HONDURAS: army overthrows the pres!!

amazed

Sunday June 28, 2009
Army overthrows Honduras president in vote dispute
By Mica Rosenberg

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Honduran army ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to seek another term in office.


Honduran soldiers block a
street near the residence
of Honduras' President Manuel
Zelaya in Tegucigalpa June 28, 2009.
(REUTERS/Edgard Garrido)

U.S. President Barack Obama and the European Union expressed deep concern after troops came for Zelaya, an ally of socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, around dawn and took him away from his residence.

Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chavez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America -- said he would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally.

A military plane flew Zelaya to Costa Rica and CNN's Spanish-language channel said he had asked for asylum there.

Pro-government protesters burned tires in front of the presidential palace in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and two fighter jets screamed through the sky over the city.

Honduras, an impoverished Central American country, had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s, but Zelaya's push to change the constitution to allow him another term has split the country's institutions.

Zelaya fired military chief Gen. Romeo Vasquez last week for refusing to help him run an unofficial referendum on Sunday on extending the four-year term limit on Honduran presidents.

Zelaya told Venezuela-based Telesur television station that he was "kidnapped" by soldiers and called on Hondurans to peacefully resist the coup.

OBAMA CALLS FOR CALM

The EU condemned the coup and Obama called for calm.

Honduras was a staunch U.S. ally in the 1980s when Washington helped Central American governments fight left-wing guerrillas.

"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference," Obama said.

It was the first successful military ouster of a president in Central America since the Cold War era. An opposition deputy said Congress would chose Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress, as acting president later on Sunday.

The country's Supreme Court last week came out against Zelaya and ordered him to reinstate fired military chief Vasquez. The court said on Sunday it had told the army to remove the president.

"It acted to defend the rule of law," the court said in a statement read on Honduran radio.

The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which lives off coffee and textile exports and remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls indicate public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.

Honduras, home to around 7 million people, is a major drug trafficking transit point.

It is also a big coffee producer but there was no immediate sign the unrest would affect production.

amazed

Sunday June 28, 2009
Chavez threatens military action over Honduras coup

By Frank Jack Daniel and Enrique Andres Pretel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped.


Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks
at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km
west from Caracas June 24, 2009.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files)

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 army's coup against Honduran 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 army by trying to win re-election.

Chavez, on state television, said if the Venezuela ambassador was killed, or troops entered the Venezuela embassy, "that military junta would be entering a defacto state of war, we would have to act militarily." He said,"I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

The socialist Chavez leads a group of leftist countries that includes the government of Honduras and he has in the past threatened military action in the region but never followed through.

Chavez said that if a new government is sworn in after the coup it would be defeated.

"We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said.

The United States has long accused the former soldier of being a destabilizing force in Latin America. Chavez himself tried to take power in a coup in 1992 and was briefly ousted in a 2002 putsch but was reinstated after protests.

In 2008 Chavez ordered tanks to the border with Colombia after Colombian troops attacked a guerrilla base in Ecuador, which is part of a coalition of leftist Latin American countries that Venezuela heads. That crisis was diffused without violence a few days later.

Some Latin American leaders from Chavez's ALBA coalition are planning to meet in Nicaragua to discuss what action to take over the situation in Honduras. ALBA's nine members include Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Ecuador said on Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.

amazed

Monday June 29, 2009
Protests erupt, shots fired after Honduras coup
By Mica Rosenberg

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Shots were fired near the presidential palace in Honduras where protests erupted after the army ousted and exiled leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War.


Honduran soldiers block a street near the
residence of Honduras' President Manuel
Zelaya in Tegucigalpa June 28, 2009.
(REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas)


Hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters, some masked and wielding sticks, set up barricades of chain link fences and downed billboards in the center of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and blocked roads to the presidential palace.

Reuters witnesses heard shots outside the presidential palace that apparently came after a truck arrived at the protest, and an ambulance also appeared. It was not clear who fired the shots. One witness said shots were fired only in the air and there were no initial reports of injuries.

In neighboring Nicaragua, leftist leaders from the region led by Zelaya's ally Venezuelan Hugo Chavez gathered in the capital Managua for late night talks on the crisis.

Zelaya, in office since 2006, was ousted in a dawn coup after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, who announced a curfew for Sunday and Monday nights. The country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

The coup was strongly condemned by Chavez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America. Chavez put his army on alert on Sunday in case Honduran troops moved against his embassy or envoy there.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, the European Union and a string of other foreign governments also voiced backing for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica.

The Organization of American States demanded Zelaya's immediate and unconditional return to office.

