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Honduran crisis 'threatens democracy'
A rash of military coups could be triggered across Latin America if the world fails to stand up to the illegal regime in Honduras, a close aide of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya warned yesterday.
"The fate of Honduras is not just the fate of Honduras, but of the Latin American continent," Zelaya's special adviser Allan Fajaro told The Independent. "Dark forces," he said, were watching to see how the crisis ends. "If we resolve this constitutionally they will know they too have to respect democracy. If not, these dark forces will know they have a green light and the continent will become an erupting volcano. That will be a very bad outcome, not only for our continent, but for Europe and the world."
The political crisis in Honduras began four months ago when Zelaya, the democratically elected president, was taken from his bed at gunpoint and flown out of the country by the military. A US-brokered power-sharing deal which should have returned Zelaya to his post, at least until elections on Nov. 29, collapsed last week after Roberto Micheletti, who seized power after the coup, reneged by forming a caretaker government without him.
Zelaya, forced to take refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, is now calling for a boycott of the elections. Against a background of wavering support in Washington, he wants European governments to issue a clear warning that they will not recognize the results.