Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was seized by soldiers and flown to Costa Rica after he tried unsuccessfully to fire the head of the central American nation’s armed forces.
“The only reason that I wasn’t assassinated was that the soldiers are from the people,” Zelaya said in comments on regional broadcaster Telesur from San Jose, the Costa Rican capital. “It was a moment of great tension.”
The arrest comes after the country’s armed forces commander, General Romeo Vasquez, on June 26 said he would remain at his post after the Supreme Court overturned the president’s decision to fire him.
President Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports and called on “all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms,” according to a statement from the White House.
Honduras’s foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, was also seized today and was being held by the country’s military, Venezuelan Ambassador Armando Laguna said in comments broadcast on Telesur. Laguna and the ambassadors of Nicaragua and Cuba in Honduras were beaten and briefly detained after trying to defend Rodas against masked soldiers, Laguna said.
‘Completely paralyzed’
Electricity in Honduras has been cut and the country of 7.8 million is “completely paralyzed,” Zelaya said from Costa Rica. He said the attempted coup will fail if opposed by the U.S. and called for peaceful resistance against the military.
“If the U.S. is not behind this coup, the coup-mongers won’t be able to stay in power even 48 hours,” Zelaya said. by the White House.
Source/Full Story: Bloomberg.com
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