CENTRAL AMERICA: Ousted President or Coup Leader to Regional Parliament? | Inter Press Service CENTRAL AMERICA: Ousted President or Coup Leader to Regional Parliament? Print | Danilo Valladares GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 26 2010 (IPS) - The Central American Parliament (Parlacen) has been caught up in the political confrontation in Honduras between Manuel Zelaya, the president who was ousted on Jun. 28, and the leader of the coup government, Roberto Micheletti, because the regional body is having a hard time deciding which of the two it should accept as a member. Under the treaty that created Parlacen, all outgoing former presidents and vice presidents of the member countries – El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic – automatically become regional legislators. But the toppling of Zelaya – who was removed from his house at gunpoint and put on a plane out of the country in his pajamas – and his replacement by Micheletti – who served out the rest of Zelaya’s term, until January – has led to a quandary: which of them should join Parlacen?

“Our founding treaty is very clear as to who forms part of Parlacen,” said Honduran lawmaker Hena Ligia Madrid of the centre-right Liberal Party – to which both Zelaya and Micheletti belong. “It stipulates that outgoing presidents of member states are immediately admitted,” she told IPS. “In the case of Honduras, it is obvious to me, as a politician and Parlacen legislator, that the man who should come is President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, because he was elected in free elections and was sworn in as constitutional president of the republic,” she stated. With respect to Micheletti, she said he was in the post “as the result of a military coup, and our founding charter does not say that a de facto president can become a member of this parliament when leaving that post, when it was gained in an irregular, illegal and unconstitutional manner.” Related IPS Articles POLITICS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Falling Out and Falling Apart? Guatemalan lawmaker Rodolfo Dougherty of the right-wing Partido de Avanzada Nacional, who is deputy chair of Parlacen’s political commission, preferred to stay out of the dispute, but told IPS that it is solely up to Honduras to resolve the issue.

“These decisions are up to the states,” and more specifically, to the election authorities, the parliamentarian said. Besides former presidents and vice presidents, Parlacen, created in 1991 and based in Guatemala, is made up of 20 legislators from each of the six member states. However, in December, Panama passed a law to withdraw from the regional legislature as of Nov. 24 – one of the campaign pledges of right-wing President Ricardo Martinelli, who after taking office on Jul. 1 described Parlacen as a costly, ineffective “den of immunity.” He was referring to ex-presidents taking refuge in the parliamentary immunity from prosecution conferred by Parlacen, when they are accused of corruption. Costa Rica has refused to join Parlacen, on the grounds that it entails a great deal of money spent for little or no return. Representatives of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Venezuela participate as observers. The dilemma with respect to which former Honduran leader has the right to a seat in the regional parliament will end up in the courts, said Parlacen legislator Víctor Manuel Galdámez of Honduras’s governing right-wing National Party.

“In the case of Honduras doubts have arisen, and when such doubts are legal in nature, the appropriate authorities will have the last word,” Galdámez told IPS, referring to the Central American Court of Justice. Galdámez, who is arranging a consultation with the regional court, which forms part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), said the question should be resolved in one or two weeks. The Honduran lawmaker pointed out that former Guatemalan president Ramiro de León Carpio, appointed president by Congress for the 1993-1996 period after then president Jorge Serrano (1991-1993) led a self-coup and later resigned, took a seat in Parlacen. Despite that precedent, in his opinion, neither Zelaya nor Micheletti should be allowed to take a seat in Parlacen because both committed mistakes when they led the country. “Micheletti took power unconstitutionally…and Mel (Manuel Zelaya) committed many illegalities,” such as trying to rewrite the constitution, he said. The coup was ultimately triggered by Zelaya’s attempt to organise a non-binding referendum on Jun.

28 on electing a constituent assembly to reform the constitution, which was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and Congress. Above and beyond the question of who should represent Honduras as a former president in the regional legislature, neither of the two has begun to take steps to join it. On the contrary, Micheletti said earlier this month that “Parlacen leaves much to be desired. It has not had any real benefits for any country in Central America, only for a group of citizens who earn quite good salaries and are not even directly elected.” Zelaya, meanwhile, has not openly expressed an intention of taking a seat in Parlacen. “He hasn’t said anything about it,” the president of Parlacen, Jacinto Suárez of Nicaragua’s ruling left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), said this month.

Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup - The New York Times The New York Times Americas |Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup Search Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup By ELISABETH MALKIN Continue reading the main story Photo Soldiers entered the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and disarmed the presidential guard on Sunday, military officials said Credit Esteban Felix/Associated Press MEXICO CITY — President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was ousted by the army on Sunday, capping months of tensions over his efforts to lift presidential term limits. In the first military coup in Central America since the end of the cold war, soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, early in the morning, disarming the presidential guard, waking Mr. Zelaya and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica. Mr. Zelaya, a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, angrily denounced the coup as illegal. “I am the president of Honduras,” he insisted at the airport in San José, Costa Rica, still wearing his pajamas.

Later Sunday the Honduran Congress voted him out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti. Advertisement Leaders across the hemisphere, however, denounced the coup, which American officials on Sunday said they had been working for several days to avert. Photo Electricity was cut off for much of Sunday in Honduras. Credit The New York Times President Obama said he was deeply concerned and in a statement called on Honduran officials “to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic charter. “Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference,” he said. His quick condemnation offered a sharp contrast with the actions of the Bush administration, which in 2002 offered a rapid, tacit endorsement of a short-lived coup against Mr. Chávez. The Organization of American States issued a statement calling for Mr. Zelaya’s return and said it would not recognize any other government. The organization’s secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, called an emergency meeting of the group to weigh further actions. The arrest of Mr.

Zelaya was the culmination of a battle that had been simmering for weeks over a referendum, which was to have taken place Sunday, that he hoped would lead to a revision of the Constitution. Critics said it was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the Constitution’s limit of a single four-year term for the president. Early this month, the Supreme Court agreed, declaring the referendum unconstitutional, and Congress followed suit last week. In the last few weeks, supporters and opponents of the president have held competing demonstrations. On Thursday, Mr. Zelaya led a group of protesters to an Air Force base and seized the ballots, which the prosecutor’s office and the electoral tribunal had ordered confiscated. When the army refused to help organize the vote, he fired the armed forces commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez. The Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal and reinstated General Vásquez. Advertisement Continue reading the main story As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday. Photo Mr.