Honduras, an impoverished coffee, textile and banana exporter with a population of 7 million, had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s.

But Zelaya has moved the country further left since taking power and struck up a close alliance with Chavez, upsetting the army and the traditionally conservative rich elite.

In central Tegucigalpa, groups of men, some holding metal pipes and chains and their faces covered with T-shirts, threw rocks at cars trying to enter the area late on Sunday. Remnants of burned tires and a charred newsstand selling papers seen supporting the coup lay smoldering in the street.

Troops in full fatigues with automatic weapons lined the inside of the fenced-off presidential palace, some covering their faces with riot gear shields as protesters taunted them.

"For the country to have peace in the future, there will have to be deaths, injuries. We are willing to fight to the death," said Cristhian Rodriguez, a 24-year-old plumber, who had set up an improvised tent in front of the palace.

Honduras is a big coffee producer but there was no immediate sign the unrest would affect output.

MANAGUA MEETING

Zelaya's bid to hold a poll on Sunday on changing the constitution to let presidents stay beyond one four-year term had set him in opposition to the army, courts and Congress and he tried to fire the armed forces chief, General Romeo Vasquez, last week over the issue. Zelaya was due to leave office in early 2010.

A former businessman who sports a cowboy hat and thick mustache, Zelaya, 56, told Venezuela-based Telesur television station he was "kidnapped" by soldiers and barely given time to change out of his pajamas. He was later bundled onto a military plane to Costa Rica.

Zelaya, now in a smart white shirt, sat down on Sunday night with Chavez, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega in Managua. Bolivia's Evo Morales and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza were en route.

The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which is heavily dependent on remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls indicate public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.

After Zelaya's ouster, the army guarded Congress as as Honduran deputies unanimously elected Congress head Micheletti, a member of Zelaya's own Liberal Party, as interim president until after a presidential election in November.

Micheletti defied world pressure to reverse the coup, saying: "I don't think anyone here, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has the right to come and threaten (Honduras)."

FOREIGN REACTION

Chavez said he would do everything necessary to abort the ouster. He said if the Venezuelan ambassador was killed, or troops entered the embassy "we would have to act militarily," adding: "I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

Chavez has in the past threatened military action in the region but never followed through.

The United States and other foreign governments condemned the coup. Obama called for calm and a senior administration official said Washington recognized only Zelaya as president.

"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference," Obama said in a statement.

The coup could be an early test for Obama as he tries to mend the United States' battered image in Latin America.

"This is a golden opportunity to make a clear break with the past and show that he is unequivocally siding with democracy, even if they (Washington) don't necessarily like the guy," former Costa Rican Vice President Kevin Casas-Zamora told Reuters in Washington.

Honduras was a U.S. ally in the 1980s when Washington helped Central American governments fight Marxist rebels.

Chavez, who is known for his stridently anti-U.S. rhetoric and has in the past accused the United States of backing his own removal, said there should be an investigation to see if Washington had a hand in Zelaya's ouster. The White House denied any participation in the coup.

The United States still has about 550-600 troops stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, a Honduran military installation that is also the headquarters for a regional U.S. joint task force that conducts humanitarian, drug and disaster relief operations.

Democracy has taken root in Central America in recent decades after years of dictatorships and war, but crime, corruption and poverty are still major problems. Zelaya said the coup smacked of an earlier era.

"If holding a poll provokes a coup, the abduction of the president and expulsion from his country, then what kind of democracy are we living in?" he said in Costa Rica.

The Supreme Court, which last week came out against Zelaya and ordered him to reinstate fired military chief Vasquez, said on Sunday it had told the army to remove the president.

amazed

Saturday July 4, 2009
OAS set to suspend Honduras as it renounces charter
By Patrick Markey

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Organization of American States prepared to suspend Honduras on Saturday after a caretaker government refused to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya and defiantly renounced the OAS charter in an apparent preemptive move.


Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya speaks
during a news conference in Panama City July 2, 2009.
(REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez/Files)

The measure by Honduras to distance itself from the hemispheric group came after its rulers rejected an OAS demand to restore Zelaya, who was ousted by troops in Central America's worst political crisis since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

Honduras, an impoverished coffee and textile exporter, would be only the second country suspended by the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body after Cuba, which was barred in 1962 as Fidel Castro took the island toward communism.

After he gave Honduras a 72-hour deadline, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said the interim government showed no willingness to reinstate Zelaya, who antagonized opponents with an attempt to lift presidential term limits and by allying himself to Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez.

"There is a rupture of constitutional order and those who did this have no intention for the moment of changing this situation," Insulza told reporters in Tegucigalpa, the capital of the nation of 7 million.

