Zelaya, deposed in a coup last June, boarded a plane for the Dominican Republic shortly after President Porfirio Lobo, an opposition leader elected in November, took office.
Thousands of Zelaya’s supporters cheered and shouted at the airport as his plane took off.
Zelaya’s exit marks the closure of seven months of political chaos in the impoverished nation of 7 million people set off by his ouster by troops in June. He was flown out of the country but returned in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.
“They’re never going to let him come back,” supporter Carla Lopez said, holding her two-year-old daughter and choking back tears as she watched Zelaya leave from behind an airport fence. Others said they believed Zelaya would return one day.
U.S. and Latin American governments slammed the coup and many countries denounced Lobo’s election on Nov. 29 under a de facto government as illegitimate, but months of mediation and talks failed to reverse the coup and restore Zelaya. Zelaya, his wife and daughter flew to the Dominican Republic on the plane of Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, who invited Zelaya to live in his country and attended Lobo’s swearing.
Lobo received the presidential sash in a ceremony in the national stadium attended by foreign leaders, the military and supporters, and vowed to move beyond the chaos of recent months.
