Showdown looms in Honduras after coup
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 06, 2009 00:00
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Honduras braced for a threatened confrontation Sunday as ousted President Manuel Zelaya insisted he was coming home to reclaim his post, urging his supporters to mass at the airport for a showdown with the interim government in power since the army sent him into exile a week ago.
Zelaya was set to return to the poor Central American country on Sunday, a week after the army threw him out, as Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press yesterday.
Honduras' Roman Catholic archbishop urged Zelaya to stay away, warning that his return could spark bloodshed. The interim government stuck to its threat to arrest Zelaya and put him on trial despite near-universal international condemnation of the coup that removed him over his campaign to revise the constitution.
In Washington, the Organization of American States suspended Honduras as a member late Saturday, but Zelaya's replacement, Roberto Micheletti, already pulled the country out of the group over its ultimatum to restore Zelaya. As more than 10,000 of his supporters protested Saturday near the heavily guarded presidential palace, Zelaya posted an audio message on the Internet urging loyalists to greet his arrival. "We are going to show up at the Honduras International Airport in Tegucigalpa ... and on Sunday we will be in Tegucigalpa," Zelaya said in the taped statement carried Saturday on the Web sites of the Telesur and Cubadebate media outlets.
He implored supporters to remain peaceful. "I ask all farmers, Indians, young people and all workers' businessmen and friends ... to accompany me on my return to Honduras," he said. "Do not bring weapons. Practice what I have always preached, which is nonviolence."
Honduras' Roman Catholic archbishop urged Zelaya to stay away, warning that his return could spark bloodshed. The interim government stuck to its threat to arrest Zelaya and put him on trial despite near-universal international condemnation of the coup that removed him over his campaign to revise the constitution.
In Washington, the Organization of American States suspended Honduras as a member late Saturday, but Zelaya's replacement, Roberto Micheletti, already pulled the country out of the group over its ultimatum to restore Zelaya. As more than 10,000 of his supporters protested Saturday near the heavily guarded presidential palace, Zelaya posted an audio message on the Internet urging loyalists to greet his arrival. "We are going to show up at the Honduras International Airport in Tegucigalpa ... and on Sunday we will be in Tegucigalpa," Zelaya said in the taped statement carried Saturday on the Web sites of the Telesur and Cubadebate media outlets.
He implored supporters to remain peaceful. "I ask all farmers, Indians, young people and all workers' businessmen and friends ... to accompany me on my return to Honduras," he said. "Do not bring weapons. Practice what I have always preached, which is nonviolence."