President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras has been arrested by army troops ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum on whether to allow him to run for re-election. The referendum had been opposed by elements within the military. Reuters - Honduran soldiers detained leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in a constitutional crisis over his attempt to win re-election, government officials said. Troops took Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, from his residence to an unknown location, Eduardo Reina, the president's private secretary, told Reuters.
Reuters - Honduran soldiers detained leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in a constitutional crisis over his attempt to win re-election, government officials said.
Troops took Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, from his residence to an unknown location, Eduardo Reina, the president's private secretary, told Reuters.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has been arrested by troops ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum.Mr Zelaya's secretary said that the president had been taken to an airbase outside the capital, Tegucigalpa. The move comes days after the president sacked the armed forces chief, who had refused to back the referendum plan. Mr Zelaya, elected for a non-renewable four-year term in January 2006, wants a vote to enable him to seek a new term. A reporter for the Associated Press news agency said he had seen dozens of soldiers surround the president's house on Sunday morning and about 60 police guarding the house.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has been arrested by troops ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum.
Mr Zelaya's secretary said that the president had been taken to an airbase outside the capital, Tegucigalpa.
The move comes days after the president sacked the armed forces chief, who had refused to back the referendum plan.
Mr Zelaya, elected for a non-renewable four-year term in January 2006, wants a vote to enable him to seek a new term.
A reporter for the Associated Press news agency said he had seen dozens of soldiers surround the president's house on Sunday morning and about 60 police guarding the house.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Jan. 30, 2009 - The commander of U.S. Southern Command arrived here yesterday to reaffirm the United States' strategic partnership with Honduras and praise the solid bilateral and interagency cooperation that is delivering tangible success. Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis met with President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Defense Minister Aristides Mejia Carranza and Defense Chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez to discuss security challenges of mutual concern: primarily illicit drug, arms and human trafficking. These, he said, threaten not just national, but also regional stability. Stavridis also met with U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens and his embassy country team, as well as U.S. Military Group Honduras to explore ways to improve military-to-military training, education and other support to the Honduran government. Declaring an "excellent state of cooperation between our two militaries," Stavridis lauded tremendous progress within Honduras' 11,000-member military.
Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis met with President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Defense Minister Aristides Mejia Carranza and Defense Chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez to discuss security challenges of mutual concern: primarily illicit drug, arms and human trafficking. These, he said, threaten not just national, but also regional stability. Stavridis also met with U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens and his embassy country team, as well as U.S. Military Group Honduras to explore ways to improve military-to-military training, education and other support to the Honduran government. Declaring an "excellent state of cooperation between our two militaries," Stavridis lauded tremendous progress within Honduras' 11,000-member military.
In the meantime, I hope it's sunny in Scotland. :)
School of the Americas-Trained Military Detains and Expels Democratically-Elected President ZelayaEarly this morning approximately 200 Honduran soldiers arrived at President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's residence, reportedly fired four shots, and detained the President. Zelaya told TeleSUR that the soldiers took him to an air force base and put him on a plane to Costa Rica. Zelaya told TeleSUR from San Jose, Costa Rica, "They threatened to shoot me." Honduras' ambassador to the Organization of American States, Carlos Sosa Coello, reports that the president has been beaten up.Zelaya told TeleSUR that he doesn't believe it was regular soldiers who kidnapped him. "I have been the victim of a kidnapping carried out by a group of Honduran soldiers. I don't think the Army is supporting this sort of action. I think this is a vicious plot planned by elites. Elite who only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme poverty."Zelaya fears for the safety of his family, who remains in Honduras. He pleaded with TeleSUR viewers to seek a way to "have a dialogue with these soldiers so that they don't harm my family, so that they don't shoot anybody. We can settle our differences through dialogue."
This is why Chávez accuses the CIA of being behind the coup. Zelaya, on the other hand, claims that he had the support of the Obama administration before the weekend and wasn't accusing the USA of being behind the coup.
The excuse for the coup has been a Constitutional referendum. The Army was going to be uncooperative in setting up the polling stations etc, so he sacked the chief of staff. But the parliament and the Supreme Court opposed the president´s move and he didn´t name a replacement.
