Word: zelaya
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...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...
Despite evidence to the contrary, Zelaya denies that he defied the Supreme Court. (The matter was being appealed, he says.) But, like the rest of the hemisphere, he asks, "Even if I did, why wasn't I charged and tried in court instead of removed before dawn by the threat of soldiers' bullets and flown away? The army chiefs say it was because I was a communist, that Chavez and Fidel Castro were coming to take over the country. But in fact I was pursuing social policies, like raising the minimum wage, that our economic elite found threatening...
When elected in 2005 with his trademark cowboy hat, Zelaya was widely considered a centrist - and even now he denies that he took the hard left turn as President that his critics 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...
Conditions had improved in the embassy for Zelaya and his entourage since the de facto government restored the building's electricity and water (which Micheletti was widely criticized for having turned off after Zelaya arrived.) Zelaya ended the interview, however, when he claimed the air inside the embassy had gotten too thick with tear gas and possibly other irritatnts. It was a reminder of how murky, and painful, the weeks ahead in Honduras promise...