New Honduran president sworn in following coup
Frances Robles - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 6/25/09 Section: Real News
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The head of Congress was sworn in as president of Honduras on Sunday, while ousted democratically elected leader Manuel Zelaya - clad in an undershirt - declared from Costa Rica that his expulsion was the product of an illegal coup by power-hungry elitists.
Zelaya was spirited out of the presidential palace at 5 a.m. Sunday by the military, which flew him in his pajamas to Costa Rica. It was the first coup 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.
Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, found himself increasingly isolated over a non-binding referendum that was to take place Sunday.
The attorney general and the Supreme Court declared the poll illegal, because it asked voters whether they wanted a constituent assembly to modify the constitution to allow the president to seek reelection. The constitution prohibits changes to some of its clauses, including those that deal with reelection.
Even the president's own party was against the referendum.
Zelaya had vowed to continue the plebiscite, so the military took action to stop what was widely considered a power-grab.
"They are going to the extent of killing a president for taking a public opinion poll, which is not binding, doesn't represent any law, is not a referendum and isn't anything?" Zelaya said in a news conference in Costa Rica. "This is arbitrary and monstrous. Is it illegal for you to ask me a question and for me to answer it?"
Zelaya told Venezuelan TV network Telesur he woke up to the sound of gunfire and the shouts of his security guards, who fought off troops for at least 20 minutes. He said he hid behind an air conditioner to avoid getting shot.
Authorities here cut off electricity and telephones in the capital, in an apparent attempt to maintain order as hundreds of the president's supporters took to the streets outside the presidential palace to demand Zelaya's return.
Zelaya was spirited out of the presidential palace at 5 a.m. Sunday by the military, which flew him in his pajamas to Costa Rica. It was the first coup 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.
Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, found himself increasingly isolated over a non-binding referendum that was to take place Sunday.
The attorney general and the Supreme Court declared the poll illegal, because it asked voters whether they wanted a constituent assembly to modify the constitution to allow the president to seek reelection. The constitution prohibits changes to some of its clauses, including those that deal with reelection.
Even the president's own party was against the referendum.
Zelaya had vowed to continue the plebiscite, so the military took action to stop what was widely considered a power-grab.
"They are going to the extent of killing a president for taking a public opinion poll, which is not binding, doesn't represent any law, is not a referendum and isn't anything?" Zelaya said in a news conference in Costa Rica. "This is arbitrary and monstrous. Is it illegal for you to ask me a question and for me to answer it?"
Zelaya told Venezuelan TV network Telesur he woke up to the sound of gunfire and the shouts of his security guards, who fought off troops for at least 20 minutes. He said he hid behind an air conditioner to avoid getting shot.
Authorities here cut off electricity and telephones in the capital, in an apparent attempt to maintain order as hundreds of the president's supporters took to the streets outside the presidential palace to demand Zelaya's return.
Be the first to comment on this story