by masked military troops shouting and firing guns and forcibly put him on a plane to Costa Rica. “This has been a brutal kidnapping,” President Zelaya said to reporters in Costa Rica. He asked for international support to “defend democracy.” He also thanked all Costa Ricans for their hospitality.
Zelaya had called for a nonbinding referendum Sunday, June 29 to change the constitution to allow a future vote which would permit a president to have more than one term in office. The Supreme Court of Honduras ruled this vote illegal and seized the election boxes. However, Zelaya and his supporters went into an air force installation Thursday and took the ballots back.
Gen. Romeo Vasquez, center, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff fired by Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya late Wednesday for refusing to support a referendum, and other members of the Army are greeted by demonstrators during a protest in Tegucigalpa, Friday, June 26, 2009. With backing from Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, President Zelaya pushed ahead Friday with a referendum on revamping the constitution, risking his rule in a standoff against Congress, the Supreme Court and the military.(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
General Romeo Vasquez indicated that the military would not participate in the referendum. As a result of this refusal, President Zelaya fired him. Once again, the Supreme Court intervened and ruled the firing illegal.
During the coup, according to the President of Venezula, Hugo Chavez, the Cuban Ambassador was also kidnapped and the Venezulan Ambassador was beaten and left on the side of the road. As a result of this, Chavez has put the Venezulan military on alert and threatens military action if his envoy is attacked or kidnapped.
Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya speaks with his family during a press conference at the Juan Santamaria International airport in San Jose, June 28, 2009. Zelaya said soldiers rousted him out of bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pajamas in what he criticized as "a coup" and "a kidnapping." Honduras' congress has voted to accept what it claims is a letter of resignation from Zelaya, hours after soldiers seized the president and flew him out of the country. (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)
President Obama said “I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and tenets of the Inter-America Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed her boss' sentiments stating, “The actions taken against Honduran President Mel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all. We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law to reaffirm their democratic vocation, and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully and through dialogue."
UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon concurs and calls for “restraint by all concerned.”
Other Central American Leaders are also condemning the coup. Nobel Peace Prize winning President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias called on the international community, especially the nations of the Americas to condemn the coup. He additionally indicated that the coup in Honduras represented a step backwards for democracy in Central America. Arias has been joined by the Central American leaders of El Salvador, and Nicaragua in condemning the coup. Other Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico,and Paraguay have expressed similar outrage. Military coups are part of Honduran recent history. Coups overturned elected presidents in 1963 and 1972. The military did not return the government to civilian control until 1981.
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