Grunthos
06-28-2009, 10:40 PM
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The Honduran Congress voted Sunday to strip President Jose Manuel Zelaya of his powers and named the president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, as provisional president.
Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya was detained and sent to Costa Rica, the government said.
Zelaya was removed from his residence Sunday morning by military forces who transported him to Costa Rica.
He said Sunday that he planned to continue carrying out his duties and would travel to Managua, Nicaragua, to attend a summit of Central American heads-of-state Monday.
Zelaya told CNN en Español that he denies that a letter of resignation read aloud in an emergency congressional session is his.
"Only the people can take away or give me power," Zelaya said at a press conference in Costa Rica, where Honduran military forces had transported him following Sunday morning's coup.
In separate appearances Sunday, Zelaya, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the military also detained Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, further raising regional tensions.
Speaking in Havana, Cuba, Rodriguez said the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras had tried but were unable to protect Rodas from a group of masked soldiers who forcibly took her from their grasp. Further details regarding that incident were unclear.
"If they attack our ambassadors, they will be declaring a state of war," Chavez said. "If they have weapons, then we have weapons, too."
Zelaya awoke to the sound of gunfire in his residence and was still in his pajamas when the military forced him to leave the country Sunday morning, he told reporters.
"This was a brutal kidnapping of me with no justification," Zelaya said.
He called the coup an attack on Honduran democracy.
"There are ways to protest without arms," Zelaya said.
The coup came on the same day that he vowed to follow through with a referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.
A military team entered the president's residence and met resistance from Zelaya's guards, a Honduran government official told CNN. The official at first said Zelaya was injured, but later said it appeared he had not been.
The military ruled Honduras for 25 years, until a democratically elected civilian government came to power in 1982.
Zelaya was dropped off at an air base in Costa Rica and has not sought political asylum, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, said at an emergency meeting of the organization. Diplomatically, Zelaya was being treated as a visitor to Costa Rica, he said.
Insulza strongly condemned the coup in a statement. And in Washington, President Obama said in a statement he was "deeply concerned" by the news.
"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama said. "Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."
"This is a step backward for democracy in Central America," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who appeared at a press conference with Zelaya. "I hope this is condemned without reservation."
Venezuela's Chavez, an ally of Zelaya, said that Honduras' upper classes and the United States were the forces behind the coup. But Dan Restrepo, director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, denied any American involvement.
"The United States has had nothing to do with the happenings in the last 24 hours," Restrepo told CNN.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that Sunday's action in Honduras "violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all."
Military presence was noticeable around the capital, but calm reigned over the country, according to Radio America.
Zelaya, a leftist elected in 2005, has found himself pitted against the other branches of government and military leaders over the issue of Sunday's planned referendum. It would ask voters to place a measure on November's ballot allowing the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation's charter to allow the president to run for another term.
Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January 2010, cannot run for re-election under current law.
The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the poll illegal, and Congress and the top military brass agreed, but Zelaya remained steadfast.
In the end, it appeared the opposition to Zelaya was too great. The military confiscated the ballots from the presidential residence, in effect canceling the disputed vote. Meanwhile, the state-run television news station was taken off the air, and there were reports of cell phones and electricity interruptions in parts of the country.
In Tegucigalpa, a growing crowd, including families with children, gathered outside of the presidential residence. Video showed soldiers walking down some of the streets of the capital, and military helicopters flew overhead.
Sunday's events followed a tumultuous week in Honduras, a country where some 70 percent of the population lives in poverty.
At the crux of the current political crisis was the referendum. After the Supreme Court ruled the poll illegal, the country's top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, told the president that the military would not support the referendum.
In response, Zelaya on Wednesday said he would fire Vasquez.
The next day, the Supreme Court stepped in again and ruled that the general's dismissal was unconstitutional. Initially, Zelaya referred to the court as the "supreme court of injustice," but later reaffirmed that Vasquez still held his military post.
Determined to hold the referendum, the president on Thursday led a protest to the military base where the ballots were being housed and took possession of them -- the same ballots that the military re-seized Sunday morning.
While military interventions were once routine in Latin America, civilian governments have held sway across the region since the 1980s, and previously all-powerful militaries have receded into the background. Before Sunday, the only other barracks revolt this decade was the unsuccessful 2002 coup attempt against Venezuela's Chavez, when the military successfully displaced Chavez but then backed down and allowed his reinstatement days later.
Zelaya narrowly won the presidency in 2005 with 49.8 percent of the vote to 46.1 percent for Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/28/honduras.president.arrested/index.html
So, Zelaya tries to end-run the Honduran Constitution, the courts and the legislature stop him... he decides to bull ahead anyway with his Chavezesque "reworking" of their Constitution in order to grab another term in office... and the military decides to ride his ass out of town on a rail.
I'd say that Obambi SHOULD be "deeply concerned..." of the prescedent.
A Constitutional Democracy disposes (without wanton bloodshed) of a president who refuses to obey the laws of his country, the orders of its courts, and the will of its legislature and the United States SecState sides with CHAVEZ and CASTRO?