Zelaya after denouncing the coup during a news conference in San José. I am the president of Honduras, he insisted. Credit Jeffrey Arguedas/European Pressphoto Agency The two nations have long had a close military relationship, with an American military task force stationed at a Honduran air base about 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa. The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America. In Costa Rica, Mr. Zelaya told the Venezuelan channel Telesur that he had been awoken by gunshots. Masked soldiers took his cellphone, shoved him into a van and took him to an air force base, where he was put on a plane. He said he did not know that he was being taken to Costa Rica until he landed at the airport in San José. “They are creating a monster they will not be able to contain,” he told a local television station in San José.

“A usurper government, that emerges by force, cannot be accepted, will not be accepted by any country.” Electricity was cut off for much of the day in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, in what local reports suggested was on military orders. Tanks patrolled the streets and military planes flew overhead. Soldiers guarded the main government buildings, residents said. A nationwide curfew was imposed overnight starting at 9 p.m. At the Salvadoran border, an immigration official allowed passage into Honduras Sunday night with a warning: “Be careful. We don’t know what’s going on in there.” The military also appeared to be moving against Mr. Zelaya’s allies. Local media reported that Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and the mayor of San Pedro Sula, the country’s second largest city, had been detained at military bases. Church services were canceled and most people stayed home. Several thousand protesters supporting the president faced off against soldiers outside the presidential palace, burning tires. Photo Supporters of President Manuel Zelaya blocked a street to prevent tanks from arriving near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa. Credit Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters The government television station and a television station that supports the president were taken off the air.

Television and radio stations broadcast no news. Only wealthy Hondurans with access to the Internet and cable television were able to follow the day’s events. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Congress met in an emergency session on Sunday afternoon and voted to accept what was said to be a letter of resignation from the president. Mr. Zelaya, whose term officially ends in January, later assured reporters that he had written no such letter. Obama administration officials said they were working with other members of the Organization of American States to ratchet up pressure on the Honduran military to end the coup and dismissed the prospect of outside military intervention in the matter. “We think this can be resolved through dialogue,” said the senior administration official. However, he admitted that the Honduran military was not responding to calls from the American government. The officials also dismissed allegations by Mr. Chávez that the coup had been orchestrated by the United States. They said that the Obama administration considered Mr. Zelaya the constitutional leader of Honduras and that Washington had been consistent in its demands for a peaceful resolution to the brewing crisis. Honduras has had a civilian government since 1982. But as in much of Central America, the military is still a powerful force behind the scenes.

The last coup in the region occurred in Guatemala in 1983, when the military overthrew the government headed by Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt. Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest. Marc Lacey contributed reporting from El Amatillo, Honduras, and Mark Mazzetti from Washington. A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: HONDURAN ARMY OUSTS PRESIDENT ALLIED TO CHÁVEZ. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Coup in Honduras: Military Ousts President Manuel Zelaya, Supporters Defy Curfew and Take to the Streets | Democracy Now! Coup in Honduras: Military Ousts President Manuel Zelaya, Supporters Defy Curfew and Take to the Streets StoryJune 29, 2009 Dr.

Juan Almendares Honduran medical doctor and award-winning human rights activist. He is the president of the Honduran Peace Committee, as well as the past secretary of the Coordinating Committee of Popular Organizations. He was an opposition candidate with the Democratic Unification Party during the last presidential elections. Greg Grandin professor of Latin American history at NYU and author of Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism. His latest book is Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City. In the first military coup in Central America in a quarter of a century, the Honduran military has ousted the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Former Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti, who was sworn in as Zelaya’s replacement on Sunday, has imposed a two-day nationwide curfew. But hundreds of Zelaya supporters remain on the streets, and shots were fired at protesters near the presidential palace early Monday morning. We go to Honduras to speak with Honduran medical doctor and award-winning human rights activist, Dr. Juan Almendares, and NYU professor of Latin American history, Greg Grandin. [includes rush transcript] TRANSCRIPT This is a rush transcript.

Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: In the first military coup in Central America in a quarter of a century, the Honduran military has ousted the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Former Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti, who was sworn in as Zelaya’s replacement Sunday, has imposed a two-day nationwide curfew. But hundreds of Zelaya supporters remain on the streets. Shots were fired at protesters near the presidential palace early Monday morning. The ousted president was forced from the presidential palace by armed soldiers early Sunday morning and flown to Costa Rica after he tried to carry out a non-binding referendum to extend his term in office. Micheletti says Zelaya was not ousted through a coup but by a legal process. But speaking at a press conference in Costa Rica, Zelaya called it a kidnapping and vowed to return to his country as president. He explained a small group of elites and military officers were behind the coup. PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] I think it is a group of military men, and it’s not the entire army or all the armed forces. There are good soldiers who are good and capable people who are not blinded with ambition or greed.

There are some who have not been blinded by the voracity of a small elite, which, through politics and the economy, have provoked this terrible event. AMY GOODMAN: The military coup in Honduras and the reported arrests of the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras have been roundly condemned by the Organization of American States that held an emergency session Sunday. The Honduran representative compared the coup to what happened in Chile in 1973. The Venezuelan representative accused former Bush administration undersecretary of state Otto Reich of complicity in the coup. Earlier in the day, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez warned his armed forces were on alert. President Obama, meanwhile, issued a declaration Sunday morning saying he was, quote, “deeply concerned” by reports from Honduras. In a statement later in the day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the action against the ousted Honduran President should be, quote, “condemned by all.” The US ambassador to Honduras reaffirmed the United States only recognizes Manuel Zelaya as the President of Honduras. Well, for the latest from Honduras, we go there to Dr. Juan Almendares. He joins us on the line from the capital, Tegucigalpa.

