Honduras President Manuel Zelaya ousted in military coup

The President of Honduras was ousted in a military coup today when troops arrested him in his pyjamas and sent him into exile in neighbouring Costa Rica.


The action against President Zelaya, the country’s most popular leader in recent history, raised fears of widespread violence, as supporters took to the streets, throwing rocks at army vehicles and shouting “Traitors! Traitors!”

The United States called for calm, with President Obama saying that “existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully”. The European Union condemned the coup. The Organisation of American States called an emergency meeting at its Washington headquarters.

Mr Zelaya had vowed to push ahead with a controversial referendum, which was due today, and had refused to reinstate the military chief he had dismissed for opposing it. The left-wing leader was seeking to change the country’s Constitution to allow him to stand for re-election — a path trodden by regional allies, such as President Chávez of Venezuela and President Morales of Bolivia. The military, the judiciary and even many members of Mr Zelaya’s own party had been deeply critical of the planned vote, branding it illegal.

The President was taken by troops to a military airbase outside the capital, Tegucigalpa, from where he was flown into exile to San José, the Costa Rican capital. He spoke to a local television station later in the day, describing how soldiers had roused him out of bed, beaten his bodyguards and arrested him in his pyjamas in what he described as a “coup” and a “kidnapping”.

Mr Zelaya said that he still wanted to serve his full term, which ends early next year. “A usurper government cannot be recognised, by absolutely anybody,” he said.

Shortly after the President’s arrest, dozens of white army vehicles packed with soldiers armed with riot gear sped to the presidential palace in the centre of Tegucigalpa, blocked the entrances and closed a large chainlink gate on the hillside road leading to the national Government’s headquarters.

Tanks rolled through the streets as angry Zelaya supporters threw rocks at the soldiers inside. Police fired teargas to disperse many demonstrators, while fighter jets screamed overhead. Earlier, the pro-government television channel had urged supporters of the President to gather in the capital to demand his reinstatement, but had then abruptly disappeared from the airwaves without explanation.

The detention came after a stand-off between Mr Zelaya and the Honduran military over the referendum plans. Last week hundreds of troops massed in the streets of the capital after the President dismissed the top military chief, General Romeo Vásquez, ignoring a Supreme Court vote that he should remain in office. As Mr Zelaya’s authority began to crumble, military commanders refused to distribute ballot boxes for the vote. Edmundo Orellana, the Defence Minister, and the heads of the Army, Marines and Air Force all resigned.

Many Hondurans refused to accept the takeover as a fait accompli. “They kidnapped him like cowards,” Melissa Gaitan, 21, an employee of the government television station screamed, tears streaming down her face. “We have to rally the people to defend our President.”

It was not immediately clear who was running the Government, with neither political nor military officials revealing who was in charge. Local media reports said that the airport was overwhelmed with foreign tourists, mostly from North America, desperate to find flights home.

The fate of Britons in the country was unknown, with calls to the British consul in the capital, and to the nearest embassy, in Guatemala City, going unanswered. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London said that it was talking to representatives in the region. “The picture is a little confused at the moment,” a spokesman said.

Mr Zelaya was elected a conservative in 2006 but has since shifted across the political spectrum, aligning himself with the burgeoning Latin American left-wing bloc led by Mr Chávez and distancing Honduras from the United States, its traditional ally.

The Venezuelan President and the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro have expressed support for Mr Zelaya. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País published today, Mr Zelaya said that a planned coup attempt against him had been thwarted after the US declined to support it. “Everything was in place for the coup and if the US Embassy had approved it, it would have happened. But they did not,” Mr Zeleya said. “I’m only still here in office thanks to the United States.”

Honduras, a deeply impoverished country of seven million people, has a history of military coups. Soldiers overthrew elected leaders in 1963 and 1972 and allowed a civilian government to take over only in 1981, under US pressure.