CUBA, June 30, 2009. The countries with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras in a protest action against the coup staged against constitutional President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi announced that the ALBA countries will maintain a reduced diplomatic representation in Tegucigalpa until the legitimate government of Zelaya is reinstated in the country. El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes called his ambassador in Honduras for consultation and expressed his support of the diplomatic measure against the unconstitutional and de facto government established after the coup in Honduras, according to Granma newspaper, which cites a wire by Reuters. The ALBA countries also requested a statement of the UN Human Rights Council on the coup staged in Honduras. The ambassadors of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela at the United Nations expressed their full rejection and condemnation of the use of force to drive out Jose Manuel Zelaya from power. They also requested the statements of the acting president of the Human Rights Council Alexa Van Meeuwen and from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay. During the extraordinary meeting of the Rio Group, held Monday in Nicaragua, Chile and Mexico announced that they would summon their ambassador in Honduras for consultation. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula had previously said that his ambassador to Honduras Brian Michael Fraser Neele would indefinitely remain in Brazil and would not return to Tegucigalpa. (Cubaminrex- ACN)
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