We’re also joined here in our firehouse studio by New York University professor of Latin American history, Greg Grandin. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Dr. Almendares. Can you describe what is happening right now in Tegucigalpa? DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: Well, what we are having here is a military coup d’etat who has been persecuting and repressive action against some member of the legitimate government of President Zelaya and also popular leaders. We have almost a national strike for workers, people, students and intellectuals, and they are organized in a popular resistance-run pacific movement against this violation of the democracy. So we want a democracy now. We want people from all over the world to [inaudible] service, make contacts, because what we are looking right now is a really — hello? Hello? Hello? AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can hear you fine. We can hear you fine, Dr. Almendares. DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: Oh, yes, alright, alright. So what we are looking now is, we are going back to repressive situation.

Some of the advisers of the government have been perpetrators, torture perpetrators, of the 1980s. We have a very, very strong, conservative way of looking things. However, we are not only strong for — not only for President Zelaya; we are also strong for the rights of the people, because in this movement is not only persons from one side of political sector. There are many sectors involved in this movement trying to restitute the constitutional rights, the human rights. We are really worried for the human rights. Some of these people think like Pinochet, and they are comparing Zelaya with Salvador Allende. And we have here in Honduras a different situation. We have a government who were doing not a referendum; they were doing just a survey, a simple survey, to ask people whether they want to have a constitutional reform. But we have an alliance between the very powerful class in this country with the military. And we want really actions from the Organization of States of America, from the European community, not only declarations. We want actions to contribute to the democratic beginning, because we don’t really have a true democracy in this country. We have just a beginning to have some democratic principles.

That’s why the people are struggling. This is a very, very poor country. We are still occupied by the United States of America. We want really important solution. Of course, we want self-determinancy, sovereignty, but also we want to have respect of human rights of the people. AMY GOODMAN: What kind of information are you getting, Dr. Almendares, from television? I understand TV channel 8 was shut down, radio stations closed, CNN and Telesur not allowed to air news on cable. DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: That’s true. I mean, in the beginning, they were all — cancel out all the TV channels, the radio information, who are against the video situation in Honduras. And we don’t have really freedom of press. We don’t have access to the people who are opposing to the video situation. So there is no — not really access to information, no freedom of the press. And we are really having almost a terror situation for our popular leaders. We have people concentrating in front of the presidential house and [inaudible] —- AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, “a terror situation,” Dr. Almendares, for popular leaders? DR.

JUAN ALMENDARES: Well, because they are -— they are calling — they are having, all the time, militaries coming against people demonstration. And also, they are persecuting some leaders. They have to be out of the country. And also, they captured the minister of foreign relationship, Patricia Rodas. We don’t know what happened with her. So, we don’t have so much information, and also there is no freedom of communication. We have also a curfew, because after 9:00 you can be shot if you are on the streets. So we have a curfew from 9:00 to 6:00 a.m. AMY GOODMAN: You can be shot, you said? You can be shot, you said? DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: Well, I mean — well, yes, because [inaudible] we have a — I don’t know if you understand; maybe I don’t explain very well — a curfew. So, if you go on the street after 9:00, I mean, they are not responsible if they shoot you, because they say this is for, they say, like prevention of any situation.

So they are threatening. They’re threatening the human rights of the people. And human rights activists are really — we consider that there is a new situation on respect of human rights in Honduras. AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Juan Almendares, we have to break, but we’re going to come back. I want to ask you more about who you believe is behind this coup and also talk to Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history, author of Empire’s Workshop. This is Democracy Now! Then a national broadcast exclusive with the President of Ecuador. By the way, he’s in Nicaragua today, along with the President of Venezuela and, of course, Nicaragua, meeting with Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras. Stay with us. [break] AMY GOODMAN: Coup in Honduras, that’s what we’re talking about right now with Dr. Juan Almendares, who is a Honduran medical doctor, award-winning human rights activist, president of the Honduran Peace Committee, and Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history at NYU, New York University. His latest book is called Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City. Who is behind this, Greg?

GREG GRANDIN: Well, I think it’s fairly clearly, who is behind it is the military, sectors of the military, if not the whole military, and sectors of the old political establishment, who see the changes in South America, and they’re doing their best to make sure they don’t arrive in Central America. AMY GOODMAN: And the connection to the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia? GREG GRANDIN: Well, a number of the leaders of the Honduran military were trained in the School of the Americas, both during the Cold War and after, at the end of the Cold War. AMY GOODMAN: Like who? GREG GRANDIN: Well, Romeo Vasquez, the head of the armed forces, who Zelaya removed from office just a few days ago, because he refused to support the referendum, non-binding referendum. He’s obviously behind it, as well as the head of the navy and other high-ranking officials. The Honduran military is effectively a subsidiary of the United States government. Honduras, as a whole, if any Latin American country is fully owned by the United States, it’s Honduras. Its economy is wholly based on trade, foreign aid and remittances.

So if the US is opposed to this coup going forward, it won’t go forward. Zelaya will return, if the United States — if Obama and Hillary Clinton are sincere in their statements about returning Zelaya to power. AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think about their responses. There was concern when it first happened, the ouster, that the language wasn’t strong enough. GREG GRANDIN: Yeah, at first the language is very tepid. Obama expressed concern for events, and Clinton also issued a statement that was a little bit better, but not very strong. This is another example of the United States following the lead of South America and Latin America as a whole. Latin America came out very strongly against this coup, all of the leaders. I mean, you hear in the mainstream media Chavez and Fidel Castro condemning it, but what you don’t hear is that Lula in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile, every — almost every Latin American leader and government condemn this coup in an uncertain terms. And the United States is playing catch-up aligning itself.

AMY GOODMAN: Interesting today, President Obama, who met with Bachelet last week, of Chile, in Washington, is meeting today with Alvaro Uribe of Colombia in Washington. Dr. Juan Almendares, do you agree with Professor Grandin’s assessment of who is behind this coup? DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: Well, I will say that we have really — we have an army who have been really repressive and torturers since the 1980s, and most of this military have been trained by the School of America. I agree with that, and I think that is terrible, because they have been guardians of the multinational business from the United States or from other countries. And this is [inaudible] to be all the school of the army in Honduras who wants to — who have links with very powerful people, very rich, wealthy people who keep the poverty in the country, who keep the lack of freedom of speech. And I think that this is very important. But that’s what I say, to have a concrete action. They usually — they usually have been, in history, obeying to the US policy.

But now they have the [inaudible] statement against this coup d’etat by the ambassador of the United States in Honduras, by President Obama. And we think that it’s important that we — we want a concrete action. We usually obey the orders of US policy. So, behind this actually are the — really the old line of military who are really with the mind of torturers, perpetration of the violation of human rights of the Honduran people. AMY GOODMAN: Interesting, when looking at past coups and the parallel being made to 1973, the September 11th, ’73, coup against Allende, when President Obama met with Michelle Bachelet, a reporter asked if he wanted to apologize for CIA involvement in the Chilean elections. Obama said last week, “I’m interested in going forward, not looking back. I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world. I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes. But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.” So he refused to outright apologize, Professor Grandin.

GREG GRANDIN: Yeah, and he has an opportunity to look forward. He could do all — he could bring the full power of the United States to the restoration of Zelaya to Honduras. And the reference —- I think it’s obviously important to remember all of the series of coups during the Cold War, but there was a more recent coup that I think that this actually bears striking similarity to, and that’s the kidnapping of Aristide, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in Haiti in 2004. And this in many ways parallels that. And the question is, will Obama actually use the US to restore Zelaya? AMY GOODMAN: In fact, Dr. Juan Almendares, same language used. President Aristide said he was kidnapped, and then the opposition forces, the coup leaders, said he had signed a resignation letter, the same thing they’re saying about Zelaya, which he is contesting. DR. JUAN ALMENDARES: Well, I think this is a lie. I hear the voice of the administer of presidency and also the voice of President Zelaya in Costa Rica, who say that he didn’t sign that. I mean, this is a told statement.

And that’s the why we don’t believe it. Nobody believes in this country; particularly thousands of people don’t believe that. And also we have been terrified, so what we are doing is [inaudible] -— AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will continue to follow this story. I want to thank you for being with us, Dr. Juan Almendares, speaking to us from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where a coup has just occurred, the ouster of the democratically elected President Zelaya, who is now in Nicaragua meeting with other Latin American leaders. Thank you for being with us, head of the Honduran Peace Commission, and Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history at New York University. The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License . Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Next story from this daily show Honduras: Ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya returns from exile - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections → Exile Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returns from exile Two years after the coup, the former leader is greeted by a large crowd and pledges to reengage in politics. His return is a condition to reinstating Honduras to the Organization of American States. May 29, 2011 |By Tracy Wilkinson and Alex Renderos, Los Angeles Times Honduran former President Manuel Zelaya speaks upon his arrival in Tegucigalpa… (Rodrigo Arangua, AFP/Getty…) Reporting from Mexico City and San Salvador — Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras ousted in a military-led coup nearly two years ago, returned home from exile Saturday, greeted by a large, heated crowd and a nation still bitterly divided by tension and violence. With Zelaya's return, Honduras hopes to end its political and diplomatic isolation and overcome one of the ugliest periods of recent Central American history. Zelaya pledged to immediately reengage in politics and will probably lead a new party.

"This is the moment to declare victory for the democratic process in Latin America," Zelaya proclaimed. "Honduras today is a showcase of whether peaceful agreements can work." Though still reviled by the right-wing forces that ousted him, Zelaya was allowed to go home under a "reconciliation" agreement brokered by the ideologically opposed governments of Colombia and Venezuela. His return is a condition to reinstating Honduras to the Organization of American States, the regional body that jettisoned it as punishment for the June 28, 2009, coup. Honduras has also moved to enact some of the very changes that, when proposed by Zelaya, so angered the business and political elites that they had him removed from office and tossed out of the country. That could open the way for reforms that lead to wider political participation in an impoverished nation where a tiny group has traditionally ruled, hand in hand, with the army. At the same time, supporters of Zelaya say they've suffered attacks, imprisonment and even murder at the hands of pro-government forces in the 23 months since the coup, and they are demanding punishment for those responsible.

"Obviously, Honduran society after the coup was left exceedingly fractured and polarized," said Victor Meza, a veteran human rights expert who also served in Zelaya's government. "But this society has also shown itself able to demand greater levels of social and political inclusion." Wearing his trademark white Stetson hat and flanked by family, Zelaya took to a stage before thousands of supporters. Minutes earlier, he had arrived at the Tegucigalpa airport aboard a Venezuelan government jet. "Compatriots! Comrades!" Zelaya boomed to the crowd. "This ordeal … has not been in vain. Here we are, still standing, ready to fight." Zelaya was a swashbuckling timber tycoon when he was elected president of Honduras in 2005. Once in office, his populist politics took a turn to the left as he cozied up to socialist President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. When he began to propose reforming the constitution, a growing coterie of enemies suspected that he planned to make changes that would allow him to hold on to power indefinitely.

