http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html?ref=global-home
Protesters Confront Soldiers After Coup in Honduras By MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN Published: June 29, 2009 TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - One day after the country's president, Manuel Zelaya, was abruptly awakened, ousted and deported by the army here, hundreds of protesters massed at the presidential offices in an increasingly tense face-off with hundreds of camouflage-clad soldiers carrying riot shields and automatic weapons. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters Soldiers guarded the presidential house in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Monday. More Photos » Readers' Comments Share your thoughts. a.. Post a Comment » b.. Read All Comments (238) » The protesters, many wearing masks and carrying wooden or metal sticks, yelled taunts at the soldiers across the fences ringing the compound and braced for the army to try to dispel them. "We're defending our president," said one protester, Umberto Guebara, who appeared to be in his 30s. "I'm not afraid. I'd give my life for my country." Leaders across the hemisphere joined in condemning the coup. Mr. Zelaya, who touched down Sunday in Costa Rica, still in his pajamas, insisted, "I am the president of Honduras." The Honduran Congress late Sunday officially voted Mr. Zelaya out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who said Monday that he would resist pressure from other nations demanding the reinstatement of the ousted president, news agencies reported. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the last senior member of the administration to visit Honduras, just three weeks ago, said that the United States was working toward "full restoration of democratic order in Honduras." She said that the situation in Honduras "has evolved into a coup." But when pressed by a reporter, she refused to say explicitly that the United States was demanding that Mr. Zelaya be returned to power, although senior administration officials pointed out that the United States had signed on to an Organization of American States statement on Sunday that included such a demand. "We haven't laid out any demands that we're insisting on, because we're working with others on behalf of our ultimate objectives, which are shared broadly," Mrs. Clinton said. But, she added: "We think that the arrest and expulsion of a president is certainly cause for concern that has to be addressed. And it's not just with respect to whether our aid continues, but whether democracy in Honduras continues." Administration officials have been in a difficult position, with close ties to the very Honduran military leaders who instigated the coup, opening up the United States to accusations that it may have turned a blind eye to the pending coup. Obama administration officials denied that they looked the other way; a senior administration official said that in the days leading up to the coup, Obama officials were on the phone to some of their counterparts in Tegucigalpa advising the military not to go through with it. Administrations officials have also dismissed allegations by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, that the coup had been orchestrated by the United States. Though political tensions had been building within the Honduran government for weeks, the final move to oust the president came unexpectedly, and confusion reigned among many Hondurans about what exactly had happened overnight. People crowded around newspaper stands and spoke among themselves about whether the power shift was temporary, what it meant and how the underlying conflict would be resolved. "I'm not sure who our president is anymore," said an elderly man in the border town of El Amatillo. Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But he is a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez's brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America's poorest. His term was to end in January. The Honduran military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the country's Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law against "those who had publicly spoken out and acted against the Constitution's provisions." Mr. Zelaya's ouster capped a showdown with other branches of government over his efforts to lift presidential term limits in a referendum that was to have taken place Sunday. Critics said the vote was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the Constitution's limit of a single four-year term for the president. Early this month, the Supreme Court declared the referendum unconstitutional, and Congress followed suit last week. In the last few weeks, supporters and opponents of the president have held competing demonstrations. The prosecutor's office and the electoral tribunal issued orders for the referendum ballots to be confiscated, but on Thursday, Mr. Zelaya led a group of protesters to an air force base and seized the ballots. When the army refused to help organize the vote, he fired the armed forces commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez. The Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal and reinstated General Vásquez. As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday. The two nations have long had a close military relationship, with an American military task force stationed at a Honduran air base about 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa. The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America. In Costa Rica, Mr. Zelaya told the Venezuelan channel Telesur that he had been awoken by gunshots. Masked soldiers took his cellphone, shoved him into a van and took him to an air force base, where he was put on a plane. He said he did not know that he was being taken to Costa Rica until he landed at the airport in San José. "They are creating a monster they will not be able to contain," he told a local television station in San José. "A usurper government that emerges by force cannot be accepted, will not be accepted, by any country." The military also appeared to be moving against Mr. Zelaya's allies. Local news outlets reported Sunday that Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and the mayor of San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city, had been detained at military bases. The government television station and another station that supports the president were taken off the air. Television and radio stations broadcast no news. Electricity was cut off for much of the day in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, in what local reports suggested was on military orders. Only wealthy Hondurans with access to the Internet and cable television were able to follow the day's events. The Congress met in an emergency session on Sunday afternoon and voted to accept what was said to be a letter of resignation from the president. Mr. Zelaya later assured reporters that he had written no such letter. President Obama said on Sunday that he was deeply concerned and in a statement called on Honduran officials "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," he said. His quick condemnation offered a sharp contrast with the actions of the Bush administration, which in 2002 offered a rapid, tacit endorsement of a short-lived coup against Mr. Chávez. The Organization of American States issued a statement Sunday calling for Mr. Zelaya's return and said it would not recognize any other government. The organization's secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, called an emergency meeting of the group to weigh further actions. Obama administration officials said they were working with other members of the Organization of American States to ratchet up pressure on the Honduran military to end the coup, and they dismissed the prospect of outside military intervention in the matter. "We think this can be resolved through dialogue," said the senior administration official. However, he admitted that the Honduran military was not responding to calls from the United States government. The officials also dismissed allegations by Mr. Chávez of Venezuela that the coup had been orchestrated by the United States. They said that the Obama administration considered Mr. Zelaya the constitutional leader of Honduras and that Washington had been consistent in its demands for a peaceful resolution to the brewing crisis. Honduras has had a civilian government since 1982. But as in much of Central America, the military is still a powerful force behind the scenes. The last coup in the region occurred in Guatemala in 1983, when the military overthrew the government headed by Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt. Marc Lacey reported from Tegucigalpa, and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City. Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
