US Military Denies Role In Honduras Coup
Flight
By Freduu Cuevas (AP)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The U.S. military
says its troops in Honduras did not know of
and played no part in a flight that took
ousted President Manuel Zelaya to exile
following a military coup.
Zelaya says the Honduran military plane that
flew him to Costa Rica on June 28 stopped to
refuel at Soto Cano, a Honduran airfield
where 600 U.S. troops are based. He has
charged there may have been U.S. involvement
in the coup.
Southern Command spokesman Robert Appin says
U.S. forces at Soto Cano "were not involved
in the flight that carried President Zelaya
to Costa Rica on June 28."
He said in an e-mail to The Associated Press
that U.S. troops "had no knowledge or part
in the decisions made for the plane to land,
refuel and take off."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back
soon for further information. AP's earlier
story is below.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A top official
in Honduras' ousted government charges there
was U.S. involvement in the coup that
deposed Manuel Zelaya, saying the plane that
flew him into exile stopped at an airfield
manned by American troops.
U.S. officials declined immediate comment.
Washington has opposed the coup, cut off
millions of dollars in aid to the Central
American nation and demanded Zelaya be
returned to office.
Patricia Valle, who served as Zelaya's
deputy foreign minister, says the Honduran
military aircraft took off from the
capital's Toncontin airport, then landed to
take on fuel at the Soto Cano base before
heading to Costa Rica. She says Zelaya
stayed on the plane during the stop.
Soto Cano, also known as Palmerola, is a
Honduran military base that is home to at
least 500 U.S. troops engaged in
counter-narcotics operations and other
missions in Central America.
Valle charged Saturday that the stop at
Palmerola showed U.S. officials at some
level were complicit in the June 28 coup,
although she gave no evidence that American
personnel at the base interacted with the
Honduran military officials on the plane or
that they even knew Zelaya was there.
"Zelaya was taken to Palmerola," Valle told
The Associated Press. "The United States was
involved in the coup against Zelaya."
She didn't offer any proof for that
assertion and stressed that she didn't
believe the highest levels of the Obama
administration were involved.
Valle made the allegation in response to a
question about a report in the Brazilian
newspaper Folha de S. Paulo saying Zelaya
spoke about stopping at the base and raised
suspicions about U.S. complicity during a
meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva on Wednesday.
Silva's office could not confirm Zelaya's
remarks during the meeting. However, the
deposed president mentioned his concerns to
reporters in Brazil.
"The Obama administration has been firm in
condemning the coup and demanding my
restitution. I do not see reasons to believe
that the Obama administration has two
faces," Zelaya said last week. "Now, there
are some elements of the CIA that could have
been involved. When they took me by plane to
Costa Rica, it was a short flight but the
plane made a stop at the Palmerola air base
to refuel. Palmerola is a base administered
by Honduran and U.S. troops. If it was a
short flight, some 40 minutes, why did they
have to refuel at Palmerola base?
State Department spokesman Fred Lash said
Sunday the department was not aware of the
claim. Joint Task Force-Bravo, the military
unit that operates at the base, and the U.S.
Southern Command did not return calls.
Palmerola was used by the United States
during the Central American civil wars of
the 1980s. U.S. Air Force personnel are
responsible for maintaining the airfield and
share air traffic control duties with
Honduran authorities, according to the Joint
Task Force-Bravo Web site.
Zelaya has increasingly voiced his
frustration with the U.S. government for
failing to impose tougher penalties on the
coup-installed government.
Washington has suspended millions of dollars
in military and development aid to Honduras,
one of the poorest countries in the Western
Hemisphere. But it has stopped short of
imposing trade sanctions that could cripple
the Honduran economy, which is highly
dependent on exports to the United States.
The government of interim President Roberto
Micheletti is trying to withstand
international pressure to restore Zelaya
before scheduled Nov. 29 presidential
elections. It insists Zelaya was legally
removed from office after violating court
orders to call off a referendum asking
voters whether they would support rewriting
the constitution.
Micheletti voiced his own anger over
Washington's stance on the coup, saying he
hoped that U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens
would not return to Honduras from a trip
abroad. The U.S. Embassy has said Llorens
left Honduras temporarily for personal
reasons and has not been withdrawn from his
post.
"I understand he is on vacation, so I hope
he doesn't come back," Micheletti said
Saturday during a meeting with more than
3,000 army reservists in the northern city
of San Pedro Sula.
Associated Press writers Alexandra Olson in
Mexico City, Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo
and Kathia Martinez in Tegucigalpa
contributed to this report. |
