Word: coups
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
...accuse him of, despite his strong alliance with the more radical, anti-U.S. Chavez. "It's like when people in your country call President Obama a socialist just because he stumps for healthcare reform," Zelaya says. "The presidential term limits issue was just a false pretext for a coup...
Zelaya is now betting he can bring the coup leaders to the table to sign the San José Accord, the deal brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias with the backing of the U.S. and the Organization of American States. It would return Zelaya to the presidency for the waning months of his term - but with certain conditions, such as dropping the Constitutional reform effort - while granting an amnesty to the coup leaders. "We have to do this," says Zelaya. "I don't want to see Honduras become the first Latin American country of the 21st century to revert...