Tegucigalpa, July 6 (DPA) The Honduran government installed after last week’s coup Sunday prevented the return to the country of democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
Alfredo San Martin, head of Honduras’ Civil Aviation, said the plane carrying Zelaya was diverted to El Salvador. He stressed that the president of any other nation wishing to enter Honduras must have the “relevant authorisation” from Honduran authorities.
The interim Honduran government had said that it would not allow Zelaya to return and had vowed to arrest the ousted president if he did reach Honduran territory.
Zelaya was flying on a private plane – originally bound for Tegucigalpa – with Miguel d’Escoto, a Nicaraguan diplomat and president of the UN General Assembly.
“As president, (I intend) to go accompany my people and ask, logically, for calm, non-violence,” Zelaya said before his departure from Washington.
A second delegation headed by Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organisation of American states (OAS), with presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay was due to fly directly to El Salvador later Sunday.
“We will be in San Salvador, waiting to see if (Zelaya) can land (in Tegucigalpa) and would like us to be there, or, otherwise, if he cannot land, we will wait for him in San Salvador,” Correa said in a press conference.
