Honduras battles support for ousted president

June 30, 2009 | By admin |

Honduras’ interim government are battling against a tide of international support for ousted President Manuel Zelaya who vowed to return home after troops toppled and exiled him in a coup.

Honduras faces growing pressure to reinstate Mr Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was forced out on Sunday and spirited away by the army to Costa Rica in the first military putsch in Central America since the Cold War.

The Honduran capital Tegucigalpa was mostly quiet last night after hundreds of Zelaya supporters clashed during the day with riot police and troops to demand his return to power in one of the world’s major coffee producers.

There were no immediate signs coffee output or exports, expected to total 3.22 million 60-kg bags in the 2008-2009 harvest, had been affected as ports and roads remained open.

In a signal of the international support behind him, Mr Zelaya plansto speak at the United Nations later today and said he would travel back to Honduras on Thursday with Organization of American States (OAS) chief Jose Miguel Insulza.

“I am going to Tegucigalpa on Thursday. The president elected by the people is coming,” Mr Zelaya said at a meeting of leftist Latin American leaders in Nicaragua. He said he had accepted an offer by Mr Insulza to accompany him but gave no details of how he expected to carry out his return.

Mr Zelaya, a cowboy hat-wearing logging magnate, upset conservative elites with his growing alliance with Chavez, a fierce US adversary. He riled the armed forces, courts and Congress with his quest to change the constitution to let presidents seek re-election beyond a single four-year term.

Congress named Roberto Micheletti, a conservative-leaning veteran of Zelaya’s Liberal Party as interim president. His officials said they would oppose any attempt by Zelaya to return home as president.

Mr Micheletti, who set himself up in the presidential palace despite the protests outside, told Reuters most Hondurans supported the coup, which he said had saved the country from swinging to a radical Chavez-style socialism.

“He is going to have to ask for permission,” new foreign minister Enrique Ortez said about Zelaya’s promise to return. “That depends whether it is legal or illegal. It could be legal if he doesn’t think of himself as president.”

Reuters

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