Pat Dollard | Young Americans

TimesOnline:

Jenny Booth

Soldiers have reportedly arrested the President of Honduras and taken him to a military airbase to be flown into exile.

Supporters of Manuel Zelaya described the events as a coup and have gathered outside the presidential palace to protest.

First reports of what happened came from Carlos Enrique Reina, Mr Zelaya’s private secretary, who said that more than a dozen soldiers surrrounded his house outside the capital, Tegucigalpa, before dawn and disarmed his security guards.

He was taken into custody and whisked away to an air force base on the outskirts of the city, Mr Reina said.

It was not immediately clear who was running the Government. Soldiers appeared to be in control, but the Constitution states that the head of Congress is next in line to the presidency, followed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Neither military nor presidential officials have issued a statement to clarify who is in charge.

Mr Zelaya was detained shortly before voting was due to begin on a constitutional referendum that he had insisted on holding, even though the Supreme Court had ruled it illegal and everyone from the military to Congress and members of his own party opposed it.

“We’re talking about a coup d’etat,” Rafael Alegria, a trade unionist and Zelaya ally, told the Honduran radio station Cadena de Noticias. “This is regrettable. We demand respect for the President’s life. And we will go out into the streets to defend what this has cost us: living in peace and tranquillity.”

Mr Alegria said that shots were fired during the President’s arrest “but we really don’t know much about what happened”.

Outside Mr Zelaya’s residence, a police officer said that soldiers had disarmed Mr Zelaya’s security guards but that there had been no violence or injuries.

As the day wore on, tanks rolled through the streets and army vehicles carrying hundreds of soldiers equipped with metal riot shields surrounded the presidential palace in the city centre.

About 100 Zelaya supporters congregated outside the palace gates, many wearing “Yes” T-shirts for the referendum, blocking the street, throwing rocks and insults at soldiers, shouting “Traitors! Traitors!”

The Honduran HRN radio station reported that Mr Zelaya had been sent into exile, citing unidentified “trustworthy sources”.

The announcer said it was not known to what country he had been taken but “apparently he flew on the presidential plane to Venezuela”.

President Chávez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, the former Cuban leader, have both expressed support for Mr Zelaya in the past.

Mr Zelaya’s constitutional successor, Roberto Micheletti, the President of Congress, has been one of his main opponents in the dispute over whether to hold the referendum. The head of the Supreme Court was also opposed to the poll.

The non-binding referendum was to ask voters if they wanted to hold a vote during the November presidential election on whether to convoke an assembly to rewrite the constitution. It appeared certain today that the vote would no longer take place.

Zelaya supporters who would have cast their ballots in favour of the referendum instead stood outside the gates to the presidential palace to protest at his arrest.

“They kidnapped him like cowards,” screamed Melissa Gaitan, 21, an employee of the official government television station, as tears streamed down her face. “We have to rally the people to defend our President.”

Honduras has a history of military coups: soldiers overthrew elected presidents in 1963 and again in 1972. Government did not return to civilian control until 1981, under US pressure.