A simmering crisis came to a head in June 2009 when Zelaya insisted, against the instruction of Congress and the courts, on going ahead with a public vote to decide whether the constitution should be rewritten. On the morning of the vote, the army swept into Zelaya's home before dawn, hauled him away in his pajamas and placed him on an airplane to Costa Rica. It was the first coup in Central America in 16 years — a brazen blow to the region's steady embrace of democratic rule that instead revived memories of an unstable past when army generals routinely ousted civilian leaders they disliked. International condemnation was swift. Countries cut off aid or recalled their ambassadors. Zelaya's supporters protested regularly in noisy demonstrations, many of which were put down violently. Zelaya at one point managed to sneak back into the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, in September 2009. He remained holed up in the Brazilian Embassy for four months before agreeing to return to exile, this time in the Dominican Republic. Although those who staged the coup had clearly gone beyond the bounds of legal propriety, earning worldwide scorn, Zelaya did not help his case with his often erratic behavior. U.S.

officials who initially demanded his return to office grew cold in their support. In the November following the coup, previously scheduled presidential elections were held, and Porfirio Lobo won. Washington, eager to move past the crisis, recognized the Lobo government, but most of Latin America did not. Once Lobo was in office, the Honduran Congress voted to allow a referendum on whether and how the constitution might be reformed — nearly the same proposal that Zelaya had floated so disastrously. And an internationally sanctioned truth commission was established to examine the coup and the events that led to it. Eventually criminal charges against Zelaya were dropped and arrest warrants canceled. But violence and recrimination persisted. Honduras coup leaders block ousted president Manuel Zelaya's return | World news | The Guardian Close This article is 7 years old Coup leaders in Honduras thwarted President Manuel Zelaya's attempted return early today by blocking an airport runway with military vehicles, forcing his plane to divert to Nicaragua. Thousands of the ousted leader's supporters clashed with police and soldiers at the airport, leaving at least two dead and dozens injured.

Zelaya flew home in an attempt to mobilise his followers and reclaim power from the institutions – the army, congress and the supreme court – that toppled him on 28 June. They ordered him to stay away and said that if he managed to enter Honduras he would be arrested. Speaking to TV stations by telephone apparently from his plane's cockpit, Zelaya appealed to the army to return its allegiance to him "in the name of God, in the name of the people, and in the name of justice". He added: "Today I feel like I have sufficient spiritual strength, blessed with the blood of Christ, to be able to arrive there and raise the crucifix." It became clear the plane – lent by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, Zelaya's leftist ally – would not be able to land. "They are threatening us, saying we'll be intercepted. If I had a parachute, I would jump off." Zelaya flew on to the Nicagaruan capital, Managua, where he was warmly greeted by another ally, President Daniel Ortega.

The ousted Honduran leader said he would meet allies in El Salvador and attempt another homecoming today or tomorrow, but later suggested he may fly to Washington for talks with US and Latin American officials. The president's supporters, who are mostly poor and working class, said they would demonstrate daily until he was reinstated. Dozens have been injured and detained in clashes with security forces. The new authorities have curbed civil liberties and muzzled the media. In a show of solidarity, Zelaya's flight to Tegucigalpa was originally planned to include the leftist presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay, but they took a separate flight to neighbouring El Salvador to "monitor" his reception. He was instead accompanied by the president of the UN general assembly, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a Nicaraguan Sandinista and former foreign minister. The Honduran coup leaders said they had no plans to quit power or to allow their foe's return. "We will be here until the country calms down," said the interim president, Roberto Micheletti. "We are the authentic representatives of the people." Micheletti, a congressman and member of Zelaya's party, accused Nicaragua of moving troops to the border in an attempt at psychological intimidation.

Managua rejected the allegation. The interim government has become an international pariah since soldiers seized Zelaya in his pyjamas and bundled him into exile. European and Latin American ambassadors left, the World Bank froze lending and the US severed diplomatic and military contacts. Zelaya, who alarmed Honduras's institutions by veering left after his election in 2006, said rightwing oligarchs had turned the clock back to an era of military overthrows. The regime's isolation deepend at the weekend when the Organisation of American States (OAS) suspended Honduras, the first such punishment since Cuba's expulsion in 1962. The interim government said the takeover was not a coup but a constitutional transfer of power from an authoritarian populist who wanted to abolish term limits. If Zelaya returns he faces arrest on 18 charges, including corruption and treason. The coup's faltering public relations drive took another blow when the army's top lawyer, Colonel Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, admitted to reporters that the overthrow was illegal. It was nevertheless necessary, he said, to stop Honduras becoming a socialist ally of Venezuela.

Ousted Honduran President Fights Re-Election Ban | News | teleSUR English Ousted Honduran President Fights Re-Election Ban Former President Manuel Zelaya sits among reporters at a press conference in Honduras, March 18, 2016. | Photo: Twitter / @gerardoTteleSUR Published 18 March 2016 Comments - In an open letter addressed to the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, Zelaya called for the nullification of a decision declaring his reelection “unconstitutional.” Former president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a U.S.-backed military coup in 2009, has petitioned the Central American country’s Supreme Court to overturn a ruling banning him from running for president again. RELATED: Hillary Clinton Forgot That She Supported a Coup in Honduras In an open letter addressed to the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, Zelaya called for the nullification of a decision declaring his re-election “unconstitutional.” Zelaya pointed out that the same Supreme Court had declared legal the military coup, which swept out of the presidency after he tried to change the constitution.

“This court should consider in its resolution that the Court of Justice that vacated, marked its administration with fateful deeds, with tragic consequences with negative historical relevance that destroyed the state of law and the advances of 30 years of institutional construction with: The direct or indirect participation of legitimization of the crime of the military coup of 28 June 2009, based on the false argument that the popular referendum of June 28 'Cuarta Urna' was illegal and violated the intangible articles that they were not able to reform for any reason, because the current constitution prohibits it,” he stated. In 2009, democratically-elected Zelaya was ousted by the Honduran military, allied with opposition parties. The coup against Zelaya was widely condemned by governments across Latin America, the European Union, the Organization of American States and other regional blocs. RELATED: CEPR: Hillary Paved Way for Rampant Impunity in Honduras The coup has come back into the spotlight recently as campaigners remember the role played by Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, in the illegal coup.

She admitted in her autobiography “Hard Choices,” that she used her power to shift the crisis into a favorable position for the U.S., even if it meant forgetting about democracy. “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot,” she admitted in her book. Furthermore, the political vacuum created by the coup has spawned years of state violence with impunity, most recently seeing the assassination of the renowned activist Berta Caceres. Tags Exclusive Interview with Manuel Zelaya on the U.S. Role in Honduran Coup, WikiLeaks and Why He Was Ousted | Democracy Now! Exclusive Interview with Manuel Zelaya on the U.S. Role in Honduran Coup, WikiLeaks and Why He Was Ousted StoryMay 31, 2011 Democracy Now!’s Exclusive Coverage of Manuel Zelaya’s Return Trip to Honduras Shortly after Manuel Zelaya returned to his home this weekend for the first time since the 2009 military coup d’état, he sat down with Democracy Now! for an exclusive interview.

