New Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez Colindres (center) and new Finance Minister Gabriella Nunez (right) are sworn in before Roberto Micheletti (left) who took power on Sunday after a military coup ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Micheletti swore in the first ministers who will join him during the six months of his planned interim presidency. (Xinhua/David De La Paz)Things are about to get uglier in Honduras, with ousted President Manuel set on returning despite a warrant for his arrest if he does, and interim President Micheletti claiming it will take a foreign invasion for Zelaya to be restored.
Zelaya "has already committed crimes against the constitution and the law," said Micheletti, a member of Zelaya's Liberal Party who was named interim leader by Congress hours after coup.
"He can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns."
Oh, brother...is he asking for it?
Micheletti said he would not resign, defying the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Obama administration and other leaders that have condemned the military coup d'etat that overthrew Zelaya, and insisting Honduras would be ready to defend itself against any invasion.
"No one can make me resign if I do not violate the laws of the country," Micheletti told AP. "If there is any invasion against our country, 7.5 million Hondurans will be ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government."
The OAS said Wednesday called for the "immediate, safe, and unconditional return of the president to his constitutional functions," giving coup leaders three days to restore Zelaya to power before Honduras risks being suspended from the group.
If that's all the leverage they've got--a suspension from the OAS--they've got nothing...if you ask me.
"We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted," OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said. "We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere."
Zelaya, who had planned to return to his country Thursday, said he will wait until Saturday, when a three-day deadline expires. He was on his way to Panama today, Reuters reported.
Micheletti again vowed Zelaya would be arrested if he returns, even though the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador have signed on to accompany him along with the heads of the OAS and the U.N. General Assembly, AP reported.
"As soon as he enters he will be captured," he said. "We have the warrants ready so that he stays in jail in Honduras and is judged according to the country's laws," Enrique Ortez, the interim government's foreign minister, told CNN.
Warrants for Zelaya's arrest on charges of violating the constitution and drug trafficking were issued earlier this week. Ortez said Zelaya had been letting drug traffickers ship U.S.-bound cocaine from Venezuela through Honduras, noting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was aware of Zelaya's ties to organized crime, CNN reported.
That's a heck of a low blow if it isn't true. And if it's true...he's toast.
DEA spokesman Rusty Payne could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation.
Well, if the U.S. is set on standing by Zelaya, shouldn't it clarify this allegations?
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington saw no acceptable solution other than Zelaya's return to power, AP reported. He said the U.S. is considering cutting off aid to Honduras, which includes $215 million over four years from the U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation.
All this foreign aid...and meanwhile we can't afford a healthcare reform.
Micheletti has promised that he would step down in January and that he has no plans to ever run for president, AP reported. He said a key goal of his short term in office would be fixing the nation's finances. Zelaya never submitted the budget to Congress that was due last September, raising questions about what he was spending state money on, according to the report.
In a military coup at dawn Sunday, troops took Zelaya by force and flew him out of the country to Costa Rica, effectively blocking a referendum he intended to hold that day asking Hondurans if they wanted to reform the constitution. The Supreme Court, Congress and the military all deemed his planned ballot illegal.
The Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single, four-year term. Congress claims Zelaya, whose term ends in January, modified the ballot question at the last minute to help him eventually try to seek re-election. Chavez has used referendums in Venezuela to win the right to run repeatedly, AP reported.
Zelaya, who is an ally of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, backed down from the referendum Tuesday, saying he would no longer push for the constitutional changes he wanted.
Isn't it a little too late for that? Surely he had the time to give up on his plans before the coup. Congress, the courts and the military were clear on their opposition to the referendum.
Zelaya's popularity has sagged in recent years, but his criticism of the wealthy and policies such as raising the minimum wage have earned him the loyalty of many poor Hondurans, and thousands have rallied to demand his return, AP reported.
Thousands of others rallied in favor of Micheletti, accusing Zelaya of trying to bring Venezuelan-style socialism to Honduras. Yet beyond the demonstrations at the presidential palace and the capital's central square, there has been little sign of major disruption to daily life, according to the report.
I think Honduras coup leaders are hoping the issue will blow over just as the Iran election fallout is sliding toward the back burner, especially when there's no revolt in Honduras, just a few scattered protests, so there's much less pressure from the public to undo what has been done.
Sources: AP, Reuters, CNN
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