CUBA, June 30, 2009. The Intergovernmental group of Central American countries (C-4) suspended bilateral trade with Honduras after condemning the military coup staged against the constitutional government of President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The C-4 official statement on its cutting trade with Honduras was issued in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua as part of a Summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA) on the political situation in Honduras following the coup against Zelaya, Granma newspaper reports. The Central American group is made up of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, according to the founding documents signed by the representatives of those countries in El Salvador on May 11, 2000. On behalf of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega described as brutal de military coup against the government of Manuel Zelaya and against the Honduran people; he said it is a deplorable and ignominious act. President Ortega announced the suspension of all trade relations during 48 hours as a measure of pressure and isolation against the de facto government installed by the Honduran armed forces in Tegucigalpa. The C-4 also decided to immediately summon their ambassadors in Honduras for consultation following the coup. They also agreed not to recognize any government that may rise in Honduras from the seizure of constitutional order in Honduras and decided to suspend all credits by the Inter-American Integration Bank to Honduras, as well as break all economic, social and political links with the de facto government in Tegucigalpa. (Cubaminrex- ACN) |