On the morning of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers arrested President Manuel Zelaya in his pajamas and promptly sent him on a plane to Costa Rica. The leftist Latin American leader was quick to call his arrest and expulsion a coup, but unlike coups beforehand control of Honduras did not rest with the military. The speaker of the Honduran National Congress and a member of Zelaya's own Liberal Party, Roberto Micheletti, was quickly sworn in as interim leader as called for in the order of succession. And though the plan was to ride out the storm until planned presidential elections on Nov. 29, 2009, global condemnation came crashing down on the Central American nation -- even from the United States -- as Zelaya worked every diplomatic angle possible to keep foreign governments and international institutions on his side. All this even though the Supreme Court and Congress in Honduras had followed protocol to remove Zelaya from power.
Why Zelaya was removed
Zelaya was ousted for pushing a constitutional referendum that would call a constituent assembly to change the constitution and remove the current limit of one presidential term, worrying critics who noted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez twice pushed a referendum — the second time successfully — removing presidential term limits in what many call an attempt to rule indefinitely. Zelaya was warned that he would be breaking the law if he pressed forward with the referendum that had been deemed illegal by both the Congress and the Supreme Court, but on June 24 Zelaya fired military command leader General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez for refusing to oversee the poll because of its illegality. On June 26, the Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's arrest.
International reaction
After Zelaya was sent into exile, the United Nations General Assembly called for the reinstatement of Zelaya and the Organization of American States suspended Honduras' membership after Micheletti refused to reinstate Zelaya. The United States suspended military aid to the interim government and revoked the diplomatic visas of officials including the supreme court judge who signed the order to arrest Zelaya, while sidestepping around whether the ouster should be called a coup. The U.S. also cut $30 million in aid to Honduras, opening a rift between the Obama administration and anti-Chavez lawmakers who saw the move as punishing the country for simply following the rule of law. Chavez, meanwhile, hatched conspiracy theories about U.S. involvement in the overthrow while simultaneously urging Zelaya to try to speak with President Barack Obama, saying that the American president's support would "deliver a major blow" to Honduras's interim government. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attempted to broker a mediation with Costan Rican President Oscar Arias.
Zelaya's successor
The ouster happened just months before Zelaya was set to be term-limited out of office. On Oct. 29, 2009, Micheletti's government agreed to allow Zelaya back in the country and serve out the remainder of his term if this was agreed to by the Congress; the Supreme Court would also pass a non-binding opinion. Zelaya did not follow through with the coalition government accord, though, stating that he would refuse to recognize the previously scheduled Nov. 29 elections. The elections were held as planned, with the U.S. eventually pledging to recognize the results.
Conservative Porfirio Lobo, head of the opposition National Party of Honduras, won with about 56 percent of the vote and 61 percent voter turnout. Zelaya immediately pounced upon the election as illegitimate, and claimed that voter turnout was much less. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva refused to recognize Lobo as president-elect, even though Lobo is promoting unity and reconciliation in the wake of the crisis. "There are still many nations, especially in Central America, in vulnerable political situations. Brazil therefore must not recognise nor rethink the Honduran question," da Silva said, reflecting the consistent tenor of Latin American nations in resisting recognition of what is perceived to be a coup.