The Washington, D.C.-based OAS will meet for an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss the crisis.

The Obama administration, European governments and Zelaya's left-wing allies have widely condemned his ouster as a military coup. But the caretaker government has said it legally removed a president who violated the constitution.

The interim government remained defiant and announced it would renounce the OAS charter, a possible step toward quitting the organization.

"It is better to pay this high price ... than live undignified and bow the our heads to the demands of foreign governments," said Roberto Micheletti, named caretaker president by the Honduran Congress after Zelaya's ouster.

Some of Zelaya's left-wing allies have said they would travel with the exiled leader to Honduras on Sunday, but that plan seemed to be in doubt after the clash with the OAS.

The crisis has become a test for U.S. President Barack Obama in a region where he is trying to restore a battered U.S. image and Chavez is spreading his message of socialist revolution to counter Washington's influence.

The United States has criticized the coup and will decide next week whether to cut economic aid to Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Americas. But the Obama administration has let the OAS take the lead in trying to resolve the crisis.

The upheaval has not affected coffee supplies, although Central American neighbors staged a two-day trade blockade of Honduras to protest against the coup.

amazed

PBB desak ketenteraman awam di Honduras

GENEVA - Setiausaha Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), Ban Ki-moon mendesak Pertubuhan Negara-Negara Amerika berusaha memulihkan ketenteraman awam di Honduras.

Keadaan itu berlaku selepas Presiden Honduras, Manual Zelaya dihalang daripada mendarat di sebuah lapangan terbang negara itu setelah satu rampasan kuasa tentera berlaku.

Menurut Ki-moon, dia berasa sedih dengan kematian dan pertempuran antara pihak tentera dengan penyokong Zelaya yang disingkirkan menerusi rampasan kuasa.

"Apabila pemimpin dipilih menerusi proses undang-undang yang sah dan melalui prosedur perlembagaan, mandat dan kuasanya perlu dilindungi," katanya. Beliau mendesak pemimpin rampasan kuasa yang diketuai oleh presiden sementara, Roberto Micheletti supaya melindungi nyawa manusia dan keselamatan penduduk awam. Presiden Honduras itu disingkirkan pada 28 Jun menerusi satu rampasan kuasa dengan bantuan tentera. - AFP

bookwus

amazed

Perintah berkurung di Honduras

Beberapa orang penunjuk perasaan di Honduras memerhati sebuah bas yang terbakar di Tegucigalpa, kelmarin. - AP

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras 12 Ogos - Kerajaan sementara Honduras telah menguatkuasakan perintah berkurung di ibu negeri ini selepas beribu-ribu penunjuk perasaan antirampasan kuasa berarak menuju Tegucigalpa semalam, bagi mendesak kuasa Presiden Manuel Zelaya yang diguling dikembalikan semula.

Kerajaan berkata, perintah berkurung itu dikuatkuasakan selepas penunjuk perasaan membakar sebuah bas dan sebuah restoran rangkaian makanan segera Amerika.

" Perintah berkurung dikenakan dari pukul 10 malam hingga 5 pagi dan hanya berkuat kuasa di ibu negara," kata Menteri Penerangan, Rene Zepeda.

Usaha bagi menyelesaikan krisis rampasan kuasa di Honduras pada 28 Jun lalu yang menyebabkan Zelaya digulingkan kini tergendala apabila Presiden Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, yang bertindak sebagai orang tengah telah disahkan dijangkiti selesema babi, semalam.

Kumpulan penunjuk perasaan tiba di Tegucigalpa semalam, selepas sepanjang minggu berarak merentasi Honduras, menghasilkan demonstrasi terbesar sebagai menyokong Presiden Manuel Zelaya.

Isteri Zelaya, Xiomara Castro mengalu-alukan kumpulan kira-kira 10,000 penunjuk perasaan yang membawa bendera Honduras dan papan tanda mengutuk Presiden sementara, Roberto Micheletti.

"Bantahan telah masuk hari ke-45 dan masih ada orang di jalanan.

"Ini telah menjangkaui sejarah negara kita," kata Castro kepada kumpulan itu.

Sementara itu, lebih 4,000 penyokong Zelaya berhimpun di San Pedro Sula, bandar kedua terbesar negara itu.

Penunjuk perasaan mula berarak menghampiri kedua-dua bandar itu pada Rabu lepas bertujuan untuk bertembung dengan lawatan delegasi Pertubuhan Negara Amerika (OAS) bagi memujuk kerajaan sementara mengembalikan kuasa kepada Zelaya. - AP