Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Honduras’ interim government could try to provoke a border military incident “to distract attention” from international efforts to restore ousted president Manuel Zelaya.
Ortega cited no evidence in making the claims, which come as Honduras’ coup-installed leader dampened hopes for a negotiated solution to the country’s crisis, capping days of mixed signals by saying firmly that there’s no way the ousted president could return to power.
“There is a danger that, to try to distract attention from the internal conflict they themselves created, they might organize a group of people with military training to attack a Honduran army position, for that to serve as a pretext for a retaliation against Nicaragua,” Ortega said in a speech in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital.
Ortega, who has been hosting Zelaya and a few hundred of his supporters camped out near the Honduran border, did not offer details on when such a provocation might occur.
“But they shouldn’t think they would have a cakewalk in Nicaragua,” Ortega said.
The two countries’ border was the scene of much of the fighting in the 1980s Contra war, in which US-backed rebels fought Ortega’s Sandinista government.
“We are not talking about an army that doesn’t have a history of aggression against Nicaragua,” Ortega said.
Ortega said his country “is preparing for war because we want peace.”
Marking a tougher stance, riot police fired tear gas and arrested supporters of Zelaya who blocked a main artery leading into the Honduran capital on Friday.
Interim president Roberto Micheletti said that his government would no longer tolerate street blockades that regularly snarl traffic in Tegucigalpa and other cities.
Micheletti’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it “reserves the right” to cancel visas for US diplomatic personnel in Honduras, in retaliation for Washington’s decision this week to revoke the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials. However the government did not take any immediate steps against US diplomats.
Zelaya’s return has been a key demand of crisis mediator and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who also has proposed amnesty for the coup plotters and other measures as part of a compromise deal.
But on Friday, a judge in Honduras issued yet another set of arrest warrants against Zelaya and three other former officials for alleged falsification of public records, fraud and abuse of authority. The charges are related to the alleged misappropriation of US$2 million in government funds to pay for ads by Zelaya’s administration in January.
The interim government previously announced Zelaya faces charges of treason, usurping the powers of other branches of government, abuse of authority and trying to undermine Honduras’ system of government.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
RSS