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Just guessing, this coup passed muster at the US Embassy. Que chingon Zelaya, but obviously, so are the Honduran armed forces.
Honduran leader forced into exile
Troops in Honduras have detained the president and flown him out of the country after a power struggle over plans to change the cons ution.
President Manuel Zelaya was flown to Costa Rica from an air force base outside the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Mr Zelaya, elected for a non-renewable four-year term in January 2006, wanted a vote to extend his time in office.
His arrest came just before the start of a referendum ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and opposed by Congress.
There was also resistance within Mr Zelaya's own party to the plan to hold the vote.
Reuters news agency reports that police fired teargas at about 500 supporters of Mr Zelaya who had gathered outside the presidential palace.
'Arrested in pyjamas'
Protesters reportedly hurled rocks at the soldiers, shouting "Traitors", AP news agency reports, as tanks rolled through the streets and air force jets flew over the capital.
Early on Sunday, witnesses saw dozens of troops surround Mr Zelaya's residence.
In other developments:
• At an emergency meeting in Washington, the Organization of American States condemned what it called a "coup" in Honduras
• Mr Zelaya's ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, blamed "the Yankee empire", and threatened military action in the event that the Venezuelan ambassador to Honduras was attacked, reported Reuters
• The White House denied any involvement, US President Barack Obama urged Honduras to "respect the rule of law" and the EU condemned Mr Zelaya's arrest
• The Honduran Supreme Court said it had ordered the removal of the president
• Honduran MPs were to vote on Sunday to name Congress President Roberto Micheletti, a member of Mr Zelaya's own party but an opponent of the deposed leader, a senior opposition deputy told Reuters
From Costa Rica, Mr Zelaya told Venezuelan TV that Honduran soldiers had arrested him in his pyjamas.
"I'm in San Jose in Costa Rica," he said. "I've been the victim of a kidnapping by a group of Honduran soldiers.
"This was a plot by a very voracious elite, an elite which wants only to keep this country isolated, in an extreme level of poverty. It doesn't care about the people, it's not sensitive to them."
The military's dramatic move came after President Zelaya defied a court order that he should re-instate the chief of the army, Gen Romeo Vasquez.
The president sacked Gen Vasquez late on Wednesday for refusing to help him organise the referendum.
Mr Zelaya, who under current regulations leaves office next January, also accepted the resignation of the defence minister.
'US opposed coup'
The referendum was to ask the population if they approved of a formal vote next November on whether to rewrite the Honduran cons ution.
On Thursday, the Honduran Congress approved plans to investigate whether the president should be declared unfit to rule.
In an interview with Spain's El Pais newspaper published on Sunday, Mr Zelaya said a planned coup against him had been thwarted after the US refused to back it.
"Everything was in place for the coup and if the US embassy had approved it, it would have happened. But they did not," Mr Zelaya said.
The arrest of Mr Zelaya took place an hour before polls were due to open.
Ballot boxes and other voting materials had been distributed by Mr Zelaya's supporters and government employees throughout the Central American country.
The president has vowed to transform Honduras, saying the system currently favours the wealthy elite. But his opponents accused him of seeking to rule indefinitely.
Honduras - an impoverished coffee and banana-exporting nation of more than 7 million people - has experienced military coups in the past.
Soldiers overthrew elected presidents in 1963 and again in 1975; the military did not turn the government over to civilians until 1981.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...as/8123126.stm
Just guessing, this coup passed muster at the US Embassy. Que chingon Zelaya, but obviously, so are the Honduran armed forces.
Nothing like an aspiring authoritarian leader hiding his power grab under the veil of democracy.
*cough*Putin, Chavez*cough*
Obama is such a .
People get shot in the streets in Iran and he says we shouldn't interfere with what's going on over there.
This guy tries to ignore the rule of law, their country's Supreme Court, gets removed, and Obama is calling for a cease and desist within the hour.
All Obama did is ask that rule of law be respected. He didn't denounce anyone (unlike OAS and EU). IMO his tack is very similar to that in Iraq. Not to explicitly take sides.
This makes him a how?
Chavez ally tries to remove limits on re-election and gets opposed by the majority of people in power. Maybe people down there are wising up to what a real democracy is like. I expect Chavez will trash the U.S. soon on some tirade.
The US denounces the coup more clearly now.
