28-06-2009, 03:03 PM
From Al Jazeera Sunday:
Quote: Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, has been arrested by soldiers after he vowed to go ahead with a controversial referendum on constitutional changes, his allies and local media say.
Zelaya was reportedly arrested at his home on Sunday morning and taken to a military base on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Zelaya fired the armed forces chief of staff last week after he refused to help him organise the unofficial referendum.
The non-binding vote, which was due to take place on Sunday, would have asked Hondurans whether they approved of holding a poll on constitutional change alongside general elections in November.
Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Tegucigalpa, said: "An eyewitness told us that between five and six in the morning local time about 100 to 200 soldiers surrounded his home in the centre of the capital and three vans drove up to his home and took him."
"A neighbour said that [the president] came out and the army shot at him, about five shots."
The streets of Tegucigalpa were almost empty of traffic on Sunday after reports on local radio urged the city's residents to stay inside.
Referendum 'illegal'
The supreme court and the attorney general have said the referendum is illegal because the constitution bars changes to some of its clauses, such as the ban on a president serving more than one term.
Their decision has been backed by the military and congress.
However, many union and farm groups support the referendum, which Zelaya says is aimed at improving the lives for the nearly three-quarters of Hondurans who live in poverty.
Zelaya was elected for a non-renewable four-year term in 2006.
Congress on Thursday approved plans to investigate the president and possibly declare him unfit to govern.
"We have tried to avoid breaching a constitutional order and sidestep a coup," Roberto Micheletti, the congressional president and a member of Zelaya's own Liberal Party, said.
Late on Friday, the president assured the country that the situation "had returned to normality", but he accused members of congress of "conspiracy" and insisted that the armed forces owed him "obedience".
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]