“There is a Coup Against my Government”: Hondura’s President Xiomara Castro

Tegucigalpa, August 30 (RHC)--The President of Honduras denounced on Thursday that a coup d’état is being plotted against her government, in what was her first reaction to the breakdown of an extradition treaty with the United States, after the interventionist statements of the U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa.

President Xiomara Castro said: "I want to tell you that a plan is being hatched against our government.  Yesterday, the chief of the Armed Forces and the minister of Defense were attacked in our country."

She said that this means "an attack that cannot be allowed because it weakens the institutionality of the Armed Forces, [now that we are] focused on the electoral process."

The Honduran president recalled that "we have already experienced a coup d’état in our country" -- referring to the coup of June 2009, overthrowing her husband Manuel Zelaya and eventually recognized by the United States government, which helped to organize the military coup.   She went on to say that "we know what this means -- it means violence, persecution and human rights violations."

President Xiomara Castro promised the Honduran people that "there will be no more coups" and that her administration will not allow "the instrument of extradition to be used to intimidate or blackmail the Armed Forces of Honduras."