Spoke Too Soon Award winner

Irony time in Honduras:

Just hours after President Manuel Zelaya told Spain's El Pais newspaper that a coup d'etat against him was thwarted (supposedly by *American* intervention)...

"Everything was in place for the coup and if the U.S. embassy had approved it, it would have happened. But they did not ... I'm only still here in office thanks to the United States," he said in the newspaper interview published on Sunday.

...things haven't quite worked out that way.

Local television in Honduras reports he was arrested on Sunday by troops. Here is a more detailed report from the BBC.

Looks less like a coup d'etat and more like perhaps the Supreme Court of Honduras is not feeling very forgiving after Zelaya led a bunch of protesters to the nearby base and demanded possession of the ballots for this weekend's referendum, which has been declared illegal.

It remains to be seen what charges are filed, if any. That will decide whether this arrest is legal or not.

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Update:

Now there is something just a little inexplicable about this... President Zelaya is in Costa Rica, claiming "a coup" and a "brutal kidnapping".

There is an Army presence in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, with armored vehicles seen and trucks loaded with riot-equipped soldiers surrounding the Presidential Palace, but...

...no one is claiming to be in control...

...and how the heck did Zelaya get out of the country, free to make counter-claims?

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More on this Fauta's Blog , with some details the English-language media is still behind on. She's running updates as new information becomes available.

The key point made there (Fausta's) based on Spanish-language sources is that the Supreme Court of Justice did issue an arrest order.

Based on some very clever other people's observations there, it may well have been in response to a clear violation of Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, but I'll leave that for better scholars on current Honduran Law than me to make clear.

The question of "why isn't Zelaya still under arrest?" remains open for now.

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Chasing sources, getting some much appreciated help (thank you, M!)

This *may* be getting much bigger. "radio bemba" (Venezuelan; rumors) sources have the Venezuelan Armed Forces being put on alert... and that

El comandante del Comando Sur le dice a VENEZUELAN ARMY que no se atrevan a despegar sus aviones o helicopteros, serán derribados en el Caribe, este consejo se extiende a los Cubanos y Nicaraguenses.

That would be "Commander of (U.S.) Southern Command has told Venezuelan Army not to dare to take off, otherwise its planes or helicopters will be shot down. The same goes for Cubans and Nicaraguans." in English. Please, take this all as rumor, but it illustrates how bad this could get if it spirals.

H. Chavez (President of Venezuela; chief Zelaya ally) has stated in public that the Armed Forces of Venezuela are on alert... his quote according to the AP was "is at battle"...

I could call the USSOUTHCOM PAO... on a Sunday... to get a heartfelt *no comment*... and probably some other choice words about my ancestry... and I wouldn't blame him a bit. Let's leave that be until a press release is issued.

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There has been some matter of a Zelaya resignation letter, dated last Thursday, being waved around in the Honduran Congress, however it is confirmed that The Honduran Congress has named Speaker Roberto Micheletti as the new President, which follows constitutional rules of succession.

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Source in the U.S. government are now stating that the Zelaya government is still recognized.

"We recognize Zelaya as the duly elected and constitutional president of Honduras. We see no other," the Obama administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

It is clearly becoming a case now where the failure to detain and charge M. Zelaya with specific crimes is calling the entire process into question.

Given that virtually the entire legal and political structure of Honduran state institutions had already weighed in with claims against Zelaya, what happened that prevented the military from moving *after* they had a cooperative prosecutor with an indictment? What is it about the situation that didn't allow for that?

...and, again, how did Zelaya end up a free man in Costa Rica able to plead his case from a position of a defensible claim of being wrongly removed?

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