We recognize Zelaya as the duly elected and cons utional president of Honduras. We see no other," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a conference call organized by the U.S. State Department.
A second official on the same conference call stressed that the United States strongly backed efforts by the Organization of American States to forge a resolution condemning a coup d'etat ousting Zelaya on Sunday and calling for him to be reinstated.
"This is not a process that should be interfered with bilaterally by any country in the Americas," said the second official.
Last edited by Winehole23; 06-29-2009 at 12:17 AM.
Sorry, didn't get a chance to see the new article. The first report I heard said that Obama was calling for a halt to the coup. I see he put out a statement that was a little more reserved.
It's still funny that he was silent for days on Iran, but has an opinion on Honduras the morning it happens.
Honduras isn't as important or as complex.
I thought it was funny you relied on Zelaya's tale about Obama's previous meddling.
Last edited by Winehole23; 06-28-2009 at 11:48 PM.
The U.S. has been in touch with Zelaya since he was brought to Costa Rica by the forces that unseated him, and has been trying to communicate with members of the Honduran Congress to insist that the new power structure step down, the official said. As well, officials in Washington and in the Honduran capital have been seeking ways to make sure Zelaya's family is unharmed.
Last edited by Winehole23; 06-29-2009 at 12:19 AM.
...
I have no complaints with this coup.
I also don't mind the way Obama is handling it. Inside, he has to be pumped, but I think he took a decent tone with the whole situation...
People crying for a moral absolute obama should stick to are ing idiots. There are only situations that benefit us, and situations that don't.
+1 to an extent.
The USA generally has tried to be a fairly moral country, and our leader should reflect that. I'm not saying he needs to be absolutely moral in his choices, but when it is possible, he should be.
So what's the end game here? Return Zalaya to power, have him drop his bid for a cons utional amendment, then see who the next democratically elected leader is?
Seems fair. It's a pretty well known fact that military coups almost always end with authoritarian leaders promising democratic reinstallment once things get "situated".
IMO, the only appropriate choice would be to let the situation resolve itself, at least until a foreign power gets involved. Of course, the best solution would be for someone else that is a 1st world country to recognize the new Honduras gov't as legitimate, so we can avoid being the first to do so. After people recognize them as legitimate, we can treat with them, and then its just regular politics from their, with us having a potential tool to use against Venezuela.
I don't see Zelaya coming back. Honduras will continue to purge leftist elements until it is safe to hold elections again. The writing seems to be on the wall already.
OTOH, the international opposition to the coup is almost unanimous. UN Chief Ban Ki Moon -- and now, Obama too -- has called for Zelaya's restoration. And there seems to be a real concern that Venezuela will intervene. Hence the US warning about "bilateral action".
Wouldn't it be possible to simply take his name off the ballot and have a vote?
If he uncons utionally put his name on the ballot, then he's not legally allowed to be on it anyway.
I can see a scenario where he goes back under guard, they hold the election, then he's ousted as soon as the results come in by an emergency inauguration. Nothing but a dog and pony show... but it keeps the democratic ins utions intact and keeps the military away from things.
Last edited by jman3000; 06-29-2009 at 05:54 PM. Reason: lol horse and pony
The referendum Zelaya was insisting on having was a referendum on having a subsequent cons utional referendum. His name is not on the ballot. Nor would it necessarily be, if the referendum had taken place.
What for? Who would be fooled and why would Zelaya go along with it?
Too late for that, I'd say.
Ahh... I took when it said "he was taken an hour before the ballots opened" as a presidential election... not a referendum.
I skimmed too quickly.
Should we just ignore that by their cons ution Zelaya couldn't call a referendum to extend his term? They have separation of powers just like our cons ution and their courts and congress were warning him that he couldn't and shouldn't do it. , he had to get his buddy Hugo Chavez to print the ballots for him because everyone else in the country was saying NO! Isn't that democracy working the way it is supposed to? Why are we on the wrong side of this issue?
Who's ignoring it. Me and jman were just talking about it.
Maybe so that the Honduran people see that they have somebody beside Hugo Chavez on their side.
Kidnapping the President in his pyjamas in the dead of night, flying him out of the country, and declaring two days of martial law to crack down on his political allies is hardly an *orderly* transition of power.
Looked pretty orderly to me. The guy overextended and got slapped by reality. His country doesn't want a Chavez style dictator. It's done and it was a good thing.
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