A Coup Without Friends

A coup without friends
Analysis: Unanimous condemnation of Honduran takeover highlights new US stance in the Americas

By Nick Miroff
Published: June 30, 2009 19:41 ET
Updated: July 9, 2009 18:00 ET

HAVANA — When Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was roused from home by military officers Sunday morning and sent off to Costa Rica in his pajamas, the banana-republic days of crude political succession seemed to be back in the Americas.
Then something different happened: Condemnation and scorn rained down on Honduras’ coup plotters from every corner of the hemisphere, uniting leaders from conservative Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to Cuba’s Raúl Castro to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Opposition to the Honduran coup has forged rare consensus among nations with a fractious past of bitter divisions, while injecting a new sense of purpose into regional organizations, like the Organization of American States, whose legitimacy has been recently questioned by some of its member nations.

More than anything, the episode seems destined to strengthen Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders who responded swiftly and decisively in support of Zelaya — and whose affinity with the Honduran president was cited by coup supporters as a justification for his removal in the first place.

And there’s surely more to come.

On Thursday Zelaya is planning a dramatic return to Honduras accompanied by other Latin American heads of state, José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of Organization of American States, and Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, Zelaya called the coup against him “an act of aggression attacking the democratic will of the people.” The assembly then approved a one-page resolution agreeing that none of its 192 member states would recognize a government led by anyone other than Zelaya.

His rivals in Honduras remained defiant, though, as Roberto Micheletti, sworn into the presidency by the Honduran Congress following the coup, threatened to arrest Zelaya when he returns Thursday, setting up a showdown.

Micheletti told Colombia's Caracol Radio Tuesday that Zelaya had violated the constitution and that his court-ordered removal was legal. Tensions in Honduras had been building for weeks as Zelaya, whose four-year term expires in January, sought to hold a non-binding referendum on lifting presidential term limits.

"We have not committed a coup d'etat, but a constitutional succession," he said.

Whatever the outcome, the episode has created a political opportunity for leaders throughout the hemisphere to burnish their democratic credentials, while providing a fresh sense of mission for the region’s leading multinational bodies, the U.S.-based Organization of American States and the Venezuelan-led alternative pact, ALBA.

That organization was first conceived by Chávez as a rival to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and has expanded to incorporate nine member states including Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras.

For Chávez and other leaders of ALBA, the coup has provided a chance to show that the organization is capable of more than grand speeches and anti-capitalist rhetoric. Within one day of the coup, its member nations convened with Zelaya in an emergency session in Nicaragua, as Chávez, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and others took turns blasting the coup leaders and vowing to restore Zelaya. Often accused by critics of eroding democratic institutions at home, the Honduran coup has allowed those leaders to act as staunch guarantors of democracy in the Americas.

But the coordinated regional response to the crisis is also likely to strengthen the U.S.-based Organization of American States, which leftist leaders in the regional had recently denounced as an outdated instrument of U.S. policy. In the wake of the crisis in Honduras, the OAS also has also played a lead role in supporting Zelaya, who is expected to attend an OAS meeting Wednesday in Washington and convene with U.S. officials.

Whether or not Obama meets with Zelaya on Wednesday, the new U.S. administration is also likely to benefit from the coup episode, providing Obama with an opportunity to show a clean break from the U.S.’s sordid legacy of support for military coups in Latin America.

Though Chavez initially tried to link the Honduran coup plotters to the U.S., the firm support for Zelaya by top U.S. officials was widely noted in Latin America, not least by Zelaya himself, who praised the Obama administration Tuesday, telling reporters “the United States has changed a great deal.” Even Fidel Castro noted in a written statement Monday that the U.S. had backed the ousted Honduran president.

What remains unclear is how far leaders in the hemisphere are willing to go to restore Zelaya to power.

If Zelaya’s opponents succeed in keeping him out of office, they are likely to face near-total diplomatic isolation, in addition to trade sanctions from neighboring countries that have already closed off their borders to trade with Honduras.

If Zelaya returns to office, he will likely enjoy an energized base, as thousands of supporters have taken to the streets in Honduras to protest his removal. Zelaya on Tuesday told reporters that he plans to go back to civilian life when his term expires.

Deposed Honduran leader prepares risky return

In "Deposed Honduran leader prepares risky return," Associated Press writer Morgan Lee reports:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Honduras' deposed president headed toward his nation's border Thursday to prepare a risky return home, an attempt to reverse an ouster that is testing the vitality of democracy in Latin America.

The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras. Zelaya said he would make a second attempt to return home Saturday, saying U.S.-backed attempts at mediation had broken down.
Accompanied by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Zelaya drove a white jeep out of the Honduran Embassy in Nicaragua, heading toward the northern town of Esteli, where he said he would spend Friday preparing for his return.

Honduran Embassy officials broke into applause and chants of "Long live Mel!" using his nickname.

Zelaya said he hoped soldiers at the border would stand down when they see him. He called on supporters to meet him at the border, although he has not yet said exactly where he plan to cross into Honduras.

"I think the guns will be lowered when they see their people and their president," Zelaya said at a news conference shortly before leaving.

All governments in the Western Hemisphere have condemned the coup, in which soldiers acting on orders from Congress and the Supreme Court arrested Zelaya and flew him into exile. Nations on both sides of the political spectrum say Zelaya's return to power is crucial to the region's stability.

Latin America expert Vicki Gass said that if Zelaya's opponents succeed in driving him from power, it could have a ripple effect in a region where left-leaning elected governments are challenging small classes of elites that have ruled many countries for decades.

"Coups could then happen in Peru, where President (Alan) Garcia has a very low approval rating, or in Argentina or in Guatemala," said Gass, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America which promotes human rights and democracy. "Constitutional order and rule of law have to be restored."

Zelaya said the mediation efforts, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, had failed after representatives of the interim government flatly rejected the possibility that he might return to the presidency. They say they cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding Zelaya's reinstatement.

But Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, held out hope that the two sides might still reach a settlement — and called Zelaya's attempt to return without an agreement "hasty."

"He has always wanted to return to his country, but it's important to make an effort to avoid a likely confrontation," Insulza said.

He said that neither delegation had officially responded to Arias proposal, which calls for Zelaya's reinstatement, amnesty for the coup leaders and early elections.

The United States warned of tough sanctions against Honduras if Zelaya is not reinstated, but also said Thursday it does not support Zelaya's plan to return on his own.

"Any step that would add to the risk of violence in Honduras or in the area, we think would be unwise," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

Zelaya dismissed the concerns of Insulza and the U.S., saying "defending our rights is not an act of violence ... we are going to seek dialogue."

In Honduras, Zelaya supporters turned up the pressure, blocking roads throughout the country Thursday and occupying several government buildings in peaceful protests.

It was unclear exactly when or how Zelaya planned to enter the country. Zelaya has set and let pass a series of deadlines for his return, and spokesman Allan Fajardo said Thursday that Zelaya could travel by air, sea, or land from any of Honduras' three neighboring countries.

Fajardo told The Associated Press that Zelaya would set up base Thursday in the Nicaraguan city of Esteli, near the Honduran border, and then figure out his next move. He said Zelaya would be accompanied by family, supporters and journalists.

The Honduran military thwarted Zelaya's first attempt to return home July 5 by blocking the runway at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The flight sparked clashes between Zelaya's supporters and security forces in which at least one protester was killed.

Lorena Calix, a spokeswoman for Honduras' national police, said Thursday that officers were ready to detain Zelaya if he makes another attempt to come home.

"When he comes to Honduras, we have to execute the arrest warrant," she said.

Honduras' Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's arrest before the June 28 coup, ruling his effort to hold a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly was illegal. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile instead — a move that military lawyers themselves have called illegal but necessary.

Zelaya's opponents, who objected to his populist and socialist policies, have argued the president was trying to change the constitution to extend his term. Zelaya denies that.

If he is arrested, Zelaya faces four charges of violating governmental order, treason and abusing and usurping power that could bring 43 years behind bars. Prosecutors say they are investigating a raft of other allegations ranging from misappropriation of public funds to drug smuggling — accusations Zelaya says are purely political.

