People mobilize against Coup in Honduras

Salvador: Salvador- ean official Ana Cristina Aviles affirmed today from Tegucigalpa the Honduran people took to the streets in protest for the coup dA’etat against constitutional President Manuel Zelaya.

In telephone statements given to Prensa Latina in this capital, Aviles highlighted the immediate popular mobilization to reject this action by the military.

Front line witness to the events, the deputy head of the FMLN fraction in the Central American parliament insiste don the strength of that condemnation since the kidnapping of Zelaya in todayA’s early hours.

The people defies the troops, set tires on fire before the presidential house in Tegucigalpa, said the official.

Avil‚s arrived in Honduras to attend as observer the refer‚ndum announced by the government to be held this Sunday about the possibility to convoke a Constitutive National Assembly.

In this context, the FMLN deputy to that regional parliament informed the army withdrew the ballot boxes in place for that poll. With many questions yet to be put before Aviles, the telephone conversation was cut suddenly and could not be reestablished.

The FLMN government of El Salvador came forward yesterday against the destabilizing actions faced by the Zelaya administration.

“We want to express our solidarity with president Manuel Zelaya, his government and his people, whose opini¢n should be respected,” indicated the spokesperson of the government party Sigfredo Reyes.

According to extraofficial reports known by Prensa Latina in Guatemala, the Salvadorean ambassador in Tegucigalpa will be put in service of those people who feel persecuted by the eventual repression of the coup perpetrators.

First Honduran Lady: Free the President

Xiomara Castro, wife of the Head of State of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, requested the military troops that kidnapped her husband Sunday to liberate the President and to offer him guarantees for his life.

“This morning the voice of the Honduran people has been silenced, with rifles and violence,” the First Lady stated, and said that the people is presented in the streets to support Zelaya.

Military troops occupied the headquarters of the Presidency of Honduras to stop Zelaya who was driven in a first moment to a military air base in Tegucigalpa, his private secretary, Eduardo Enrique Reina confirmed.

Zelaya confirms he is in Costa Rica

San Jose, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya confirmed he is in Costa Rica, as he was kidnapped by Honduran military officers, who dragged him from his residence.

During a telephone contact with TELESUR, Zelaya made clear he continues in his post, he did not request political asylum and intends to attend a meeting of Central American presidents scheduled for Managua, Nicaragua, to condemn the coup in his nation and demand the restoration of constitutional order.

Zelaya called on the Honduran people, their social organizations and unions to unite and fight peacefully for their rights, without violence, through civil disobedience.

Honduras FM and Ambassadors kidnapped

Washington, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) Honduran Foreign Ministers and ambassadors of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela were kidnapped today by masked men as part of the coup dA’etat in the Central American nation.

The ambassador of Venezuela to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton Matos, denounced the above incident during the emergency meeting held this Sunday in the regional organizationA’s headquarters.

Persons kidnapped are being beaten by the military, denounced the diplomat.

UN, Bolivia condemn coup

United Nations, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) UN General Assembly President, Miguel Escoto, condemned today in a “clear, decisive and sharp” manner the coup against the Honduran constitutional president Manuel Zelaya.

Escoto has summoned his crisis cabinet for an urgent meeting in his office at the UN to evaluate the current situation in the Central American nation, told Prensa Latina his official spokesperson, Enrique Yeves.

“The situation is worrying because unfortunately in Latin America we still recall the sound of sabres in the barracks,” according to statements by DA’Escoto quoted by Yeves. Bolivian President Evo Morales condemned on Sunday the kidnapped of his Honduran peer Manuel Zelaya by military officers.

“What is happening in Honduras due to the actions of military groups only contributes to discredit Armed Forces in countries in Latin America, which participate in their people’s decision, said Morales.

He added that the coup against the Honduran government is a venture against democracy and popular will.

“I express my admiration and respect for Zelaya, whom I know very well and whom I have shared many experiences with,” he stressed, and urged the Honduran people to defend their president and express their rejection of his kidnapping.

Chavez: CIA behind coup

Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez requested Sunday that US President Barack Obama, to be pronounced against the military coup in Honduras, which he considered is carried out with the participation of the Central Intelligence Agency. (CIA)

In statements to television channel Telesur, Chavez stated that he rejected the coup “right from its bone marrow” and asked the Honduran military troops not to face the people that went out to the streets to request the return of President Manuel Zelaya.

OAS calls urgent meeting

Washington, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) The Organization of American States called an urgent meeting of its Permanent Council on Sunday to discuss the coup d’ Etat in Honduras, where a group of military officers kidnapped President Manuel Zelaya.

The meeting, convened by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, is scheduled for 15:00 local time.

The military officers took Zelaya away for an air base in Tegucigalpa, as denounced by presidential private secretary Enrique Reina. “They took the president away for the air force. We are making the international denounciation,” said Reina. He explained that the military officers fired four shots and then left the house in three vehicles bound for the air base.

The private residence of the president was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, as planes flew over the capital.

TV Channel 36, Channel 8, Maya TV and several radio stations have been shut down.

Just seconds before TV broadcast was lost, the Channel 8 news presenter requested the people to gather at La Libertad square to defend their president.

President restitution

Hondurans went out to the streets Sunday to demand the return of President Manuel Zelaya, kidnapped at dawn by military troops, in a moment of uncertainty because there is fear for the physical integrity of the Honduran leader.

The news of the coup runs from one mouth to another, because the main media, in favor of the oligarchy, silence the details of the kidnapping.

Officials, political leaders and workers said that up to the moment the signal of the Honduran state Channel 8 of television was taken out of the air to prevent that the people knows the truth.

However, the Hondurans are mobilized and numerous people went to the Presidential House claiming to the Army for the liberation of Zelaya, but social leaders, interviewed by TV network TELESUR, assured that the military do not hear the popular demand.

Those mobilized call the soldiers traitors, in a confrontation ascending of tone. Some of the trucks of the Army, surrounding the presidential house, go back for moments because of citizens pressure using stones to face the soldiers.

Houses and offices of the main leaders of the nation were taken by the military, but Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas assured that there would not be a step back in the fight for the rights of the Honduran people.

The kidnapping of Zelaya, Rodas noticed, is a crime against our democracy.

These incidents have as origin the decision of the oligarchical groups of sabotaging the development of the popular consultation of this Sunday, as a first step for the future convoking to a Constituent National Assembly and to reform the Constitution for the sake of defending the elementary rights of the Hondurans.

Guatemala, Prensa Latina