So the situation is very confused. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous
So, if the Referendum had gone ahead it would have been called a "self-coup" by an opposition in control of the legislative and judiciary branches of government. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous
Neither side's hands look clean in this, but the Honduran President seems the least-wrong. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
By the way, watch CNN's Elise Labott trying to back the US administration into an inconsistency:
Background Briefing on the Situation in Honduras
QUESTION: Yeah, but now you're invoking the - I'm sorry, but now you're invoking the constitution to return him. So did you think that what he was doing was in line with the constitution?SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: No, but there's a big distinction here because, on the one instance, we're conducting about conducting a survey, a nonbinding survey; in the other instance, we're talking about the forcible removal of a president from a country. So I think we can distinguish between those terms - those two in terms of what's constitutional and what might be left to institutions.But I think what's important to remember about the survey is that it was just that. It wasn't even a formal vote. It was a nonbinding survey. And the issue of whether it was legitimate or illegal did not revolve around the survey itself. It revolved around who conducted it and whether or not this could be conducted by the government and which institution in the government could conduct it, and whether or not as it's being conducted state security forces could be used to both manage and secure the equipment that was being used for the survey and provide security. And that's where the divide occurred within Honduras. It was about who conducted this survey, with several institutions in Honduras insisting that the Honduran Government could not conduct it, at least not in the way that President Zelaya had suggested.And from our point of view, what was important was not inserting ourselves and trying to make a determination of what was legal or illegal, but trying to insist that the Hondurans find a way to resolve this in a way that was in accord with their constitution.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: No, but there's a big distinction here because, on the one instance, we're conducting about conducting a survey, a nonbinding survey; in the other instance, we're talking about the forcible removal of a president from a country. So I think we can distinguish between those terms - those two in terms of what's constitutional and what might be left to institutions.
But I think what's important to remember about the survey is that it was just that. It wasn't even a formal vote. It was a nonbinding survey. And the issue of whether it was legitimate or illegal did not revolve around the survey itself. It revolved around who conducted it and whether or not this could be conducted by the government and which institution in the government could conduct it, and whether or not as it's being conducted state security forces could be used to both manage and secure the equipment that was being used for the survey and provide security. And that's where the divide occurred within Honduras. It was about who conducted this survey, with several institutions in Honduras insisting that the Honduran Government could not conduct it, at least not in the way that President Zelaya had suggested.
And from our point of view, what was important was not inserting ourselves and trying to make a determination of what was legal or illegal, but trying to insist that the Hondurans find a way to resolve this in a way that was in accord with their constitution.
He claims that there were phone calls into the country from neighbouring coutries, from the OAS, and from the USA which helped stop a coup before the weekend.
QUESTION: Washington Post. There was a report in El Pais newspaper this morning - actually, it was an interview with President Zelaya, in which he said that there had been a coup plot afoot in recent days and it was only stopped by actions of the U.S. Embassy. Can you tell us about that or tell us if that's not correct? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: I think the only thing we can say at this point is that we were very clear with the different sectors of Honduran political life and Honduras's different political institutions that any resolution to the political conflict in Honduras had to be democratic and constitutional, and that we would not abide or support any extra-constitutional actions.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: I think the only thing we can say at this point is that we were very clear with the different sectors of Honduran political life and Honduras's different political institutions that any resolution to the political conflict in Honduras had to be democratic and constitutional, and that we would not abide or support any extra-constitutional actions.
Maybe Hugo Chavez could shut his whore mouth? Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
WASHINGTON -- 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. President Barack Obama called Sunday for "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter" as the Central American crisis unfolded. For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, U.S. officials said. Knowing trouble was brewing in Honduras over several weeks, the Obama administration warned power players there, including the armed forces, that the United States and other nations in the Americas would not support or abide a coup, officials said. They said Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls. Two senior administration officials briefed reporters by phone on condition of anonymity, under ground rules set by the State Department. One predicted a consensus will quickly fall into place across the Americas, via the Organization of American States, that the coup was an "illegal and illegitimate act that cannot stand."
President Barack Obama called Sunday for "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter" as the Central American crisis unfolded.
For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, U.S. officials said.
Knowing trouble was brewing in Honduras over several weeks, the Obama administration warned power players there, including the armed forces, that the United States and other nations in the Americas would not support or abide a coup, officials said. They said Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls.
Two senior administration officials briefed reporters by phone on condition of anonymity, under ground rules set by the State Department. One predicted a consensus will quickly fall into place across the Americas, via the Organization of American States, that the coup was an "illegal and illegitimate act that cannot stand."
