Honduran ex-President Zelaya stopped at airport in Tegucigalpa

Tegucigalpa, November 27 (RHC)-- Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said on Friday that he had been unjustly detained at the Central American nation’s Toncontin International Airport for allegedly carrying $18,000 in cash, which he said was not his.

“I don’t know the origin of that money.  Obviously, someone must have put it in my belongings.  I have travelled 400 times and I know that you cannot travel with that amount of money.  It is necessary to investigate who planted that money in my belongings,” Zelaya told local media.  Earlier, he wrote on Twitter that he had been “unjustly detained”.

“The reason, a bag of money with $18,000, which is not mine.  Now in the presence of the prosecutor,” Zelaya wrote.  He said he was stopped at immigration control in Toncontin airport after a search of his carry-on luggage.

Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, who led Honduras from 2006 to 2009 and was an ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was deposed by the military in a June 2009 coup, supported by the United States and its reactionary allies in Latin America.

He has remained active in politics as leader of the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundacion (Liberty and Refoundation Party) and his wife ran in presidential elections on the party ticket in 2013.  

The former president told local media that he planned to travel to Houston, Texas on a layover before flying to his final destination, Mexico, where he is set to give a conference on Saturday.