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Last Updated: Jun 29, 2009 - 8:35:33 AM |
The situation in Honduras remains fluid and the outcome uncertain.
After arresting Zelaya at his home, the military transferred him to
Costa Rica. The Honduran Congress quickly installed its speaker,
Roberto Micheletti, as “interim president.”
Zelaya had scheduled a national non-binding referendum on Sunday on
whether a ballot should be held in November on the holding of a
constitutional convention. Zelaya’s opponents claimed that the
president was seeking to find a way to stay in power by changing a
constitutional provision that limits the president to one four-year
term. However, the referendum that had been slated for Sunday proposed
that a ballot on a constitutional convention be held at the same time
as the November election to choose Zelaya’s successor.
The Honduran Supreme Court declared that the referendum was
unconstitutional, and the military refused to take measures to hold it,
setting off a political crisis. Last week, Zelaya dismissed the army
chief, General Romeo Vasquez, but the Supreme Court intervened to
declare the move unconstitutional. The military stepped in and ousted
Zelaya after the president sought to go ahead with the poll.
On Sunday, Zelaya called the intervention of the military a “coup
d’etat.” He said he was awakened by soldiers who arrested him in his
pajamas Sunday morning.
Manuel Zelaya came to office in January 2006, following a highly
contested election in November 2005. He is a long-time member of the
Liberal Party, one of the main establishment parties of Honduras. He
ran on the basis of a law-and-order program, narrowly defeating the
equally right-wing candidate of the National Party of Honduras,
Porfirio Pepe Lobo.
After coming to power, however, Zelaya initiated populist measures and
developed a close relationship with Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez.
This policy alienated the country’s wealthy elite and political
establishment, including leading figures in Zelaya’s own party. Since
he was elected, Zelaya has come into periodic conflict with the
corporate elite, which is the principal social force behind the
military.
In January, Zelaya increased the country’s minimum wage from 157 to 280
dollars, excluding special export zones. Corporations responded angrily
and initiated mass layoffs. Honduras is an impoverished country, with a
poverty rate of about 70 percent.
The United States, the European Union, the Organization of American
States and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared their
opposition to the coup. President Barack Obama said the US government
did not recognize Micheletti and called for Zelaya to be returned to
Honduras.
The United States has a long history of involvement in Central and
South America, including support for a series of military coups. The US
has traditionally had close ties with Honduras, but these ties have
become strained under Zelaya.
Venezuelan president Chavez has called for an investigation into
possible US involvement in the coup. Chavez put the Venezuelan military
on alert and warned that if the new military-dominated government of
Honduras entered the Venezuelan embassy, the action would constitute “a
de facto state of war.”
Chavez said that the Honduran military had arrested the Cuban
ambassador to Honduras and had beaten up the Venezuelan ambassador,
leaving him by a road in the capital of the country, Tegucigalpa.
Chavez called a special summit Sunday of the “Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas”—an economic and political bloc that includes
Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and Honduras—to discuss the crisis in
Honduras.
There are reports of pro-Zelaya forces setting up barricades in the
Honduran capital.
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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