Honduran president arrested

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – More than a dozen soldiers arrested President Manuel Zelaya and disarmed his security guards after surrounding his residence before dawn Sunday, his private secretary said. Protesters called it a coup and flocked to the presidential palace as local news media reported that Zelaya was sent into exile.

The chief executive was detained shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum the president had insisted on holding even though the Supreme Court ruled it illegal and everyone from the military to Congress and members of his own party opposed it.

Zelaya was taken into military custody at his house outside the capital, Tegucigalpa, and whisked away to an air force base on the outskirts of the city, his private secretary, Carlos Enrique Reina told The Associated Press.

Tanks rolled through the streets and Army trucks carrying hundreds of soldiers equipped with metal riot shields surrounded the presidential palace in the capital’s center. About 100 Zelaya supporters, many wearing “Yes,” T-shirts for the referendum, blocked the main street outside the gates to the palace, throwing rocks and insults at soldiers and shouting “Traitors! Traitors!”

It was not immediately clear who was running the government. Soldiers appeared to be in control, but the constitution mandates that the head of Congress is next in line to the presidency, followed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Neither military nor presidential officials have said who’s in charge.

Honduras has a history of military coups: Soldiers overthrew elected presidents in 1963 and again in 1972. The military did not turn the government over to civilians until 1981, under U.S. pressure.

“We’re talking about a coup d’etat,” labor leader and Zelaya ally Rafael Alegria told Honduran radio Cadena de Noticias. “This is regrettable.”

Alegria said that shots were fired during the president’s arrest “but we really don’t know much about what happened.”

Outside Zelaya’s residence, a police officer who would not identify himself by name told the AP that soldiers had disarmed Zelaya’s security guards but there was no violence or injuries.

Honduran radio station HRN reported that Zelaya had been sent into exile, citing unidentified “trustworthy sources.”

The radio announcer said it was not known to what country he had been taken but “apparently he flew on the presidential plane to Venezuela.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro have both expressed support for Zelaya.

Zelaya’s constitutional successor, Congressional President Roberto Micheletti, has been one of the president’s main opponents in the dispute over whether to hold the referendum. The head of the Supreme Court was also opposed to Sunday’s election. The nonbinding referendum was to ask voters if they want to hold a vote during the November presidential election on whether to convoke an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

It appeared pretty certain that the vote would no longer take place.

Zelaya supporters who would have cast their ballots in favor of the referendum instead stood outside the gates to the presidential palace to protest his arrest.

“They kidnapped him like cowards,” screamed Melissa Gaitan, 21, an employee of the official government television station, as tears streamed down her face. “We have to rally the people to defend our president.”

Alegria added, “We demand respect for the president’s life. And we will go out into the streets to defend what this has cost us: living in peace and tranquility.”