Ousted Honduras leader gives talks until midnight

According to the July 18, 2009 article "Ousted Honduras leader gives talks until midnight" by Associated Press writers Freddy Cuevas and Filadelfo Aleman:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – An ultimatum from ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya left little room for compromise in U.S.-backed talks Saturday aimed at resolving a crisis that has become the latest test for democracy in Latin America.
Zelaya, who was forced into exile in a June 28 military coup, gave negotiators meeting in Costa Rica until midnight to restore him to office, threatening to return to Honduras in secret and attempt to retake power on his own if no agreement is reached. He indicated he would reject any power-sharing agreement, a proposal to be discussed at the talks.
"If at that time, there is no resolution to that end, I will consider the negotiations in Costa Rica a failure," Zelaya said at a news conference Friday night at the Honduran embassy in Nicaragua. "I am going back to Honduras, but I am not going to give you the date, hour or place, or say if I'm going to enter through land, air or sea."
He did not say what steps he would subsequently take. But earlier this week, he said Hondurans have a constitutional right to rebel against an illegitimate government. His foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, said Thursday that if the talks failed, Zelaya would return to Honduras to install a parallel government "to direct what I will call the final battle."
The interim government has vowed to arrest Zelaya if he returns. The military thwarted his attempt to fly home July 5 by using vehicles to block the runway, preventing his plane from landing in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.
Zelaya's allies said the Costa Rica talks might be the last chance to avert a clash, perhaps even civil war in the impoverished Central American country. Zelaya supporters have staged near daily protests demanding his return, including about 2,000 who blocked two highways connecting Tegucigalpa to the Caribbean and Pacific coasts for several hours Friday.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who is mediating the talks, had appeared optimistic about a resolution earlier Friday, saying both camps had "softened, and I think we are going to find more flexibility." In the first round of talks the two sides agreed only to meet again.
Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping to end Central America's wars, has presented a series of possible compromises to both camps, including a power-sharing deal in which Zelaya could return to serve out the remaining months of his term as president, but with limited power.
Zelaya suggested he would reject such a plan. "I cannot accept a reward for the coup leaders because that would be an aberration," he said.
Arias also said an amnesty deal for Zelaya was possible.
Honduras' Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya before the coup, ruling his effort to hold a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly was illegal. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile instead — a move that military lawyers themselves have called illegal but necessary.
Many Hondurans viewed the proposed referendum as an attempt by Zelaya to push for a socialist-leaning government similar to the one his ally Hugo Chavez has established in Venezuela.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called Friday for all nations to support the talks.
He also appeared to allude to remarks by Chavez, who has warned of the possibility of civil war in Honduras and said that "in the next few hours, Zelaya will enter Honduras and we'll see what the gorillas are going to do" about it.
"No country in the region should encourage any action that would potentially increase the risk of violence either in Honduras or in surrounding countries," Crowley told reporters in Washington.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti has said Zelaya might try to sneak in by crossing Nicaragua's jungle-cloaked border with Honduras, but the ousted leader was still in Nicaragua's capital late Friday.
Micheletti told Colombia's RCN Radio that his government was open to dialogue but argued that Zelaya committed crimes against "the economy, the citizenry and against the constitution" and could not be allowed to return to power.
Micheletti said he was willing to move up the presidential election scheduled for November as a way out of the crisis. Micheletti, the congressional president who was sworn in to replace Zelaya after the coup, also said he would resign "if Mr. Zelaya stops inciting a revolutionary movement in the country and stops trying to return here."
Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera, who under the constitution would be next in line for the presidency if Micheletti resigned, said an amnesty for Zelaya could be considered as part of the negotiations. But if Zelaya enters the country without amnesty, he should be immediately arrested, Rivera said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Zelaya's deadline for the coup leaders to back down falls at the start of the 30th anniversary of Nicaragua's July 19, 1979, Sandinista revolution that toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza.
___
Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas reported this story from Tegucigalpa and Filadelfo Aleman from Managua, Nicaragua. AP writers Marianela Jimenez in San Juan, Costa Rica, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Aide: Ousted Honduran president en route home

The July 16, 2009 article "Aide: Ousted Honduran president en route home" by Associated Press writer Juan Zamorano reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A top aide said exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was heading home Thursday to set up an alternative seat of government inside the country, and will use it as his headquarters in a "final battle" against the coup leaders.
Zelaya's foriegn minister, Patricia Rodas, said he is "on his way" back, but refused to say how or when he planned to enter Honduras. Zelaya's current whereabouts are unclear and the leaders who replaced him after the military sent him into exile have vowed to arrest him if he returns.
"Our president will be in Honduras at some point and some moment. He is already on his way. God protect him and the people of the Americas who are with him," Rodas told reporters in La Paz, Bolivia, where she joined a meeting of leftist presidents.
"The establishment and installation of an alternative seat of government will be to direct what I will call the final battle" against leaders of the coup that toppled Zelaya, she said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — an ally of Zelaya — said he had spoken with Zelaya and the exiled leader told him: "I don't know if I will die, but I'm going to Honduras."
Delegations representing Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti are expected to join a second round of talks Saturday under the guidance of Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts that helped resolve Central America's civil wars.
When he was last seen in public, Zelaya vowed to return if Saturday's talks don't immediately result in his reinstatement, and said Hondurans have a constitutional right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government.
Rodas reinforced that, saying that Zelaya's delegation has nothing to negotiate. It will simply demand that the "illegal regime surrender peacefully," and if it doesn't, Zelaya's side will declare the mediation to have failed, she said.
Prospects for finding common ground appeared slim.
Micheletti, the former congressional leader who was sworn in to serve out the final months of Zelaya's term, offered Wednesday to step down if there were guarantees that Zelaya would not return to power.
Arias said that proposal is unacceptable: "The restoration of constitutional order must involve the reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya," he said Thursday in an interview with radio program Nuestra Voz.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged "a peaceful, negotiated resolution" of the crisis and said all involved should "refrain from actions that could result in violence." But the State Department has tried to avoid a public role in the negotiations, saying Arias is directing the efforts.
Both sides had people lobbying on their behalf in Washington. Micheletti's supporters released a statement from his foreign affairs minister, Carlos Lopez Contreras, saying Zelaya's threats to return no matter what are an affront to Arias and Clinton.
"If he comes and presents himself to authorities, he is welcome in our country. But if he comes with the intention of starting a revolutionary movement then he will find a people disposed to do anything," Micheletti said in Honduras.
Rodas pleaded Thursday for stronger action. "The U.S. should suspend military aid and other support and freeze international reserves and personal and government bank accounts" to force an immediate resolution, she said.
If Zelaya does try to reenter Honduras, it would be his second attempt since masked soldiers shot up his house and flew him to Costa Rica in his pajamas early on June 28. His first attempt was thwarted July 5 when military vehicles on the runway blocked his Venezuelan plane from landing in Tegucigalpa.
Micheletti spoke of rumors Wednesday that Zelaya planned to enter over the Nicaraguan border Saturday, and suggested that forces he didn't identify were "were handing out some guns" to foment rebellion. He reinstated an overnight curfew that had been lifted only days earlier.
Zelaya supporters blocking a road leading out of the capital Thursday denied they were carrying weapons.
"Check it out: there is not one machete, gun or rifle here. This is a peaceful march," said peasant leader Rafael Alegria.
Thousands have staged such protests almost daily since Zelaya's ouster, while crowds of roughly equal size have demonstrated in favor of Micheletti's government.
Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera is next in line to the presidency, after Zelaya and Micheletti. The Supreme Court had issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya, ruling that his efforts to hold a vote on whether to form a constitutional assembly were illegal. The military decided to send him into exile instead — a move that military lawyers have since acknowledged also violates the constitution.
Many Hondurans viewed the proposed vote as an attempt by Zelaya to push for a socialist transformation in the model of his ally, Venezuela's Chavez.
Rivera questioned Zelaya's expulsion from the country in an interview with La Tribuna newspaper published Thursday.
"The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's capture and authorized the raid on his house so he could be captured," Rivera said. "The expulsion was not in the capture order, and in that sense, we have to analyze if (his expulsion) was the best thing given the necessities of the moment."
He said Zelaya should be arrested if he comes back to Honduras, but said the interim government should also consider granting him amnesty as part of the negotiations in Costa Rica.
"It should not be dismissed as a possibility. It could happen at the end of the tunnel, once a light is found in the path of dialogue," Rivera said.
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro blamed the coup in Honduras on the U.S. Embassy and other top regional diplomats appointed by George W. Bush.
In an essay published Thursday, the 82-year-old former leader wrote that the military ouster of Zelaya was the work of "unscrupulous characters of the extreme right who were trustworthy officials of George W. Bush."

