Honduras President Ousted In Coup, Chavez Threatens To Invade
June 28, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Honduras was plunged into a political crisis that threatened to spill across the region hours after President Manuel Zelaya was thrown out by the army and exiled to Costa Rica prompting his leftist ally in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, to threaten military intervention.
In the first successful military coup in Central America since the end of the Cold War, the army sent masked soldiers into the presidential palace before dawn. The President, who was in dispute with his military about a planned constitutional referendum, was then escorted to a military plane which took him into exile.
Mr Chavez went on state television later in the day claiming that the coup leaders had taken away the Cuban ambassador to Honduras and left the Venezuelan ambassador by the road in the capital, Tegucigalpa, after beating him. He said that if troops enter his embassy “that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war,” and “we would have to act militarily”.
The Congress in Honduras said later that it had received a letter of resignation from Mr Zelaya, purportedly signed on Friday. In a show of hands, representatives accepted that he had stepped down from office.
More…
Army ousts Honduras president in vote dispute…
President calls arrest ‘kidnapping’…
ASKS FOR ASYLUM IN COSTA RICA…
Wow did you miss the boat on this one. The military was acting behalf of the supreme court to enforce the Constitution which prohibits constitutional referendums unless enacted by the legislature. Zelaya stole constitutional referendum ballots from the military and intended to run his own (unconstitutional) referendum.