He talks about why he believes the United States was behind the coup, and what exactly happened on June 28, 2009, when hooded Honduran soldiers kidnapped him at gunpoint and put him on a plane to Costa Rica, stopping to refuel at Palmerola, the U.S. military base in Honduras. “This coup d’état was made by the right wing of the United States,” Zelaya says. “The U.S. State Department has always denied, and they continue to deny, any ties with the coup d’état. Nevertheless, all of the proof incriminates the U.S. government. And all of the actions that were taken by the de facto regime, or the golpista regime, which are those who carried out the coup, favor the industrial policies and the military policies and the financial policies of the United States in Honduras.” [includes rush transcript] TRANSCRIPT This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras, returned home on Saturday after 23 months in exile. At a news conference Sunday in his living room, Zelaya said the coup was the work of an international conspiracy that should be investigated.

It was the first coup in Central America in a quarter of a century. The military kidnapped Zelaya from his home at gunpoint, put him on a plane to Costa Rica, stopping to refuel at Palmerola, the U.S. military base in Honduras — this after he tried to organize a non-binding referendum asking voters if they wanted to rewrite the constitution. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos brokered the agreement between ousted President Zelaya and the current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. It was called the Cartagena Accord, paving the way for Zelaya’s return. Democracy Now! flew with President Zelaya from Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, to Honduras. On Sunday, we sat down with him at his home in Tegucigalpa. I asked President Zelaya to talk about what happened the day of the coup, June 28th, 2009.

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] A president who was elected by the people was taken out of his home at gunpoint in the early, early morning wee hours in his pajamas and taken and abandoned in Costa Rica, in the airport of Costa Rica. AMY GOODMAN: But first, can you tell me what exactly happened here? What time was it? What did you hear? How did you wake up? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] I arrived to my home at 3:30 in the morning. The next day, we were going to have a referendum, public referendum, throughout the whole nation. It was only an opinion poll, basically, and it was not legally binding — 14,000 polls placed all over the country. And there was an international conspiracy in order to say that communism was entering into this country and that the Caracas plan was going to enter in to destroy the United States and that we are destroying the U.S. empire, if they would let that opinion poll take place. Many who were business leaders and others, high society folks, they fell into that trap. This coup d’état was made by the right wing of the United States.

Those early morning hours, in the wee hours of that morning, they started to pressure the honor guard. They came here at 5:15 in the morning. There were isolated shots that were fired in the neighborhood, some in this street over here and others in the back part of the house. You can see that this is a small house, middle class. It’s easy to assault this house. I was woken by the gunshots. I went downstairs in my pajamas to the first floor, on the patio on the outside. At that very moment, the gunshots were impacting on the door in the back. My first reaction was to hit the floor and to cover myself from the gunshots. That is the moment in which the military entered into the patio in the back. They threatened me with their rifles, M-16 machine guns. They said that it was a military order. And they were shouting at me, and they were ordering me to give my cell phone, because I was talking on my phone. There were more than 10 military, who were hooded, who entered into the house, actually. But outside there were 200 to 300. The only thing you could see were their eyes.

Everything else was covered. And they surrounded me. They threatened me, that they were going to shoot. And I said to them, "If you have orders to shoot, then shoot me. But know that you are shooting the president of the republic, and you are a subalternate, you are an underling." And so, they did not shoot at me. And so, they forced me to go to their vehicles outside with my pajamas on. We landed in the U.S. military base of Palmerola. There, they refueled. There were some movements that happened outside. I don’t know what conversations took place. About 15, 20 minutes, we waited there in the airport of Palmerola. And then to Costa Rica, and everything else is public after that. AMY GOODMAN: Why were you brought to the U.S. military base? It is not that far to fly from Tegucigalpa airport to Costa Rica. Why would you be brought to the U.S. military base? And they must have had the U.S. military’s permission. MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The U.S.

State Department has always denied, and they continue to deny, any ties with the coup d’état. Nevertheless, all of the proof incriminates the U.S. government. And all of the actions that were taken by the de facto regime, or the golpista regime, which are those who carried out the coup, and it is to make favor of the industrial policies and the military policies and the financial policies of the United States in Honduras. AMY GOODMAN: Was your daughter Pichu in the house? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] In my house, there were three people. The woman who cleans the house and who works here, and she has 10 years working with us, she is a woman of great trust. And she continues to work here. Her name is Suyapa. She was taken out, and they dragged her by pulling out her hair, because the military, after they captured me, they entered into each one of the rooms, and they broke into the rooms through using their rifle butts, looking for my wife and for my daughter. My daughter is very thin, and so she went underneath the bed.

Suyapa, the cleaning lady, she’s a little overweight, and so she could not hide. So they grabbed her by her hair, and they took her away. Pichu, whose real name is Xiomara Hortensia, she hid under the bed, and they didn’t find her. AMY GOODMAN: The M-16s, where were they made, that the hooded Honduran soldiers used? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] All of the arms that the Honduran military uses are U.S. weapons. And the high command of the military of Honduras is trained at the School of the Americas. AMY GOODMAN: After the coup, did the U.S. stop the weapons flow to Honduras? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] This week, there were 85 members of Congress of the United States, they sent a letter to the State Department, Hillary Clinton, and this letter speaks to the necessity of controlling the support, and they speak of paralyzing, which is given to the armed forces of Honduras. And so, they point to the high rates of violations of human rights that take place in Honduras. In other words, after the coup d’état in this country, the U.S.

has increased its military support to Honduras. AMY GOODMAN: Do you support the call of the Congress members? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] All who defend human rights and who are against the armaments and war making, they have my support. AMY GOODMAN: You say that the coup was a conspiracy. And you talked about the right wing in the United States. Explain exactly what you understand. Who fomented this coup against you? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The conspiracy began when I started to join what is ALBA, the Latin American nations with Bolivarian Alternative. So, a dirty war at the psychological level was carried out against me. Otto Reich started this. The ex-Under Secretary of State Roger Noriega, Robert Carmona, and the Arcadia Foundation, created by the CIA, they associated themselves with the right wing, with military groups, and they formed a conspiracy. They argued that I was a communist and that I was attacking the security of the hemisphere, because I’m a friend of Fidel, I’m a friend of Chávez, and I had declared my government as a government which is progressive. AMY GOODMAN: And yet, WikiLeaks released that trove of U.S.

government cables, and in it was a cable from then-U.S. ambassador — the then-U.S. ambassador to Honduras to the State Department, saying that — I think it was titled "Open and Shut: The Case of the Honduran Coup," and it was saying it was illegal, it was unconstitutional. It was written by U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens. MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] Hugo Llorens cooperated in order to avoid the coup d’état. He knew everything that was happening in Honduras. And I am a witness to the effort that he made to stop the coup. But when he perceived that he could no longer stop it, then he withdrew. I don’t know if he had orders to withdraw, but he allowed everything to happen. He did help my family a great deal after the coup. And I am grateful to him now. He showed me that he is someone who believes in democracy and not in the coups d’état. But a great part of the Pentagon does not believe this, nor does the Southern Command. AMY GOODMAN: What does the Southern Command have to do with this?

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The link that Ambassador Ford, who was the ambassador from the United States before Llorens, he said that I could not have a friendship with Hugo Chávez. He wanted me to give political [asylum] to Posada Carriles. He wanted to name who my ministers of my cabinet of my government should be. He wanted his recommendations to become ministers of my government. AMY GOODMAN: Posada Carriles, he wanted him to be able to take refuge in Honduras, the man who was alleged to be the mastermind behind the Cubana bombing that killed scores of people? MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] After eight days of my becoming president of the country, the ambassador, Charles Ford, asked me if I could give political asylum to Posada Carriles in Honduras. And of course, I sent him to outside. He spoke to my foreign minister, my secretary of state, about that — the same ambassador who prohibited me from becoming a member of the ALBA.

And this ambassador, who just left Honduras, who left the country with a political profile of myself, the ambassador, Ford, left this letter as a profile of the president, and when you read it, you can tell that it is the precursor of the coup itself. WikiLeaks published this document. They published the profile that Ambassador Ford made of me to give to Hugo Llorens, saying that the United States needs to make decisions about what it will do the following year in order to detain me, because I am tied to narcotrafficking and to terrorism and to many, many other things. So, he prepared the ambiance, situation. And he was transferred from the embassy to the Southern Command. And that is the tie. And if you ask today, where is this Ambassador Ford? He is in the Southern Command. And so, he left here in order to prepare the coup d’état. AMY GOODMAN: And yet, the coup d’état took place under President Obama, not before. MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] We’re talking about the United States, so it’s an empire. The United States is an empire, and so Obama is the president of the United States, but he is not the chief of the empire.

Even though Obama would be against the coup, the process toward the coup was already moving forward. The most that they tell a president like President Obama, that there’s a political crisis going on. But they do not talk about the details that they were involved in in terms of the conspiracy. AMY GOODMAN: President Obama early on called it a coup. But then the administration seemed to back off, both he and Hillary Clinton. MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] They gave themselves up before the coup itself. That is the proof, in fact, that the coup came from the north, from the U.S. So they are even able to bend the arm of the President of the United States, President Obama, and the State Department, and they impeded my restitution as president of the country. AMY GOODMAN: Ousted President Manuel Zelaya, sitting in his home in his living room in Tegucigalpa for the first time in 23 months, kidnapped at gunpoint by Honduran soldiers as his daughter Pichu hid under her bed upstairs. He was then flown to Palmerola, the U.S. military base in Honduras, supposedly to refuel, and then on to Costa Rica.

It was the first military coup in Latin America in more than a quarter of a century. We leave you today with Zelaya’s address to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Hondurans upon his arrival home on Saturday. MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] Your presence here this afternoon shows the support of the international community, that the blood was not shed in vain, because we’re still standing, keeping our position valid. Peaceful resistance. Fellows, resistance is today the cry of victory, of the return to Honduras of all the rights and guarantees of the Honduran democracy. AMY GOODMAN: Tomorrow, in part two of our interview, President Zelaya will talk about his plans for the future. We’ll also speak with his wife, former First Lady of Honduras Xiomara Castro de Zelaya. We ask her if she plans to run for president next. Special thanks to Democracy Now!’s Hany Massoud for his remarkable camera work and Andrés Tomas Conteris for translating, and to both for making this broadcast possible. Also thanks to Channel 11 in Tegucigalpa.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License . Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us. Up Next UN condemns military coup in Honduras — RT News Tags Conflict , UN , Protest , Politics Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday and the organization has shown unanimous support for the leader of Central American republic. A resolution, passed by acclamation in the 192-member body, condemned the military coup in Honduras which resulted in the removal of Zelaya and demanded his “immediate and unconditional restoration” as president. However, the resolution on the issue is non-binding and, thus, unlikely to return him to power. Manuel Zelaya was expelled from his country on Sunday after he sought a referendum to seek permission to extend his term of office. He was flown by the Honduras military to Costa Rica on Sunday. Manuel Zelaya (Chris Hondros/Getty Images/AFP) Zelaya's removal resulted in violent clashes in Honduras between his supporters and police.