Gallup Poll: Ousted leader with 46 pct approval

According to a July 15, 2009 Associate Press article

Wed Jul 15, 6:39 pm ET
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – More results from a Gallup survey in Honduras were published Wednesday, showing ousted President Manuel Zelaya remains more popular than his interim replacement Roberto Micheletti.
The nationwide survey — which was done after Zelaya was sent into forced exile in a military coup — shows Zelaya with 46 percent favorable opinion and 44 unfavorable, compared to 30 favorable and 49 unfavorable for Micheletti.
Earlier findings from the same poll were released to The Associated Press by Gallup after La Prensa, a leading Honduran newspaper, published some of the results on Thursday. They showed that 46 percent of Hondurans opposed Zelaya's removal, 41 percent approved of it and 13 percent were unsure or declined to answer.
Feelings toward both leaders have changed dramatically since February, when a clear majority favored Zelaya over Micheletti, then the head of Congress. A Gallup survey conducted from February 3 to February 8 showed Zelaya with 53 percent favorable and 36 unfavorable, compared to 23 favorable and 58 unfavorable for Micheletti.
The more recent survey also asked Hondurans whether they felt Zelaya's removal was justified because he had pushed to add a question on a national ballot about whether to have a constitutional assembly, which the nation's highest court had ruled to be unconstitutional. Forty-one percent of respondents said this did justify his removal, while 28 percent said it didn't and 31 percent were unsure or declined to answer.
The second survey was done from June 30 to July 4. Both surveys had error margins of 2.8 percentage points, according to CID-Gallup, which is based in Costa Rica.

End Honduran coup drama

According to End Honduran coup drama in the Miami Herald:

OUR OPINION: Changing stories, rights repression discredits Honduran authorities

The cadre of civilians and military officers in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica is having a hard time keeping its story straight. First, the plotters said the removal was carried out in response to a lawful order from the Supreme Court, but now they say that President Zelaya actually chose exile rather than going to jail -- his only other choice.

Even members of the government are straying from the script. Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho revealed on Wednesday that his office had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Zelaya on charges of treason and abuse of power. And, by golly, he can't figure out why the president was sent to Costa Rica instead of an Honduran court. That, apparently, is news to Roberto Micheletti, the newly installed president, who insists that the soldiers were complying with Supreme Court orders.

Trying to sort this out, Mr. Utrecho could only come up with this face-saving explanation: ``There were events that don't comply with the law.''

You don't say.

