Leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday says the military coup in Honduras should be seen as a warning for T&T. Panday said this in response to questions on Sunday's bloodless coup, in which the military seized power from Manuel Zelaya, the democratically-elected President of the Central American country. He was taken to Costa Rica, and new interim leader, Roberto Macheeletti, has imposed a curfew.
Panday said such developments would occur in any country when the democratic means of change were blocked.
"I have been saying that when you block the democratic channels for change, people are going to resort to violence. What has happened in Honduras is a warning for Trinidad. "Mr Manning is lucky he did not get his jet," Panday said. Asked if he was condoning the coup, