Honduras Coup Called Illegal, International Criticism Mounts
Related subjects: Americas, Diplomacy & Politics, European Union, Global, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, Spain, The Vote Comments (1)
A military coup that ousted democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has come under increasing criticism across the world. The US administration of Pres. Barack Obama said the coup was illegal and called for the democratically elected president to be reinstated. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa, demanding Zelaya’s return, only to be confronted by heavily armed military and police deployments.
Left-leaning Latin American governments have revoked their dipolomatic envoys, and Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, has announced an agreement whereby his nation, together with Guatemala and El Salvador, would halt all trade to Honduras for at least 48 hours. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, himself restored to power after an attempted coup, has gone as far as to say his nation would “support the rebellion of the Honduran people”.
Spain’s foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos has said his nation and the European Union are considering withdrawing their ambassadors as well, in a show of protest against the military coup. Moratinos said the naming of an interim president by the coup leaders was a “farce” and that Spain and the EU are demanding the reinstatement of Pres. Zelaya, without delay.
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According to a news blog hosted by the United States’ largest labor organization, the AFL-CIO:
The AFL-CIO today called on the U.S. government and the international community, particularly the Organization of American States and the United Nations, to “make every effort” to restore constitutional order in Honduras and reinstate democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup Sunday.
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, said the coup was “an unconscionable attack on the fundamental rights and liberties of the Honduran people”. Sweeney also cited eyewitness accounts of thousands of unarmed demonstrators being attacked with teargas and batons by forces allied with the coup leaders.
The labor organization called on foreign governments, including the US, to take a firm stand against the coup and demand and assist in the reinstatement of ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya, for his part, has pledged to return to Honduras this week in hopes of being reinstated as president of the nation. Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, has said Zelaya risks detention if he returns to Honduran soil.
Zelaya said José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, would return with him, to ensure that the full pressure of hemispheric diplomacy were with him when he seeks reinstatement. Micheletti argues that Zelaya was ordered removed from office by an independent court for violating the constitution, and that his interim presidency is a “constitutional succession”.
Zelaya’s opponents argue that he violated the Honduran constitution by calling an illegal referendum to alter the nation’s charter to allow himself to run for re-election. Members of the military say they intervened to remove him from office when a court ruled that only the Congress, and not Pres. Zelaya, had the power to organize such a constitutional vote.
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[...] Zelaya was ousted by a military intervention in June, after a ruling from the nation’s highest court found that his attempts to organize a referendum to alter the constitution and serve a third term were illegal. The governments of the US and the EU, as well as diplomats from the UN and other international bodies, have called the military intervention illegal, despite Zelaya’s actions having been judged to be outside his constitutional authority. [...]