The deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, addressed the United Nations on Tuesday.
The United Nations marshaled an unusually broad effort on Tuesday to condemn the military seizure of power in Honduras, turning over the podium of the General Assembly to its ousted president and quickly passing a resolution sponsored by countries often at loggerheads, including the United States and Venezuela.
The deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, said the “brutal” coup, including what he called a threat by soldiers to shoot him dead if he did not stop talking on his cell phone, was a blow against democracy.
“When these threats are issued behind rifles or bayonets, then here, in the 21st century, that means that we have still not progressed enough,” he said.
Mr. Zelaya, greeted by sustained applause when he entered the august chamber and seated in the Honduran seat on the assembly floor, said the resolution supporting him “expresses the indignation of the people of Honduras and of people worldwide.”
The one-page resolution, passed by acclamation in the 192-member body, condemned the removal of Mr. Zelaya as a coup and demanded his “immediate and unconditional restoration” as president.
His ouster on Sunday was the culmination of a battle that had been simmering for weeks over a referendum, which was to have taken place that day, that Mr. Zelaya hoped would lead to a revision of the Constitution. Critics said it was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the Constitution’s limit of a single four-year term for the president.
Soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, early in the morning on Sunday, disarming the presidential guard, waking Mr. Zelaya and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica. Later on Sunday, the Honduran Congress voted him out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.
In a news conference after the resolution was passed at the United Nations, Mr. Zelaya insisted that he would fulfill his four-year term, but said he would step down after that. “I am going to return to civilian life, not to political life.”
With the president of the General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, sitting next to him, Mr. Zelaya vowed to return to his country on Thursday, despite warnings that he could face arrest. But he said that a number of other leaders had offered to escort him, including Mr. d’Escoto, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and the secretary general of the Organization of American States.
Mr. Zelaya also dispelled suspicions that Western nations like the United States may have instigated or tacitly approved of his ouster, an allegation that has been repeatedly put forward by his close ally, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
“The United States has changed a great deal,” he said at the news conference, noting that President Obama had not only denounced his removal as an illegal coup but had also called for his return to power.
In Washington, the Obama administration continued to stand by Mr. Zelaya. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the United States did not see any acceptable solution other than Mr. Zelaya returning to power.
Mr. Zelaya was supposed to meet with Thomas Shannon, an assistant Secretary of State, on Tuesday or Wednesday on the sidelines of an Organization of American States meeting to hash out a response to the crisis in Honduras. White House officials said that there were no plans as of Tuesday afternoon for Mr. Zelaya to meet with Mr. Obama, but that could change, one administration official said.
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Full article and photo: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/americas/01honduras.html?hp