However, Tuesday morning saw no sign of protests after a dusk-to-dawn curfew ordered by the new government had expired. Since Sunday, Zelaya has been urging international support for his return. He plans to make the trip to Honduras on Thursday. Zelaya said a number of Latin American leaders had suggested that they accompany him back to Honduras, including Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, and President Rafael Correa of Ecuador. The defacto Honduran government has said Zelaya may face arrest if he returns. Meanwhile, in the capital of Tegucigalpa, Zelaya supporters and opponents have simultaneously held rallies. Up to 15,000 people marched through the city to show their opposition to the military coup. The defacto government also held a public meeting under slogans saying ‘no’ to Honduras following Venezuela’s steps in its development. Reportedly, an all-out strike in the country has paralyzed public transport. Schools were also closed.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama says Honduras coup illegal Obama says Honduras coup illegal President Obama: ''Honduras coup was not legal'' US President Barack Obama has described the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as illegal. His remarks came after left-wing Latin American leaders declared their support for the deposed leader, who was expelled by the military on Sunday. In Honduras, pro-Zelaya protestors have been demonstrating in the country's capital, Tegucigalpa. Mr Zelaya's removal followed a power struggle over his plans for constitutional change. The BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Tegucigalpa says all day hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters have been taunting the thousands of soldiers deployed around the presidential residence, accusing them of taking part in a "criminal coup". The ousted president, who was in office since 2006, had wanted to hold a referendum that could have led to an extension of his non-renewable four-year term in office. Expulsion condemned Polls for the vote were due to open early on Sunday, but instead troops stormed the presidential palace at dawn, detained Mr Zelaya and flew him to Costa Rica.

The military, Congress and the Supreme Court in the Central American nation had all opposed Mr Zelaya's referendum. We cannot allow a return to the past, we will not permit it President Hugo Chavez Q&A: Honduras crisis Our correspondent says that even though the international community regards the exiled leader as the legitimate leader of the country, any comeback will not be easy. Speaking after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Mr Obama said Mr Zelaya remained the democratically-elected leader of Honduras. And he said a "terrible precedent" would be set if the coup were not reversed. Earlier on Monday, speaking in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spelled out his opposition to the situation in Honduras. "We cannot allow a return to the past. We will not permit it," Mr Chavez said. He spoke after talks with Mr Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. 'Voracious elite' After turning up in Costa Rica on Sunday, Mr Zelaya called his ouster a plot "by a very voracious elite, an elite which wants only to keep this country [Honduras] isolated, in an extreme level of poverty".

In Tegucigalpa protestors defied a curfew order between Sunday night and Monday morning, imposed by Mr Micheletti. As Speaker of Congress, Mr Micheletti had been the next in line to the presidency. His swearing-in was greeted with applause in Congress. In a speech, he said that he had not assumed power under the "ignominy" of a coup d'etat. The army had complied with the constitution, he said, and he had reached the presidency "as the result of an absolutely legal transition process". Congress said he would serve until 27 January, when Mr Zelaya's term had been due to expire. Presidential elections are planned for 29 November and Mr Micheletti promised these would go ahead. Ousted leader's return ends Honduras' long crisis Ousted leader's return ends Honduras' long crisis FREDDY CUEVAS - Associated Press Share View photos A vendor displays T-shirts with images of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Friday May 27, 2011.

Supporters are making preparations for the Saturday return of the deposed president who was forced out of the country in his pajamas at gunpoint on June 28, 2009. More TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The return of ousted former President Manuel Zelaya from exile Saturday brings Honduras' nearly two-year political crisis to an end and hope to one of the poorest nations in the Americas. Zelaya's comeback will also pave the way for Honduras to re-enter the international community, which near-unanimously rejected the June 2009 military-backed coup that forced him from office and saw him whisked out of the Central American country at gunpoint in his pajamas. The deposed former leader on Friday traveled from the Dominican Republic, where he lived more than a year in exile, to Nicaragua in preparation for his return. He is expected to make a public appearance in Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa, before noon Saturday with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Thousands of supporters waited anxiously at a tent camp set up near the airport in anticipation of Zelaya's arrival, setting off firecrackers and playing music.

"Honduras is in party mode," said Zelaya supporter Ronnie Huete, of Radio Globo. Not everyone felt like celebrating, however. Zelaya is "repudiated by the majority of Hondurans," a group calling itself the Patriotic Committee for the Defense of the Constitution said in a message broadcast by radio station HRN. Irma Acosta, a former congresswoman from the governing National Party, said that Zelaya "should focus on singing and playing his guitar, which he does well ... and forget about politics, because his time has passed." Zelaya is scheduled to have lunch with current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, the organization said. The OAS, along with the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, is supervising the safe return of Zelaya, more than two years after he was removed by the military for ignoring a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum asking Hondurans if they favored changing the constitution. His detractors claimed he wanted to hijack the democratic process to enable his re-election, which is prohibited by the constitution. Zelaya has denied that was his intention.

His supporters say he was ousted because of his plans to reform Honduras' political and economic structure and his increasingly close relationship with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Violent protests for and against the removal of Zelaya were staged near the presidential palace and Tegucigalpa's main square following the coup. Now Zelaya returns to a country that has since enacted many of the changes he advocated. His idea of holding a referendum to amend the constitution — the final straw that led to the coup— is now a law. An agreement signed last week that makes way for Zelaya's safe return will also allow him to form his own political party and potentially end Honduras' longstanding and rigid two-party system. A court dismissed arrest warrants for Zelaya, who faced charges of fraud and falsifying documents, and then dropped the charges. "For a country under the illusion of advancing and no longer being isolated on the continent, they had to make certain concessions, including allowing Zelaya to return to Honduras without being prosecuted," said Jairo Velasquez, international relations professor at La Sabana University in Bogota, Colombia.

Lobo, who was elected president in elections scheduled before the coup, said he doesn't see a contradiction in enacting what the coup sought to avoid. "That's life," he said recently at the close of a business forum. "One does not govern for today. One governs so that tomorrow they can say how well you did." Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos were key in negotiating Honduras' reincorporation into the OAS in exchange for Zelaya's return. Meanwhile, hundreds of supporters have painted T-shirts, signs and flags to welcome Zelaya home. The head of the National Police, Jose Munoz, said Zelaya backers have promised to lead a peaceful celebration. "Zelaya's personal safety is in the hands of people he trusts," his legal representative, Rasel Tome, told The Associated Press. "Those people are his countrymen." Reblog

Question: Manuel Zelaya was ousted by military coup as leader of what Central American country?
Answer: Honduras