TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Both Honduras’ leftist President and the coup leaders who ousted him in 2009 broke the law, a truth commission report found yesterday, in a bid to heal a political rift in the country caused by the affair.
The commission also found Honduran police and soldiers killed 20 people in the days following the June 28 coup in 2009 that toppled President Manuel Zelaya when violent protests broke out between his supporters and security forces.
U.S. and Latin American governments condemned the coup, which installed a de facto government in the banana and coffee exporting nation for months before a Nov. 29 election picked a new President.
The coup was triggered when Zelaya illegally ignored the supreme court and the congress who tried to stop him from calling for a constitutional referendum in a bid to extend presidential term limits, the six-member truth panel said.
Opposition leaders and members of Zelaya’s own party accused him of trying to follow in the footsteps of his ally, Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez, and stay in office indefinitely.
