Tegucigalpa (Honduras), June 29 (DPA) Honduran troops staged a coup against President Manuel Zelaya Sunday morning and evicted him to Costa Rica.
Honduras’ unicameral National Congress later Sunday agreed to remove Zelaya from office and designated Congress Speaker Roberto Micheletti as his successor.
Soldiers apprehended Zelaya and forced him to depart to Costa Rica after days of mounting political tensions over a proposed referendum, which Zelaya’s opponents said was nothing more than a power grab.
A vote had been planned for Sunday that would have registered popular support for a proposed constitutional change that could have led to Zelaya’s re-election. Current law would have prevented him from running again after his term ended in November.
The country’s supreme court said it had authorized the coup to hinder the referendum. If approved, the non-binding referendum would have given Zelaya authority to progress with plans to rewrite the constitution.
According to the statement, the military was told to cooperate with government prosecutors to confiscate all documents associated with the referendum.
The statement did not make clear who gave the authority for Zelaya’s arrest and deportation to Costa Rica. It stated that the military had worked to protect the rule of law and that all its actions were based on judicial orders.
Zelaya decried the coup from Costa Rica, where he said soldiers sent him after the military action.
“There is no justification for this coup,” said Zelaya in an interview with a Venezuelan broadcaster that was also carried by CNN.
“It was a kidnapping,” said Zelaya. He said the soldiers threatened him with guns. “They pointed at my chest and head and said they were just following orders.”
Zelaya later said he still plans to attend a regional leadership summit in Managua Monday.
In a White House statement, US President Barack Obama said he backed a call by the Organisation of American States (OAS) urging all the parties in the Central American country to respect the democratic and legal rules of Honduras. The international body was meeting Sunday in Washington to discuss the coup.
Supporters of Zelaya stormed into downtown Tegucigalpa, shouting and occasionally lashing out at soldiers, who did their best to ignore them out of fear of provoking more violence.
Zelaya has been locked in a power struggle with other state institutions over efforts that seem designed to extend his term in office and change parts of the constitution. Sunday’s referendum was to gauge public support for those proposals.
The Honduran military Friday had deployed hundreds of soldiers across the capital of Tegucigalpa to maintain calm. Soldiers were told to keep potential troublemakers out of the capital, though those who did not seem to pose a threat were allowed regular access.
Under the current constitution, Zelaya cannot run for re-election in the presidential balloting Nov 29. Zelaya was elected in 2006 as a conservative, but later reversed his policies and now has scant support from leftist groups and trade unions.
The tension has caused international waves, with leaders of left-leaning Latin American leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega weighing in to back Zelaya. Chavez has used similar referendums to change the constitution and extend his term in office.
