CRISIS IN HONDURAS
OAS Expels Honduras
Over Coup
Washington - The
Organization of American States (OAS) late
Saturday suspended Honduras' membership
after the Central American country ignored
an OAS ultimatum to reinstate coup ousted
President Manuel Zelaya.
A special session of the OAS general
assembly held here passed a resolution to
immediately suspend the post-coup government
in Honduras.
Zelaya, who gained support from all the 33
other members of the OAS, was present at the
three-hour meeting.
He said after the meeting that he planned to
return to Honduras on Sunday.
The assembly acted on the basis of the
Article 21 of the OAS Charter that gives it
the right to suspend membership of a country
in case of an "unconstitutional interruption
of democratic order" and when "efforts to
address the situation through diplomatic
means have failed."
The article was used by the organization for
the first time since 1962, when Cuba was
suspended from the OAS for its relations
with the Soviet Union.
OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza went to
Honduran capital Tegucigalpa Friday but
failed to persuade the post-coup government
to restore Zelaya.
Insulza said before he left Honduras for
Washington that he would recommend the
suspension of Honduras from the regional
group.
The Honduran interim government then
announced that the country decided to quit
from the OAS.
A letter to the OAS read by Honduras' Vice
Minister of International Relations Martha
Lorena de Casco said "This government
believes that inside the organization (of
the OAS), there is no room for Honduras, for
the states that love its freedom and defend
its sovereignty."
The OAS Wednesday gave the Honduran interim
government until noon on Saturday to restore
Zelaya to power, or face expulsion.
But the post-coup government leaders in
Honduras rejected the demand and said they
would not negotiate Honduras' sovereignty.
Honduran soldiers stormed the presidential
palace and flew Zelaya into exile in Costa
Rica early morning on June 28, the day
scheduled for a controversial referendum
pushed by Zelaya in a bid to change the
constitution to allow a president to run for
a second term.
Later the same day, the country's
legislature voted to appoint Roberto
Micheletti, head of the legislature, as
acting president to serve out Zelaya's term,
which ends in January.
The post-coup government vowed to arrest
Zelaya if he returns. The country's Catholic
church cardinal Oscar Rodriguez also warned
Zelaya not to come back to avoid bloody
conflict.
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