Honduran President Manuel Zelaya arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday after what he described as a coup and a "brutal kidnapping" by soldiers opposed to his efforts to reform the country's constitution and run for another term.
Soldiers patrol in front of the residence of President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa on Sunday. (Esteban Felix/Associated Press) Zelaya said troops beat his bodyguards and rousted him out of bed at his home earlier in the day.
His personal secretary, Carlos Enrique Reina, said Zelaya was then whisked away to an air force base on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa, before being expelled from the country.
"We're in the process of filing an international complaint," he said as Zelaya was flown to San Jose.
Witnesses reported seeing dozens of heavily armed troops surround the president's residence around dawn.
"We're talking about a coup d'etat," labour leader and Zelaya ally Rafael Alegria told Honduran radio Cadena de Noticias. "This is regrettable."
Zelaya was taken away shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum he had insisted on holding, even though the Honduran Supreme Court ruled it illegal and everyone from the military and Congress to members of his own party opposed it.
The military arrest was carried out after the armed forces commander, Gen. Romeo Vasquez, announced on Friday that he would remain at his post after the country's highest court overturned the president’s decision to fire him two days earlier for refusing to support the referendum.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya answers questions during a news conference at the presidential house in Tegucigalpa on Friday. (Esteban Felix/Associated Press) Voters were to be asked to place a measure on November's ballot for general elections to allow the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the country's constitution to allow the president to run for another four-year term.
Zelaya's non-renewable term expires in January.
On Saturday, Zelaya said the results of the vote would be "non-binding." He said its only purpose was to learn whether Hondurans favored "a switch from representative democracy to participatory democracy."
Zelaya was elected as a conservative in January 2006 and shifted to the left. He is the latest of a string of Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo ChГЎvez, to seek constitutional changes to expand presidential powers and ease term limits.
Chavez, speaking on Venezuelan state television, said he would do everything necessary to "abort" the coup.
White House, EU express concern over events in Honduras
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports of Zelaya's detention and expulsion, and he called on “all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms” in a statement issued by the White House.
"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," Obama said in a statement.
"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue, free from any outside interference," he said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned.
A statement released by the European Union's 27 foreign ministers described the overthrow of Zelaya as an "unacceptable violation of the constitutional order in Honduras."
"The EU calls for the urgent release of the president and a swift return to constitutional normality," said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Speaking from Costa Rica, Zelaya said he would not recognize any de facto government and pledged to serve out his term.
It was not immediately clear who was running the government. Soldiers appeared to be in control, but the constitution mandates that the head of Congress is next in line to the presidency, followed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
