Is it true that Honduras president Zelaya is in Costa Rica?”
Soldiers on Sunday morning staged a coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, evicting him to Costa Rica and confiscating documents from the executive mansion, various radio stations in the capital Tegucigalpa reported. Zelaya decried the coup from Costa Rica, where he said soldiers sent him after the military action. ‘There is no justification for this coup,’ said Zelaya in an interview with a Venezuelan broadcaster that was also carried by CNN. ‘It was a kidnapping,’ said Zelaya. He said the soldiers threatened him with guns. ‘They pointed at my chest and head and said they were just following orders.’ In a White House statement, US President Barack Obama said he backed a call by the Organisation of American States (OAS) urging all the parties in the Central American country to respect the democratic and legal rules of Honduras. Supporters of Zelaya stormed into downtown Tegucigalpa, shouting and occasionally lashing out at soldiers, who did their best to ignore them out of fear
Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power. The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world, and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country’s apparent new leader. President Manuel Zelaya was awakened Sunday by gunfire and detained while still in his pajamas, hours before an unpopular constitutional referendum many saw as a power grab. An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace. “I want to return to my country,” Zelaya said in Costa Rica. “I am president of Honduras.” Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya’s letter of resignation, with even Zel
