More than 3,000 supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya on Monday threatened to boycott a presidential election planned for November if he is not brought back to power.
Protesters converged on the capital, Tegucigalpa, after marching for several days from eastern Honduras, while other groups headed by foot to the northwestern city of San Pedro Sula, the country’s financial center.
“Our goal is to re-establish institutional order by returning president Manuel Zelaya to power,” protest leader Andres Tamayo, a Salvadoran priest and member of the Resistance Front that opposes the June 28 military-backed coup, told reporters. “If the coup leaders don’t accept, there won’t be any elections. We will boycott them.”
PHOTO: EPA
The move was likely to further prolong the crisis that has gripped the impoverished Central American country.
“Get out, putschists, get out, Micheletti,” protestors shouted as they converged upon the center of Tegucigalpa, referring to Honduran interim President Roberto Micheletti, the former president of Congress who was catapulted to the head of the interim government after Zelaya was expelled from the country.
Zelaya, who was in Ecuador, meanwhile called on his opponents to “listen to the people” and denounced the interim government for the deaths of more than 10 young protesters in Honduras.
“They were murdered in the streets because they were marching peacefully and were slaughtered with bullets,” he said during a mass in Quito celebrating the inauguration of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
While Obama has condemned the coup, Cuban President Raul Castro said it could never have occurred without authorization from Washington.
“On this continent, no one has a coup without receiving authorization from the United States,” Castro said, adding that he still had confidence in Obama, who he called a “well-intentioned man.”
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS