Word: coupe
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Zelaya believes he put his adversaries' backs to the wall this week. He may, however, have painted himself into a corner as well. By sneaking back into Honduras on Sept. 21 and taking refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the exiled leader - deposed in a June 28 military coup - hoped to turn up pressure on the de facto government to negotiate a settlement that would put him back in office until his term ends in January. But in a telephone interview with TIME on Friday, Zelaya complained of noxious tear gas wafting into the embassy, the scene this week...
Those who back Zelaya's restoration, including the Obama Administration and every other world government, argue that condoning a military coup would simply set Latin America's democratic clock back to the dictator-infested 20th century. Zelaya's opponents equate his leftist politics with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - whom they call a socialist caudillo - and they point to Chavez's declaration this week that he helped Zelaya get to Tegucigalpa as proof that Zelaya is the Venezuelan's puppet...
...Brazilian mission. It took him in, even though it may have to host Zelaya, who would be arrested if he stepped outside, for weeks if not months. Zelaya had tried unsuccessfully to fly and walk into Honduras in July. "How could I stay in exile," he asks, "when the coup has been condemned by every country in the world? I had to come back to show support for the people who elected me." Even those who support restoring him to office wonder if his theatrical return actually hurts his chances of getting de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti to agree...
...admonished him to soften his rhetoric. But after army and police riot squads were criticized at home and abroad this week for their heavy-handed use of clubs, tear gas and mass arrests, Zelaya still argues, "We came here for dialogue and they answer us with war. Since the coup this has become a violently repressive regime." Micheletti supporters, however, suggest that's part of Zelaya's strategy. The only way he can win, they say, is if his demonstrators can prevent the country's Nov. 29 presidential election from taking place, or provoke security forces into atrocities that would...
...Micheletti camp, which denies Zelaya's ouster was a coup, says Zelaya was booted out because he defied a Supreme Court order not to hold a non-binding referendum on whether to convene a special assembly to reform Honduras' Constitution. The move, say Zelaya foes, was a veiled attempt to eliminate presidential term limits and usher in Chavez-style socialism. But Zelaya, while arguing the Constitution needs to be modernized to better help the 70% of the population who live in poverty, says the referendum "was an opinion poll, and it never once mentioned extending presidential term limits...