CIA Foreknowledge of Coup in Honduras

Manuel Zelaya Rosales, President of Honduras, was pulled out of his official residence at 3am this morning by the Honduran military. Tanks are in the streets of Tegucigalpa. Zelaya is said to have been shuffled off to Costa Rica, where he will ask for asylum.

It's a strange situation. Zelaya is a leftist, a Chavez-style populist (the Venezuela president is a big ally). He was at the end of his term, and like Chavez, was about to hold a referendum (today, Sunday) to change the Constitution to allow him to run for another term.

The coup, spearheaded by Honduras' top general Romeo Vasquez Velazquez, smells like CIA--and not surprisingly, that's what Hugo Chavez is telling the press. But here's the strange part: earlier yesterday, President Zelaya told a reporter from El Pais that unknown people from the US government had "made some phone calls" to head off a coup. "If I'm sitting here today in the President's office, it's thanks to the US." Here's the Q and A (or that is, the P and R) from El Pais: More

Assembly President strongly condemns 'attempted coup' in Honduras