Honduran president 'fears new coup'

A year after the coup that ousted Honduras' former president, Manual Zelaya's successor has expressed concerns that he too could be toppled. Porfirio Lobo said on Monday that he is the target of a new plot by some of the same wealthy businessmen who supported Zelaya's removal. The claim, made less than a month before Monday's first anniversary of the coup, indicates the lingering instability of a desperately poor country where a few prosperous families call the shots. In an interview with the Associated Press on Sunday, Oscar Alvarez, the security minister, said: "If they did it once, they can do it again." However, Juan Barahona, the leader of the anti-coup movement that staged months of protests last year, dismisses Lobo's conspiracy talk as a media ploy to gain sympathy and create a false impression of independence from the business community. "This regime is controlled by business. It's a continuation of the coup," Barahona said.