Troops arrest Honduras president
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was arrested yesterday by troops who surrounded his home ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum, a top government aide said.
"Troops have taken the president from his home to the air force (base)," the president's personal secretary, Enrique Reina, told reporters.
"We're in the process of filing an international complaint," he said.
Elected in 2006 for a non-renewable four-year term, Zelaya had planned a vote Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a future referendum to allow him to run for reelection.
The referendum has been ruled illegal by the country's top court and had been opposed by the military.
The apparent coup is the latest dramatic event in a tense political standoff over the past several days.
Last week Zelaya sacked the country's top military chief, General Romeo Vasquez and also accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana, after military commanders refused to distribute ballot boxes for Sunday's vote.
The heads of the army, marines and air force also resigned.
And in a tense rebuttal of the president's moves, the Honduran Supreme Court unanimously voted Thursday to reinstate Vasquez and hundreds of troops massed late last week in the capital Tegucigalpa, in a move some said presaged a military coup.
Zelaya, who was elected as a conservative, shifted dramatically to the left during his presidency.
He is the latest in a long list of Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to seek constitutional changes to expand presidential powers and also ease term limits.
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