'Get another rail ready" is the only thought that come to mind...
Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya was detained and sent to Costa Rica, the government said.
Zelaya was removed from his residence Sunday morning by military forces who transported him to Costa Rica.
He said Sunday that he planned to continue carrying out his duties and would travel to Managua, Nicaragua, to attend a summit of Central American heads-of-state Monday.
Zelaya told CNN en Español that he denies that a letter of resignation read aloud in an emergency congressional session is his.
"Only the people can take away or give me power," Zelaya said at a press conference in Costa Rica, where Honduran military forces had transported him following Sunday morning's coup.
In separate appearances Sunday, Zelaya, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the military also detained Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, further raising regional tensions.
Speaking in Havana, Cuba, Rodriguez said the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras had tried but were unable to protect Rodas from a group of masked soldiers who forcibly took her from their grasp. Further details regarding that incident were unclear.
"If they attack our ambassadors, they will be declaring a state of war," Chavez said. "If they have weapons, then we have weapons, too."
Zelaya awoke to the sound of gunfire in his residence and was still in his pajamas when the military forced him to leave the country Sunday morning, he told reporters.
"This was a brutal kidnapping of me with no justification," Zelaya said.
He called the coup an attack on Honduran democracy.
"There are ways to protest without arms," Zelaya said.
The coup came on the same day that he vowed to follow through with a referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.
A military team entered the president's residence and met resistance from Zelaya's guards, a Honduran government official told CNN. The official at first said Zelaya was injured, but later said it appeared he had not been.
The military ruled Honduras for 25 years, until a democratically elected civilian government came to power in 1982.
Zelaya was dropped off at an air base in Costa Rica and has not sought political asylum, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, said at an emergency meeting of the organization. Diplomatically, Zelaya was being treated as a visitor to Costa Rica, he said.
Insulza strongly condemned the coup in a statement. And in Washington, President Obama said in a statement he was "deeply concerned" by the news.
"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama said. "Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."
"This is a step backward for democracy in Central America," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who appeared at a press conference with Zelaya. "I hope this is condemned without reservation."
Venezuela's Chavez, an ally of Zelaya, said that Honduras' upper classes and the United States were the forces behind the coup. But Dan Restrepo, director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, denied any American involvement.
"The United States has had nothing to do with the happenings in the last 24 hours," Restrepo told CNN.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that Sunday's action in Honduras "violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all."
Military presence was noticeable around the capital, but calm reigned over the country, according to Radio America.
Zelaya, a leftist elected in 2005, has found himself pitted against the other branches of government and military leaders over the issue of Sunday's planned referendum. It would ask voters to place a measure on November's ballot allowing the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation's charter to allow the president to run for another term.
Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January 2010, cannot run for re-election under current law.
The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the poll illegal, and Congress and the top military brass agreed, but Zelaya remained steadfast.
In the end, it appeared the opposition to Zelaya was too great. The military confiscated the ballots from the presidential residence, in effect canceling the disputed vote. Meanwhile, the state-run television news station was taken off the air, and there were reports of cell phones and electricity interruptions in parts of the country.
In Tegucigalpa, a growing crowd, including families with children, gathered outside of the presidential residence. Video showed soldiers walking down some of the streets of the capital, and military helicopters flew overhead.
Sunday's events followed a tumultuous week in Honduras, a country where some 70 percent of the population lives in poverty.
At the crux of the current political crisis was the referendum. After the Supreme Court ruled the poll illegal, the country's top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, told the president that the military would not support the referendum.
In response, Zelaya on Wednesday said he would fire Vasquez.
The next day, the Supreme Court stepped in again and ruled that the general's dismissal was unconstitutional. Initially, Zelaya referred to the court as the "supreme court of injustice," but later reaffirmed that Vasquez still held his military post.
Determined to hold the referendum, the president on Thursday led a protest to the military base where the ballots were being housed and took possession of them -- the same ballots that the military re-seized Sunday morning.
While military interventions were once routine in Latin America, civilian governments have held sway across the region since the 1980s, and previously all-powerful militaries have receded into the background. Before Sunday, the only other barracks revolt this decade was the unsuccessful 2002 coup attempt against Venezuela's Chavez, when the military successfully displaced Chavez but then backed down and allowed his reinstatement days later.
Zelaya narrowly won the presidency in 2005 with 49.8 percent of the vote to 46.1 percent for Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/28/honduras.president.arrested/index.html
So, Zelaya tries to end-run the Honduran Constitution, the courts and the legislature stop him... he decides to bull ahead anyway with his Chavezesque "reworking" of their Constitution in order to grab another term in office... and the military decides to ride his ass out of town on a rail.
I'd say that Obambi SHOULD be "deeply concerned..." of the prescedent.
A Constitutional Democracy disposes (without wanton bloodshed) of a president who refuses to obey the laws of his country, the orders of its courts, and the will of its legislature and the United States SecState sides with CHAVEZ and CASTRO?
'Get another rail ready" is the only thought that come to mind...