HONDURAS COUP

There has been a coup in Hondouras. Do we thereby conclude that the President could not be corrupted, or was it that the local wealthy elite merely acted on their own?

Since 1975, Australians can identify with the overthrow of an elected government.Al Jareeza sets out some general facts about Honduras:

• Second largest country in Central America


• Population of 7.2 million


• Second poorest country in the region


• Economy forecast to grow less than two per cent this year


• Relies on money from Hondurans in the US for more than 25 per cent of its gross domestic product


• Former Spanish colony gained independence in 1821.

The BBC described events in Tegucigalpa:

Troops in Honduras have detained the president and flown him out of the country after a power struggle over plans to change the constitution.
President Manuel Zelaya was flown to Costa Rica from an air force base outside the capital, Tegucigalpa. Mr Zelaya, elected for a non-renewable four-year term in January 2006, wanted a vote to extend his time in office. His arrest came just before the start of a referendum ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and opposed by Congress. There was also resistance within Mr Zelaya's own party to the plan to hold the vote. Reuters news agency reports that police fired teargas at about 500 supporters of Mr Zelaya who had gathered outside the presidential palace.

The United States, it seems, has opposed the coup which would have happen earlier if they had supported. The most plausible explanation is that the coup was organized from within Honduras without external support.

Deposed President Zelaya has asked his supporters to mount "peaceful resistance".

Honduras would appear to be the classic banana republic. Military coups occurred in 1963 and 1975 with the government returned to civilian rule in 1981.