World Leaders Denounce Honduras Coup
The Honduran army forcibly ousted and exiled leftist President Manuel Zelaya early Sunday, waking him from sleep and taking him to Costa Rica. The move was triggered by his bid to make it legal to seek another term in office.
Protesters in Honduras yesterday put up roadblocks in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and demanded the return of their president. Cars have been upturned and set on fire. Those in power have tried shut down communications in and out of the country. We have had no news from our expat contacts in Honduras, where many U.S. citizens live and own property.
President Obama immediately called for Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any attempt to overthrow President Zelaya, according to senior U.S. officials. (This was revealed on the Huffington Post, which cited a Wall Street Journal story.)
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez announced that he had put his country’s military forces on alert. In a later announcement, Chavez blamed the U.S. for the seizure of power. It is true that the military plan that airlifted the president was purchased with military aid from the U.S., but the aid dates back to a cold war policy of the 1980s.
Cuba condemned the events in Honduras as “criminal, brutal.” “I denounce the criminal, brutal character of this coup,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said.
The coup comes as a surprise to many because democracy has been restored to virtually all of Latin America. The actions have also been condemned in such countries as Chile, Argentina and Brazil, where military officials toppled civilian rulers in the 1960s and 1970s.