[December 28, 2009] Zelaya marks 6 months since coup that ousted him in Honduras Tweet Tegucigalpa, Dec 28, 2009 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Six months after being ousted from the presidency of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya remains a "guest" of the Brazilian Embassy awaiting the end of his term on Jan. 27, when Porfirio Lobo will take office. Zelaya has said he will stay as long as necessary in the Brazilian legation, where he sought refuge on Sept. 21 after returning secretly to the country from which he was expelled by the military on June 28. Six months since the coup d'etat, "today we have to promise that we together with the people will keep up a tireless resistance, that we will not be silenced, that we will never lower our guard and that our spirit will remain strong," Zelaya's adviser, Rasel Tome, told Radio Globo. "Today as we reach six months (since the coup), we say that the violations of human rights will not go unpunished," not the shutdown of media, not the murders nor any other acts of repression committed during this period, Tome said. June 28 "is the date when an outworn, obsolete and outdated system died, and a process of social renewal was born, alive, dynamic, made up of the great majority of the Honduran people" that is the National Popular Resistance Front, Tome said. This movement mobilized extensively to demand Zelaya's reinstatement, which Congress rejected on Dec. 2, and now its struggle is focused on calling a constituent assembly. On June 28, Zelaya was going to hold a referendum that had been declared illegal by various state agencies, to promote a constituent assembly. That same day, after Zelaya was ousted by the military, Congress approved a decree deposing him while designating Roberto Micheletti, until then speaker of Congress, as the nation's president. Lobo, a member of the opposition National Party, faces the challenge of winning acceptance by the international community, which does not recognize the de facto government of Micheletti and in general has not accepted the results of the Nov. 29 election, considering that it was held under unconstitutional circumstances. Lobo says that the international community asks for the total fulfillment of the accord that the commissions of Micheletti and Zelaya signed on Oct. 30 in an attempt to resolve the political crisis, which would free up some $2 billion in foreign aid. One demand of the international community is political amnesty, though it was removed from the agreement, as well as the forming of a reconciliation government and a Truth Commission. EFE lam/cd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]