Honduran military ousts president ahead of vote. Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power.The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world, and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country's apparent new leader.
President Manuel Zelaya was awakened Sunday by gunfire and detained while still in his pajamas, hours before an unpopular constitutional referendum many saw as a power grab. An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace."I want to return to my country," Zelaya said in Costa Rica. "I am president of Honduras."
Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even Zelaya's former allies turning against him. Congressional leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in to serve until Jan. 27 when Zelaya's term ends. Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president in the referendum.
"My slogan will be the reconciliation of the grand family of Hondurans ... and a grand national dialogue," Micheletti said after Congress gave the military a long standing ovation.
Zelaya denied resigning and insisted he would serve out his term, even as the Supreme Court backed the military takeover and said it was a defense of democracy.
His ouster came hours before polls were to open on a constitutional referendum that Zelaya was pushing ahead even after the Supreme Court and the attorney general said it was illegal. The constitution bars changes to some of its clauses, such as the ban on a president serving more than one term, they said.
Some businesses in the capital, Tegucigalpa, closed earlier this week amid the rising tension, and many speculated there would be a coup. Those who opposed the referendum warned against voting, fearing violence at the polls.
Countries throughout Latin America and the world condemned Zelaya's expulsion, and Chavez said before Micheletti was sworn in that if he was appointed president, "we will overthrow him." Chavez said Venezuela "is at battle" and put his military on alert.
In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez vowed to work with allies to push for Zelaya's return to power. He said Cuban Ambassador Juan Carlos Hernandez was held briefly in Tegucigalpa after he and other foreign diplomats tried unsuccessfully to prevent soldiers from taking away Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas.
Chavez said troops in Honduras temporarily detained the Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors and beat them.
President Barack Obama said he was "deeply concerned" and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned.
"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's statement read.
Coups were common in Central America for four decades reaching back to the 1950s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez. It was the first in Central America since military officials forced President Jorge Serrano of Guatemala to step down in 1993 after he tried to dissolve Congress and suspend the constitution.
"We thought that the long night of military dictatorships in Central America was over," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who sat beside Zelaya at a news conference.
Zelaya told the Venezuela-based Telesur network that he was awoken by gunshots and the shouts of his security guards, who he said resisted troops for at least 20 minutes. Still in his pajamas, he jumped out of bed and ducked behind an air conditioner to avoid the bullets, he said.He said eight to 10 soldiers in masks escorted him onto an air force plane that took him to Costa Rica.
Zelaya said he would attend a scheduled meeting of Central American presidents in Nicaragua on Monday and that Chavez, who also plans to attend, would provide transportation.
Zelaya called on Honduran soldiers to back him, urged citizens to take to the streets in peaceful protests, and asked Honduran police to protect demonstrators.
About 100 supporters congregated in front of locked gates outside the national palace, where they hurled rocks at soldiers and shouted "Traitors! Traitors!" They hung a Honduran flag.
"They kidnapped him like cowards," screamed Melissa Gaitan. Tears streamed down the face of the 21-year-old, who works at the government television station. "We have to rally the people to defend our president."
The vote did not take place on the referendum, which asked whether another vote should be held on convoking an assembly to rewrite the constitution.
Meanwhile, the United States considers President Manuel Zelaya to be the only constitutional president of Honduras despite his forced ouster from the country, an official said Sunday.
"We recognize Zelaya as the duly elected and constitutional president of Honduras. We see no other," the Obama administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
US President Barack Obama said earlier he was "deeply concerned" over reports that Honduran troops ousted Zelaya and flew him out of the country to regional neighbor Costa Rica.
"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms (and) the rule of law," he said, adding that "any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."
The United States has been in touch with Zelaya since the upheaval, the official said, adding that Washington had also been in contact with the Honduran armed forces and other institutions.
Earlier Sunday, Honduran forces were taking calls from the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, but were no longer doing so later in the day, he added.
The US embassy has urged Americans in Honduras to "be careful in their movements," he added. "Given the nature of this event and given the potential for conflict, we would urge great caution."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that Zelaya's ouster "violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic charter and should be condemned by all."
The US diplomacy chief called on Honduras to uphold "the very principles of democracy" that were reaffirmed during an Organization of American States (OAS) meeting hosted by Honduras earlier in June. The regional body was holding an emergency meeting Sunday at its headquarters in Washington.
The OAS Permanent Council was working on a consensus resolution "that will condemn the efforts to depose President Zelaya of Honduras, calling for his return to Honduras and for a full restoration of democratic order," the administration official said.Another top US official said: "this is not a process that should be interfered with bilaterally by any country in the Americas," responding to accusations by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the United States was meddling in the political crisis in Honduras.
"Ultimately the answer is going to arise from a resolution of the political tensions that led us to this moment," the official said.
The drama, which ended a bitter power struggle with the military over Zelaya's bid to secure a second term saw parliament swiftly voting in a new leader. Some 200 troops had swooped on Zelaya's home at about dawn and flown him out of the country.
A leading Honduran government official, Armando Sarmiento, told AFP that at least eight cabinet members were also detained including Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas.Washington's ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Hugo Llorens, has called for the release of all those detained "immediately."
Zelaya's planned referendum had been ruled illegal by the country's top court and was opposed by the military, but the president said he planned to press ahead with it anyway and ballot boxes had already been distributed.
Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president who has been forced out of the country, stood for the Liberal Party in the November 2005 presidential election and won by a narrow margin.Despite his centre-right credentials, the former businessman moved Honduras away from its traditional ally the US, winning the support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders.
Mr Zelaya campaigned for office on a law and order ticket but, Reuters news agency reports, it remains a major drug-trafficking transit point, overrun by street gangs and violent crime.
Limited to a single four-year term in office under the current constitution, he was accused of seeking to change the law to allow him to stand for a second term.
Mr Zelaya won the hotly contested vote in 2005, beating Porfirio Lobo of the ruling National Party. He pledged to tackle gang warfare and poverty in one of Central America's poorest nations.But food prices rose and violent crime continued.
Publicly backed by such leftists as Mr Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Mr Zelaya began to lose the support of his own party.
In May 2007, Mr Zelaya ordered all of the country's TV and radio stations to carry government propaganda for two hours a day, accusing them of giving his government unfair coverage.
In August 2008, he took Honduras into the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba), an organisation set up by Venezuela as an alternative to the stalled US plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Mr Zelaya's decision to hold a national poll on whether or not to run a referendum on allowing a Honduran president to run for two consecutive terms angered many.
News of his detention by troops emerged as voting was about to begin.
"He is surely a good man, with a healthy dose of tradition and amazing talent."This was Fidel Castro's description of Mr Zelaya after a meeting in March with the Honduran leader who, in the Cuban ex-leader's words, "cannot be accused of being either a Marxist or a Communist".
In the same article, Mr Castro expressed his admiration for a man whose political background might have suggested a more conservative outlook.
"Coming from a family of noble descent, he received a Catholic education and... like Hugo Chavez, he found the source of inspiration nourishing his sense of justice in the ideas of Jesus Christ," Mr Castro wrote about Mr Zelaya, a former businessman and civil engineer with logging and ranching interests.
The Honduran president's popularity with Latin America's most prominent radicals raised questions at home about the man who had been elected as a Liberal.
According to Heather Berkman, an analyst at Eurasia Group, Mr Zelaya "alienated the business and political elite during his tenure".
He did not appear willing to operate within Honduras' established institutions, she told Reuters in an interview a few days before he was forced out.
"That raises very serious questions about how things are going to move forward," the analyst added.