That's the most striking understatement to emerge from the turmoil in Honduras, but it fails to explain anything. The most pressing question is why Honduran leaders chose to turn a lameduck president with little popular or political support from any quarter, including his own party, into a figure hailed as a ''victim'' of anti-democratic forces by the U.N. General Assembly, the Organization of American States and even, reluctantly, the U.S. State Department.

Asking for trouble

Mr. Urtecho had the right idea. If the president did wrong, investigate him and file charges. Arrest him if necessary and hold a trial. Snatching him out of bed, putting a gun to his head and tossing him on a plane turns what might have been a conventional political process into a bizarre melodrama that discredits his adversaries, regardless of what Mr. Zelaya was accused of doing.

Mr. Zelaya was clearly asking for trouble by pressing for a plebiscite or referendum that might have served as a springboard for trying to extend his term of office. But it's not about Mr. Zelaya -- it's about the institutional integrity of Honduras, where democracy remains a fragile seed and needs to be nurtured rather than trampled on.

The military overthrow of the democratically-elected president Ramón Villeda Morales in 1963 started a series of unelected military governments that lasted more or less without interruption until Roberto Suazo Córdova was elected president in 1981.

Today's events in Honduras do not compare precisely with earlier upheavals because the anti-Zelaya faction acted in the name of the purported civilian authority, not in the name of a military junta. Still, that misses the point. As history shows, forcing elected presidents from office at the point of a gun can become a habit, a convenient way to circumvent constitutional authority any time it becomes expedient or a president loses political support.

`Excessive use of force'

That's why it's best not to go there. Mr. Zelaya's opponents have brought further discredit on themselves and their cause by their heavy-handed efforts to silence opposition and insulate themselves from criticism.

In a letter to the OAS, Human Rights Watch complained of ''excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and acts of censhorship'' by the Honduran authorities. The emergency decree that suspends fundamental rights remains in effect and could become a cover for further abuses.

Honduras police and security forces need to maintain order. But if, as the authorities claim, Mr. Zelaya has no significant political support, they have nothing to fear from peaceful political demonstrations. Nor should the Honduran public be kept in the dark about events in Honduras nor denied the right to be informed by their preferred media outlets.

The first job of the OAS mission headed to Honduras on Friday, led by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, is to press for a restoration of civil liberties and the release of anyone detained for political reasons in connection with the ouster of Mr. Zelaya.

Then he should make it clear to Mr. Micheletti and his cohorts that they are internationally isolated and must restore Mr. Zelaya to the presidency.

As to Mr. Zelaya, it should be made clear that he signed up for one term, as Honduras' constitution mandates.

Enough drama.

Top Honduran military lawyer: We broke the law

According to the story Top Honduran military lawyer: We broke the law in the Miami Herald:

BY FRANCES ROBLES
FROBLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
TEGUCIGALPA -- The military officers who rushed deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya out of the country Sunday committed a crime but will be exonerated for saving the country from mob violence, the army's top lawyer said.

In an interview with The Miami Herald and El Salvador's elfaro.net, army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza acknowledged that top military brass made the call to forcibly remove Zelaya -- and they circumvented laws when they did it.

It was the first time any participant in Sunday's overthrow admitted committing an offense and the first time a Honduran authority revealed who made the decision that has been denounced worldwide.

''We know there was a crime there,'' said Inestroza, the top legal advisor for the Honduran armed forces. ``In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there is a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us.''

Zelaya was ousted in a predawn raid at his house Sunday after he vowed to defy a court order that ruled a nonbinding referendum to be held that day illegal. The leftist wealthy rancher had clashed with the attorney general, the Supreme Court, Congress and the military he commanded.

But instead of being taken to court to stand trial for abuse of power and treason, the military swept him out of bed at gunpoint and forced him into exile.

Inestroza described weeks of mounting pressure, in which a president who was viewed as allied with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez used soldiers as ''political tools.'' The attorney general's office had ordered Zelaya's arrest, and the Supreme Court, Inestroza said, ordered the armed forces to carry it out.

So when the powers of state united in demanding his ouster, the military put a pajama-clad Zelaya on a plane and sent him to Costa Rica. The rationale: Had Zelaya been jailed, throngs of loyal followers would have erupted into chaos and demanded his release with violence.

''What was more beneficial, remove this gentleman from Honduras or present him to prosecutors and have a mob assault and burn and destroy and for us to have to shoot?'' he said. ``If we had left him here, right now we would be burying a pile of people.''

This week, Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho told reporters that he launched an investigation into why Zelaya was removed by force instead of taken to court. Article 24 of Honduras' penal code will exonerate the joint chiefs of staff who made the decision, because it allows for making tough decisions based on the good of the state, Inestroza said.

U.S. State Department lawyers are studying whether the action is legally considered a military coup, even though the person who was constitutionally next in line took power.

Inestroza acknowledged that after 34 years in the military, he and many other longtime soldiers found Zelaya's allegiance to Chávez difficult to stomach. Although he calls Zelaya a ''leftist of lies'' for his bourgeoisie upbringing, he admits he'd have a hard time taking orders from a leftist.

Memories of the 1980s fight against guerrilla insurgents are still fresh in Honduras.

''We fought the subversive movements here and we were the only country that did not have a fratricidal war like the others,'' he said. ``It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible. I personally would have retired, because my thinking, my principles, would not have allowed me to participate in that.''

And if Zelaya comes back, he'll have to retire anyway.

''I will resign and leave the country, and so would most of the military,'' Inestroza said. ``They would come after us and the other political leaders who were involved in this.''

Zelaya has said he will try to stage a brazen comeback on Sunday. The Organization of American States' secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, arrives in Tegucigalpa Friday to try to lay the groundwork for Zelaya's return. Insulza refuses to meet any member of the new administration led by the former head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.

''I am 54 years years old,'' Inestroza said. ``I left my youth, my adolescence and part of my adulthood here -- an entire lifetime. You should understand it's very difficult for someone who has dedicated his whole life to a country and an institution to see, from one day to another, a person who is not normal come and want to change the way of life in the country without following the steps the law indicates.''

Differing Perspectives in the Western Hemisphere

I returned from Central America last week and continue to be amazed by the differing perspectives of the news reported in the United States versus those of Latin America. Those in the United States seem to think the focus of the crisis in Honduras in its president, Manuel Zelaya. Latin Americans, by contrast, view this as an issue of orderly transition of power. Even if they do not like Zelaya, they do not want him removed in a military coup.

Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away

A 13 July 2009 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away by MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY argues:

Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away
The former president threatened to use force against the Congress and other institutions.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

In a perfect world former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya would be in jail in his own country right now, awaiting trial. The Honduran attorney general has charged him with deliberately violating Honduran law and the Supreme Court ordered his arrest in Tegucigalpa on June 28.

But the Honduran military whisked him out of the country, to Costa Rica, when it executed the court's order.

His expulsion has given his supporters ammunition to allege that he was treated unlawfully. Now he is an international hero of the left. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Cuban dictator Raúl Castro, and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez are all insisting that he be restored to power. This demand is baseless. Mr. Zelaya's detention was legal, as was his official removal from office by Congress.

If there is anything debatable about the crisis it is the question of whether the government can defend the expulsion of the president. In fact it had good reasons for that move and they are worth Mrs. Clinton's attention if she is interested in defending democracy.

Besides eagerly trampling the constitution, Mr. Zelaya had demonstrated that he was ready to employ the violent tactics of chavismo to hang onto power. The decision to pack him off immediately was taken in the interest of protecting both constitutional order and human life.

Two incidents earlier this year make the case. The first occurred in January when the country was preparing to name a new 15-seat Supreme Court, as it does every seven years. An independent board made up of members of civil society had nominated 45 candidates. From that list, Congress was to choose the new judges.

Mr. Zelaya had his own nominees in mind, including the wife of a minister, and their names were not on the list. So he set about to pressure the legislature. On the day of the vote he militarized the area around the Congress and press reports say a group of the president's men, including the minister of defense, went to the Congress uninvited to turn up the heat. The head of the legislature had to call security to have the defense minister removed.

In the end Congress held its ground and Mr. Zelaya retreated. But the message had been sent: The president was willing to use force against other institutions.

In May there was an equally scary threat to peace issued by the Zelaya camp as the president illegally pushed for a plebiscite on rewriting the constitution. Since the executive branch is not permitted to call for such a vote, the attorney general had announced that he intended to enforce the law against Mr. Zelaya.

A week later some 100 agitators, wielding machetes, descended on the attorney general's office. "We have come to defend this country's second founding," the group's leader reportedly said. "If we are denied it, we will resort to national insurrection."

These experiences frightened Hondurans because they strongly suggested that Mr. Zelaya, who had already aligned himself with Mr. Chávez, was now emulating the Venezuelan's power-grab. Other Chávez protégés -- in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua -- have done the same, refusing to accept checks on their power, making use of mobs and seeking to undermine institutions.

It was this fondness for intimidation that prompted Mr. Zelaya's exile. Honduras was worried that if he stayed in the country after his arrest his supporters would foment violence to try to bring down the interim government and restore him to power.

It wouldn't be a first. Bolivia's President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was removed in 2003 using just such tactics. Antigovernment militants, trained by Peruvian terrorists and financed by Venezuela and by drug money from the Colombian rebel group FARC, had laid siege to La Paz. As the city ran short on supplies, Mr. Sánchez de Lozada issued a decree to have armed guards accompany food and fuel trucks. The rebels, who had dynamite and weapons, clashed with the guards. Sixty people died. The president was pressured to step down.

Mr. Sánchez de Lozada told me by telephone last week that he only presented a letter of resignation to the Bolivian Congress when the U.S. threatened to cut off aid if he left the country without doing so. He signed under duress but the letter was then used by the international community to endorse what was in effect a brutal Venezuelan-directed overthrow of the democracy.

