Honduras military ousts the president

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras yesterday, and the country's Congress named a successor - drawing condemnation, unusually, from the United States and Venezuela.

In the first military ouster of a Central American government in 16 years, President Manuel Zelaya was awakened yesterday by gunfire and detained while in his pajamas.

Zelaya was toppled hours before voting was to start in a constitutional referendum he had called that many saw as an attempt by him to stay in power beyond the one-term limit. The voting did not take place.

An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace.

"I want to return to my country," Zelaya said in Costa Rica. "I am president of Honduras."

Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even Zelaya's former allies turning against him.

Congressional leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in to serve until Jan. 27, when Zelaya's term ends. Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president on the referendum.

Zelaya denied resigning and insisted he would serve out his term, even as the Supreme Court backed the military takeover and said it was a defense of democracy.

Micheletti was sworn in at a ceremony inside the Congress building with chants from fellow legislators of "Honduras! Honduras!"

Outside Congress, a group of about 150 opposed to the ouster shook their fists, chanting "Out with the bourgeoisie!" and "Traitors!"

Micheletti insisted he did not arrive at his new post "under the aegis of a coup d'etat," saying the process was a "legal transition."

He said "the armed forces have complied with the constitution and the laws."

Micheletti warned against outside interference after Venezuela President Hugo Chavez remarked he would seek to "overthrow" him.

The Honduran Supreme Court and attorney general had called the referendum illegal. The constitution prohibits changes to some of its clauses, such as the bar on a president's serving more than one term, they said.

Some businesses in the capital, Tegucigalpa, shut last week amid rising tension and speculation about a coup.

In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez vowed to work with allies to push for Zelaya's return.

President Obama said he was "deeply concerned."

"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law, and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama said in a statement.

Knowing trouble was brewing in Honduras weeks ago, the Obama administration repeatedly warned power players there, including the armed forces, that the United States and other nations in the Americas would not abide a coup, officials said. They said Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls.

Coups, some U.S.-backed, were common in Central America for four decades reaching back to the 1950s.

But yesterday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez and the first in Central America since military officials forced President Jorge Serrano of Guatemala to step down in 1993 after he tried to dissolve Congress and suspend the constitution.

"We thought that the long night of military dictatorships in Central America was over," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, who sat beside Zelaya at a news conference.

Zelaya told the Venezuela-based Telesur network that he was awakened by gunshots and the shouts of his security guards, who he said resisted troops for 20 minutes. He said eight to 10 soldiers in masks escorted him onto an air force plane that took him to Costa Rica.

Union and farm groups supported Zelaya's push for the referendum - which he said was aimed at changing policies that have excluded the nearly three-quarters of Hondurans who live in poverty.