Venezuela's Chavez threatens invasion of Honduras

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened to intervene on the North American continent following a military coup in Honduras, just two hours by airliner from Miami. President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power and forcibly taken to Costa Rica when members of the country’s armed forces stormed the national palace and removed him in his pajamas. As for President Chavez, he said that there are reports that his ambassador to Honduras was beaten and left on the side of the road, and that if his ambassador has been killed or his embassy violated "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily ... I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

The Congress of Honduras removed President Manuel Zelaya from office, having accused him of “numerous violations” of the Central American country’s constitution, as well as other laws and court findings. Zelaya, an ally of President Chavez, was arrested during the early morning hours on June 28 by Honduras’ armed forces and taken under guard to Costa Rica where he is currently in exile. Roberto Micheletti, who had been president of the national legislature, was named interim president. The Congress published what was purported to be a June 25 letter from Zelaya announcing his “irrevocable” decision to resign. Armored vehicles and soldiers are guarding strategic points throughout the capital city, and radio and televisions blacked out, in scenes reminiscent of Latin America of the past. The capital remains quiet, even while there were protests at the national palace with President Zelaya’s detractors outnumbering his supporters.

Zelaya, for his part, said in Costa Rica that he had not resigned and that he remains the legitimate leader of Honduras. He affirmed that “an ambitious group” of military to leave his post. Said Zelaya, “I want to return to my country.” Arriving in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, and at the side of Nobel Prize winner and former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, Zelaya said that he has no need of asylum in the sister republic of Central America.

In Costa Rica, Zelaya said that he was not given time to put on underwear or socks, being arrested by members of the armed forces between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time in Tegucigalpa. The presidential guard resisted the armed forces arrayed against them and, while reports are still incomplete, there appear to have been several wounded and dead. There are currently approximately 300 armed troops holding the presidential compound. In addition to Zelaya, his wife Xiomara de Zelaya, and the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua have also been detained. The foreign minister of Honduras is also under arrest, as well as several other government ministers.

Zelaya’s detention following several weeks of mounting political tensions in Honduras over the president’s ambitions to reform the nation’s constitution to allow his re-election. His detractors claimed that he had hoped to remain in power indefinitely, something which he has always energetically renounced. The coup came on June 28 when there was to be a national non-binding referendum called by Zelaya to the constitution.

President Chavez of Venezuela has vowed to resist the coup and has put his nation’s armed forces on alert. Said the red-shirted South American leader,of the “troglodite coup d’etat”, that the “hour of the people has come” and of social forces in Honduras. He called on President Barack Obama “to speak out” since “the empire has a great deal to do” with the situation in Honduras. Recalling his accusation that the U.S. during the George W. Bush Administration allegedly tried to depose him from power, Chavez said “They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this."

Indeed, President Obama said he was deeply concerned from the news out of Tegucigalpa and said “I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," and "Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."

Chavez was joined by a chorus of leftist supporters such as Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. These were joined the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the former Catholic priest and Nicaraguan Sandinista revolutionary, called the Honduran military's intervention a "criminal action." Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez called the coup “brutal, criminal.”