The fact that the Organization of American States and the U.S. never defended the Bolivian democracy cannot be lost on the Hondurans or the chavistas. You can bet that Venezuela will try to orchestrate similar troubles in an attempt to bring condemnation to the new Honduran government. Honduran patriots have better odds against that strategy with Mr. Zelaya out of the country, even if Washington and the OAS don't approve.

Write to O'Grady@wsj.com

The Honduran Constitution

http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Honduras/honduras.html

Micheletti Tried to Change the Honduran Constitution in 1985

Micheletti Tried to Change the Honduran Constitution in 1985

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/07/micheletti-tried-change-honduran-constitution-1985

Two Leaders Accept Talks on Dispute in Honduras

According to "Two Leaders Accept Talks on Dispute in Honduras," a July 7, 2009 article in the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The ousted president of Honduras and the leader who has succeeded him in the nation’s de facto government agreed Tuesday for the first time to negotiate a resolution to the political crisis polarizing their country.

At the end of her first meeting with the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the talks would be led by President Óscar Arias of Costa Rica, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is considered one of the region’s most accomplished statesmen.

While Secretary Clinton reiterated the United States’ condemnation of Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, she stopped short of calling for his reinstatement, a departure from statements by President Obama earlier Tuesday and from the position taken by much of the international community.

When asked whether the United States viewed Mr. Zelaya’s return as central to the restoration of democratic order, she said that she did not want to “prejudge” the talks before they began.

“There are many different issues that will have to be discussed and resolved,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But I think it’s fair to let the parties themselves, with President Arias’s assistance, sort out all of these issues.”

A senior administration official said that Mr. Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for negotiating an end to conflicts that plagued Central America during the cold war, began quietly laying the groundwork to mediate the Honduran talks last week when it became clear that efforts by the Organization of American States had only hardened the resolve on both sides.

At the same time, the official said, United States diplomats, along with their counterparts from Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Colombia, also began discussing the need for an outside mediator. The crucial turning point, said several officials close to the deliberations, came Sunday, when Mr. Zelaya’s attempt to return to Honduras set off deadly demonstrations outside its main airport.

That afternoon, officials said, Roberto Micheletti, the head of the de facto government, issued an urgent call for negotiations. On Monday he dispatched a delegation of businessmen, legislators and other civil servants to Washington and reached out to Mr. Arias.

Aides to Mr. Arias called Mrs. Clinton’s office to see whether the United States would support his mediation. And on Tuesday, she presented the plan to Mr. Zelaya. Officials said that before endorsing the idea, Mr. Zelaya asked to speak with Mr. Arias himself, and that the State Department facilitated the call.

Mrs. Clinton characterized her meeting with Mr. Zelaya as “positive.” An official who attended the session said Mr. Zelaya added a moment of levity to the meeting, making light of how soldiers rousted him from his home early in the morning and put him on a plane leaving the country.

“What have Latin American presidents learned from Honduras?” he asked Mrs. Clinton.

As the secretary shook her head, Mr. Zelaya smiled and said, “To sleep with our clothes on and our bags packed.”

In Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, Mr. Zelaya’s wife made her first public appearance since her husband’s ouster, joining hundreds of demonstrators in a march to the American Embassy, where they praised the Obama administration for refusing to recognize the de facto government.

“We see here the real people,” said Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, addressing a crowd made up of union members, farmers and other members of the working class.

Meanwhile, thousands of flag-waving opponents of Mr. Zelaya gathered downtown, and hung piñatas bearing the faces of Mr. Zelaya and the leftist leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

“What we’re saying today is we want to be united,” said Juan Diego Zelaya, a candidate for deputy mayor from the conservative National Party. “This is not rich versus poor.”

From Washington, Mrs. Clinton urged Hondurans on all sides to remain calm.

“Our goal has been to reach the point where we are now,” she said, “which is to get the parties talking to each other, and not through us or third parties.”

Mr. Zelaya, a close ally of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has been accused of flouting the law in an effort to amend the Constitution so he can run for re-election. His opponents — who include a broad cross-section of Honduran society — said those charges led to his ouster.

Still, speaking from Russia early Tuesday, President Obama said there was a greater principle at stake: “America supports now the restoration of the democratically elected president of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies.”

Ginger Thompson reported from Washington, and Marc Lacey from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Coup Puts Honduran Diplomats, Friends and Colleagues, on Opposing Sides

In a July 7, 2009 New York Times article, Coup Puts Honduran Diplomats, Friends and Colleagues, on Opposing Sides, Marc Lacey reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The two men were much more than just colleagues. They were longtime friends who had negotiated the rough-and-tumble circles of Honduran politics to become their nation’s top ambassadors in the United States, if not the world.

Then both received early morning telephone calls, and had to make a fateful choice. The government they were representing had been toppled and a new one was sworn in hours later, requiring each man to quickly search his conscience and pick a side.

