Riots in Honduras after military coup

A curfew has been imposed in the Honduran capital as riots rage in the wake of the military coup. Meanwhile, interim president Roberto Micheletti promises presidential polls will go ahead as scheduled on November 29.

Manuel Zelaya was arrested after he sought to change the constitution to get a second presidential term.

The Central American country’s government named Roberto Micheletti acting president until Zelaya’s term ends in 2010.

Zelaya was exiled to Costa Rica by the country’s military, but is now in Nicaragua. There the ousted president will join other presidents in the region to try to resolve the first military overthrow of a Central American country since the Cold War.

The Organization of American States has condemned the coup and called for Zelaya to be reinstated. In addition, the Obama administration has said it recognizes Zelaya as the only constitutional president of Honduras.

Countries throughout Latin America and the world condemned Zelaya's expulsion. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela “is at battle” and put his military on alert.

“This is starting to look like a carbon copy of the 2002 US-supported coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela,” said American investigative journalist and RT contributor Wayne Madsen.

“President Zelaya was kidnapped just like Chavez, who was flown to an airbase and then exiled, but he defeated that coup, and now we have president Zelaya in Costa Rica. The coup leader, General Romero Vasquez, is a graduate of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – that’s where they teach these generals in Latin America how to do this kind of ‘textbook coup’.”