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Global call to reverse Honduras coup

TEGUCIGALPA (Honduras): Honduras’ new leaders defied growing global pressure on Monday to reverse a military coup, arguing they had followed their Constitution in removing a Leftist President who attacked it.

Presidents from around Latin America were gathering in Nicaragua for meetings on Monday on how to reverse the first coup in Central America in at least 16 years.

The Obama administration and European governments denounced the coup. U.S. officials said they were working for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and European officials offered to mediate talks between the two sides.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took centre stage in the region as he defended his ally Mr. Zelaya by casting the dispute as a rebellion by the region’s poor.

“If the oligarchies break the rules of the game as they have done, the people have the right to resistance and combat, and we are with them,” said Mr. Chavez in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.

He threatened to “overthrow” the new leader sworn in by lawmakers, Congressional President Roberto Micheletti — who replied in an interview with HRN radio on Monday: “Nobody scares us.”

Mr. Zelaya was seized by soldiers and hustled aboard a plane to Costa Rica early Sunday, just hours before a rogue referendum he had called in defiance of the courts and Congress, and which his opponents said was an attempt to remain in power after his term ended on January 27.

Mr. Micheletti said he would only serve out the end of Mr. Zelaya’s term, which ends in January following presidential elections set for November. — AP

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