US has talked with deposed Honduran leader

AP foreign, Sunday June 28 2009 WASHINGTON (AP)U.S. diplomats are working to ensure the safety of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and his family as they press for restoration of constitutional law and his presidency.

U.S. officials said Sunday evening they've spoken with Zelaya since he was taken to Costa Rica by the forces that wrested him from power.

They also say the U.S. told Honduran military leaders and other power players there that the United States and other nations in the Americas would not support a coup. They say Honduran military officials stopped taking their calls as the crisis unfolded.

Two senior administration officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, under ground rules set by the State Department.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP)President Barack Obama is calling for all sides in Honduras to respect democracy and the rule of law following the arrest of President Manuela Zelaya and his reported expulsion to Costa Rica.

Obama says any disputes must be settled peacefully through negotiations that are free from outside interference.

White House officials say Obama spoke with his national security adviser, James Jones, about the situation on Sunday morning. Aides from several agencies are monitoring the situation and providing updates to Obama, Jones and Jones' deputy.

Zelaya was detained shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum. He had insisted on holding the vote even though the Supreme Court ruled it illegal and everyone from the military to Congress and members of his own party opposed it.


Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8581715

Cuba condemns Honduras coup as "criminal, brutal"

Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:48pm EDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Sunday condemned the military coup in Honduras as "criminal, brutal" and demanded the immediate return to office of deposed leftist President Manuel Zelaya.

The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the military by proposing an extension of his four-year term in office.

"I denounce the criminal, brutal character of this coup," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told a news conference in Havana.

Zelaya is viewed by Cuba's communist leadership as a leftist ally and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had expressed backing for his efforts to hold an unofficial public vote on Sunday to gauge support for his plan to hold a November referendum on allowing presidential re-election.

"This coup has removed a legitimate and constitutional government simply for wanting to carry out a consultation ... in Honduras there is only one constitutional government, one constitutional president who should return immediately without conditions to the palace," Rodriguez said.

The Cuban foreign minister also denounced what he called the violent treatment by Honduran troops of several foreign ambassadors in Tegucigalpa, specifically those of Cuba and Venezuela.

Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the coup. The Cuban ambassador was later released.

Rodriguez said the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors in Tegucigalpa had been seeking to give diplomatic shelter to Zelaya's Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas when a band of Honduran soldiers, their faces hooded, had tried to take her away. He said he was extremely concerned for her safety.

Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert over the coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.

Rodriguez said there were 84 people, including diplomats, women and children, at the Cuban embassy in Tegucigalpa and said Cuba was "ready to defend the integrity of our embassy".

(Reporting by Marc Frank, Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Philip Barbara)


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE55R2G120090628

Honduras supreme court 'ordered army coup'
Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, was arrested by the army in a coup ordered by the country's supreme court.

By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent
Published: 8:59PM BST 28 Jun 2009


Demonstrators protest against the detainment of the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, who is now in Costa Rica Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Some 200 soldiers surrounded the president's residence in the east of the capital Tegucigalpa, disarming 10 members of the president's personal bodyguard.

"Today's events originate from a court order by a competent judge. The armed forces, in charge of supporting the constitution, acted to defend the state of law and have been forced to apply legal dispositions against those who have expressed themselves publicly and acted against the dispositions of the basic law," the country's highest court said.

Speaking in exile from neighbouring Costa Rica a defiant Mr Zelaya declared that he was still the leader of Honduras.

The statement, delivered on Costa Rican television by the president, came after he had earlier been arrested by soldiers. Mr Zelaya had been pushing ahead with a controversial referendum that would have allowed him to seek re-election but was opposed by the army.

Mr Zelaya said on television that he had been a "victim of kidnapping" and a "coup d'etat".

Honduras has become the new front line in the battle for influence in the region between the US and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

A state department official said Mr Zelaya was the only consitutional president of Hondura and that the Obama administration recognised no other.

Barack Obama, US President, said he was "deeply concerned" by the president's arrest. The European Union was quick to call on the Honduran army to release him. Jan Kohout, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, said: "The EU strongly condemns the arrest of the constitutional president of the republic of Honduras by the armed forces."

Political tensions have risen sharply in recent days ahead of today's planned referendum. The vote was scheduled to determine if Mr Zelaya would be allowed to stand for re-election, but it was opposed by the army, which refused to distribute ballot boxes.

Mr Zelaya as a result sacked General Romeo Vasquez, the head of the armed forces, and also accepted the resignation of Edmundo Orellana, the defence minister. The heads of the army, marines and air force also resigned. The Supreme Court declared the referendum illegal, but Mr Zelaya decided to go ahead.

Mr Zelaya has increasingly been moving his poor country of seven million people towards Mr Chavez, a persistent and controversial critic of the US who has been seizing foreign assets as part of a large nationalisation programme.

The Honduran armed forces have however had historic links with the US, dating back to the Contras, the armed groups that were backed by the Central Intelligence Agency to topple the Left-wing Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Mr Ortega is once again president of Honduras's neighbour. The army has a long history of involvement in politics and governed Honduras from 1956 to 1982.

Mr Zelaya has joined PetroCaribe, the Venezuelan programme for cheap oil, and also Alba, the Venezuelan leader's trade pact made up of Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica.

Mr Chavez, with more than a decade in power, began his reforms in Venezuela by holding a Constituent Assembly and changing the constitution. Mr Zelaya had stated that he wished to do the same and that the referendum was supposed to be the first step.


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/honduras/5677026/Honduras-supreme-court-ordered-army-coup.html


P.S. Where's that gargoyle that keeps meddling in DR's business? The one claiming to be Honduran???

It wasn't a coup....it was an impeachment.

He violated the constitution on more than one occaision and was attempting to stage a farce of a sham election to actually stage his own coup.

If the US goes down the wishy washy Carter type foreign policy we will be in big trouble if you think for one minute the commies will play fair just look at Venezuela and Cuba who will not allow news of the protests in Iran to enter their countries ....they should have done to Chavez what they did to Allende when they had the chance

anthonyC

That was not an impeachment, that was a golpe de estado, very similar to what happened to Juan Bosch in 1963, once the powerfull rulling elite and the military elite consider you a manace to their interest the socialist/communist label is tagged and the coup follows.

This is a bad omen for latin america, it shouldn't never happened, now the commies like Hugo and Raul and the rest of the castro wanna B's have a lot of bullets to fire.

I would like to see latin america follow the Costa Rican model, no freaking military, think about it, If latin american countries istead of spending billions in weapons spend millions in education, the situation will be very different right now, specially in my country, where the arm forces are so currupt, they make you feel you are at the mercy of the biggest criminal gang in the world.

It was a coup, bottom line, and it has been denounced by governments the world over of varying ideological stripes. A step backward in the region and unfortunate. Hopefully, the bogus government that has installed itself by force in Honduras will receive no legitimacy on the world stage.

Am I going nuts, or is it that our beloved paisa have returned from his exile?

Como dice ei mayimbe, volvi..y por la puerta principal. Dimelo mi socio.

Viejo, tú no sabes lo contento que estoy por tu regreso. Uno no puede decir que Dios se olvida de sus hijos.