They chose differently.

“We have always shared the same values; then we separated,” Jorge Arturo Reina, the Honduran ambassador to the United Nations, said of his erstwhile ally, Roberto Flores Bermúdez, the Honduran ambassador to the United States. “He took one path. I took another.”

The gaping divide over the ouster of this nation’s president, Manuel Zelaya, has been on violent display in recent days, with angry street demonstrations for one side or the other in the capital and intense diplomatic jockeying on the world stage.

But there has been another, deeply personal fallout from the debate over the president’s removal, as friendships and even family ties are strained by the nation’s sudden political schism.

In the insular elite of Honduran politics, the ruptures are evident, perhaps inevitable. Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of the ousted president, talks about her lost friendship with Xiomara de Micheletti, the wife of the man who helped depose her husband.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, almost as if the two men were not locked in a bitter, international tug of war for control of the country. “We were friends.”

Less than a year ago, Mr. Zelaya endorsed Roberto Micheletti’s attempt to become the presidential nominee for the Liberal Party, of which both men are members. Mr. Micheletti’s candidacy failed, but as next in line for the presidency he took over after Mr. Zelaya’s ouster. Now he is vowing to arrest Mr. Zelaya if he tries to return to the country.

So divided is the country that discussion of the ouster is banned in some households. “In my family, it’s a very delicate topic,” said Luis Estrada, an architect. “I have relatives on both sides and I have friends on both sides. If you don’t want a fight, you talk about something else.”

The rift is a lot harder to smooth over for the two ambassadors. Mr. Reina used to be Mr. Flores Bermúdez’s law professor, and later became his mentor.

But when Mr. Zelaya was rousted out of his home by soldiers at the end of June and shuttled from the country, the two men found themselves taking drastically different paths.

Mr. Reina called the change in government illegal and refused to recognize the new one as anything other than a collection of coup plotters. Mr. Flores Bermúdez cast his lot with the new government and called the ousted president a crook who tried to subvert the Constitution.

“It was not an easy decision,” Mr. Flores Bermúdez said in an interview. “The difficulty was because I had been the ambassador for Zelaya. I had undertaken a lot of efforts on his behalf to bring our country closer to the United States. Then he was gone.”

Convinced Mr. Zelaya had been ousted legally, Mr. Flores Bermúdez returned home to get instructions from a new foreign minister, then went back to Washington. But his task became more complicated than ever, since Honduras has been condemned across the world for deposing its president and tossing him out of the country without a trial.

Mr. Flores Bermúdez argues that Mr. Zelaya flouted judicial orders against plans to remake the Constitution. The president’s removal from office came after a court order for the army to detain him, he said, and Mr. Micheletti was voted in by Congress.

But Mr. Reina dismisses such arguments. He has refused to recognize the new government, has rebuffed calls to return home and continues to operate at the United Nations even though his budget has been frozen. “This was simply a coup d’état covered up as a legitimate change,” Mr. Reina said. ”I don’t even call these new people a government.”

Mr. Reina has continued to speak out on behalf of Mr. Zelaya at the United Nations, arguing that if there were charges against him he should have been prosecuted. There is nothing in the law that allows a president to be sent off on a plane at gunpoint, he noted, a point to which even those who back Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, including Mr. Flores Bermúdez, reluctantly agree.

Mr. Reina insists that he still reports to Patricia Rodas, Mr. Zelaya’s foreign minister, who was briefly detained after the president’s ouster and now lives in exile. As for a recent letter Mr. Reina received, firing him from his ambassadorship, he said in a recent radio interview: “I do not abide by it, by whatever name it may be called, because I do not recognize the legal legitimacy of those who have sent it.”

Which of the two diplomats is the renegade remains in some dispute. According to Mr. Micheletti’s government, Mr. Reina is a rogue ambassador who is using the government’s offices in New York without authorization. Mr. Flores Bermúdez, by contrast, was stripped of his diplomatic credentials by the State Department on Tuesday afternoon, a move that seemed to be in keeping with the Obama administration’s condemnation of the Honduran president’s ouster.

“Since that moment,” Mr. Flores Bermúdez said, “I have been presenting myself as the former ambassador from Honduras.”

Both are major figures back home. Mr. Reina, 74, is the brother of Carlos Roberto Reina, who was president from 1994 to 1998. A former law professor, university dean and member of Congress, Mr. Reina has sought the presidency himself, representing a leftist faction of the Liberal Party.

Mr. Flores Bermúdez, 59, who remembers Mr. Reina’s teaching him law years ago, served as ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994 and foreign minister from 1999 to 2002.

“I’ve always respected him,” Mr. Reina said of his friend and former student. But, he added: “I think he’s made a mistake. I regret his decision and I think he will one day too.”

Mr. Flores Bermúdez said he called Mr. Reina before he announced that he would be siding with the new government. He hoped the breach between them would one day be repaired. “We’re both thinking of our country,” he said.