Honduran president calls arrest a ‘kidnapping’
June 27, 2009
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says soldiers rousted him out of bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pajamas in what he criticized as “a coup” and “a kidnapping.”
Zelaya told a local television station Sunday that he is at the airport in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica.
He said he would not recognize any attempt to name a replacement for him following his detention earlier Sunday.
Zelaya says he will be meeting with diplomats and stressed he wanted to serve out his term, which ends in early 2010. He called for talks.
Zelaya was detained by army troops early Sunday, shortly before he was to have held a controversial referendum on constitutional reform opposed by most of the rest of the Honduran government.
