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Golpe in Honduras!

GeneralGolpe in Honduras!
Belize has joined the voices of condemnation of Sunday’s coup d’état against elected Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, who was ousted from his presidential home and exiled to Costa Rica in his pajamas, early Sunday morning, after Honduran military officers stormed his residence.
   
As we go to press tonight, a 48-hour curfew imposed Sunday remains in effect. The events have sparked political unrest—marred by bloody violence and bonfires— near the presidential palace in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, and nearby streets had reportedly been blocked off by police and military. However, elsewhere the situation has been described in official quarters as “calm.”
   
Prime Minister Dean Barrow told Amandala today that Belize condemns the removal of Zelaya, and it is seeking to have CARICOM support that stance.
  
“We continue to regard Zelaya as the rightful president of Honduras,” Barrow told us. “The interim government cannot be given any kind of recognition.”
  
Only hours after Zelaya’s exile, the Honduran Congress, which has been headed by speaker/president Roberto Micheletti Baín, named him as Zelaya’s successor.
  
The Belize government issued a written statement today saying, “Belize, in full solidarity with SICA [Central American Integration System] member states, recognizes President Zelaya as the only constitutional President of Honduras and demands his immediate reinstatement.”
  
Incidentally, Zelaya, described as a leftist who supports Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Micheletti are from the same Liberty Party. Micheletti had ambitions of running in November’s presidential elections, but he lost the 2008 bid to Mauricio Villeda Bermudez.
  
News reports coming out of Honduras today signaled mixed reaction by locals. Some reports indicated that many Hondurans were proceeding with business as usual; however, at the presidential palace, thousands were reportedly facing off with riot police, armed with shields and automatic weapons, and demanding Zelaya’s reinstatement. Several protestors, braving tear gas and bullets, as well as military officers were reportedly injured in the mêlée.
  
There were also reports of media blackouts, and attacks against media organs described as leftist and in support of Zelaya.
  
Zelaya’s ouster came on the same morning when a controversial referendum to change the country’s Constitution was due to be held, which Honduran sources claim was intended to extend his rule beyond the one-term limit set out in the country’s Constitution.
  
The website of Zelaya’s own party, the Liberal Party, is acknowledging Roberto Micheletti Baín as the country’s president, signaling a loss of support from those at the head of his own political party.
  
Micheletti reportedly told local media Sunday that the vast majority of Honduras is happy with what has happened.
  
Today, the Honduran press reported that Micheletti had appointed a new 7-member Cabinet, including new ministers of finance, defense, works, information, science & technology, replacing the Cabinet members who had been stripped of their portfolios.
  
“Due to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras, the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa recommends that American citizens defer all non-essential travel to Honduras until further notice,” said a statement posted on the website of the US Embassy in Honduras today.
  
It went on to note that the Honduras government had imposed a curfew effective from 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, to 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 30. The Embassy advised citizens to respect the curfew and roadblocks, and to avoid large gatherings.
  
The statement went on to say that Honduras’ borders, as well as airports, remained open.
  
US president Barack Obama issued a one-paragraph statement Sunday echoing a call by the Organization of American States (OAS) “…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. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.”
  
US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has indicated that the country was holding off from formally declaring the situation a coup, because doing so would mean that the US would be mandated by law to suspend aid to Honduras.
  
The ALBA countries, members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, namely Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, have also issued a declaration supporting Zelaya. The countries have furthermore decided to recall their ambassadors from Honduras.
  
The countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) met today in Managua, Nicaragua. They, too, denounced the coup and called for Zelaya’s return to office.
  
Both the OAS and the United Nations are meeting to discuss the Honduras crisis. An OAS statement issued today said that foreign ministers of member states will meet in Washington Tuesday in a Special General Assembly. Belize Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington left Belize today for that meeting.
  
If the coup persists, the OAS, which declared Zelaya’s arrest on Sunday as “illegal,” could suspend Honduras’s participation in the hemispheric organization.
  
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has advised that in the case of Honduras, Article 19 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter could be applied, which stipulates that any unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order constitutes “an insurmountable obstacle to its government’s participation in sessions of the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation, the Councils of the Organization, the specialized conferences, the commissions, working groups, and other bodies of the Organization.”
  
Honduras also faces isolation of a broader scope, as the United Nations’ secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has denounced the military coup. The deposed president Zelaya is scheduled to appear Tuesday at a meeting of United Nations General Assembly, and he has asked all 192 members to weigh in at the meeting.
  
In related news, Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou left his country today for his second Central American tour, but news reports out of Taiwan indicate that he has decided to drop Honduras from his tour, and will only visit Panama and Nicaragua, shortening his trip by two days.
  
Amandala was unable to get comment from the Honduras Ambassador to Belize. He is currently in Honduras and due to return on Monday, his office said today.
  
Zelaya won elections in 2005, and assumed office January 2006 for a 4-year term. He is due to serve until January 2010. However, Micheletti has indicated that he intends to serve out Zelaya’s term.
  
The Honduras Congress accuses Zelaya of violating an order of the Honduras Supreme Court, declaring the planned referendum unconstitutional – a stance supported by the Congress. Zelaya had recently wrestled back confiscated referendum ballots and was intending to proceed with the referendum Sunday when he was arrested at gunpoint and hauled off to exile in Costa Rica.

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