Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheletti imposed a nationwide 48-hour curfew after the army ousted elected President Manuel Zelaya and sent him into exile.
Congress voted Micheletti in as the country’s new leader just hours after Zelaya fled, while insisting he was still president.
Shots were heard in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa late on Sunday and the UN General Assembly was to discuss the crisis in yesterday when Micheletti was to announce his new government.
After some 200 troops swooped on Zelaya’s home at dawn on Sunday, he was bundled away in his pyjamas and flown out of the country. Zelaya traveled to Costa Rica and later Managua to take part in a summit of Latin American leaders. He told reporters he was determined to return and “reclaim his post.”
At the summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the international community should teach the Honduran government “a lesson” and threw his weight behind Zelaya.
But the meeting ended without any specific recommendations. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said leaders were determined to avoid “bloodshed.”
Micheletti brushed off international condemnation of the takeover.
He “had came to the presidency not by a coup d’etat but by a completely legal process as set out in our laws,” he said.
The curfew would end today, he said.
Micheletti warned Chavez his country was ready to “go to war” if there was interference by “this gentleman.”
The interim leader said he had information that several batallions of troops were being prepared outside of Honduras for intervention.
“I would not want anybody to have the courage to do that because our armed forces are ready to defend the country,” he said.
In Tegucigalpa , shots were heard near the presidential palace late on Sunday.
And a politically powerful union of teachers announced an indefinite strike to protest Zelaya’s ouster.
As planes and helicopters overflew the capital, several hundred Zelaya supporters ignored warnings to stay home and took to the streets of Tegucigalpa shouting, “We want Mel,” the president’s nickname.
The demonstration was halted in front of the presidential palace by troops and armored vehicles.
Zelaya’s overthrow was triggered by a standoff between the president and the military and legal institutions over his bid to secure a second term.
Congress said it voted unanimously to remove the president for “apparent misconduct” and “repeated violations of the Constitution and the law and disregard of orders and judgments of the institutions.”
Micheletti was appointed to serve out the rest of the term, which ends in January. New general elections are planned for Nov. 29.
Zelaya, who was elected to a non-renewable four-year term in 2005, had planned a vote on Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a referendum to allow him to stand again in the November polls.
The referendum had been ruled illegal by Honduras’s top court and was opposed by the military.
The Supreme Court said on Sunday that it had ordered Zelaya’s ouster to protect law and order.
Also See: Latin America condemns coup
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS