Insulza announces the suspension of the participation of Honduras in the Organization of American States (OAS) due to the interruption of constitutional order
Tegucigalpa, 5 July 2009
In a hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at 8pm yesterday night, the Secretary General of OAS (Organisation of American States) Miguel Insulza stated the following at a press conference:
‘There has been a serious interruption to constitutional order in Honduras due to the expulsion of the President of the Republic from Honduras.
The OAS continues to recognize José Manuel Zelaya Rosales as the legitimate president of Honduras.
The OAS does not recognize any government that comes into being through a coup d’état such as the one that took place in the early hours of Sunday 28 June 2009.
The OAS calls for the reinstatement of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.’
The Secretary General Insulza continued by saying that: ‘The Permanent Council of OAS is acting in accordance with Article 20 that stipulates that the Secretary General must take steps to act in this case in Honduras before taking more drastic measures, this is determined by the General Assembly. We consider that a coup d’état and serious interruption to constitutional order have taken place, therefore we ask for those who have taken power to revert the country to its former state and in addition we regret that those who took power on 28 June do not intend to enter into dialogue and cede power.
I regret to say that the initiatives I take are not dependant on all this being resolved and I have received various documents from various sectors and I will report all this to the General Assembly so that it can make the decisions that it considers correct in order to bring about dialogue, in this case Article 21 authorizes the Assembly to suspend the participation of a state in which constitutional order is interrupted.
This legal conflict is due to the violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and therefore this needs to be put right and I see no indications that the situation in Honduras will change in the next 48 hours.’
‘With the purpose of my visit here to Honduras I believe that I have spoken sufficiently to the various sectors making up society such as trade unions, businessmen and women, politicians, the church, social organizations etc. I’ve already formed an opinion and this is what I have concluded.’ After giving this long explanation, Insulza proceeded to answer questions from the national and international media.
After hearing the declarations of the OAS General Secretary, the Roberto Micheletti government said that they would hand in Honduras’ resignation from the OAS, which according to the organization’s statues is not possible.
Social and popular movements demonstrated their satisfaction with the OAS decision to not recognize any government but that of José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and today thousands of people are continuing their protests on the streets of Tegucigalpa from 8am, starting in front of the teaching university Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán and at this time the mass march is heading to Toncontín International Airport to meet their head of state José Manuel Zelaya Rosales as there is information that he will be arriving in the country in the evening but this remains to be confirmed.
