Manuel Zelaya Kidnapped and Sent Abroad The Honduran head of state spoke on the phone with TELESUR TV Channel from Costa Rica, where he was forcibly taken, almost naked, as was explained during a special Cuban TV transmission. President Zelaya described the cowardly manner in which the supporters of the Honduran coup acted; they pointed their guns at his chest and head ordering him out of his home. “They got me into a vehicle and took me to an Air Force base; then, they took me to a plane with troops and landed me in San Jose, Costa Rica,” said Zelaya, thanking the Costa Ricans for their hospitality. Zelaya said he was able to speak for 15 or 20 minutes with Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias, who offered him all the assistance he needed. However, Zelaya told Arias that he had not requested political asylum in Costa Rica and claimed that he was the victim of a kidnapping in an action he described as an extortion of the Honduran democratic system. The Latin American statesman called on all presidents in The Americas to condemn the coup against democracy in Honduras, and he particularly requested a statement from US President Barack Obama, whom he asked to declare if he was behind the military coup or not. If the United States is not behind the coup, the coup supporters will not stay in power, not even for the next 48 hours, said Zelaya. He pointed out that Washington could stop this terrible escalation, and President Zelaya said that he has received numerous calls of support from Latin American heads of state, including Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, among others. He said President Daniel Ortega had told him that the Central American presidents would meet in the capital Managua, where he also Zelaya also said that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez had offered him transportation to attend the extraordinary presidential meeting in Managua. He added that due to the critical situation, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) has also called a meeting. The international community must launch its own struggle, because defending Honduras is defending democracy and defending oneself, said Zelaya who called on all democratic systems to be alert in the face of the coup against his government. The Honduran president urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply its so-called Democratic Charter. And, he said that since the OAS general secretary, Chilean Jose Maria Insulza, was scheduled to arrive in Tegucigalpa on Monday, he asked him to do so and help reinstitute democracy in the Central American nation and apply that OAS Democratic Charter.
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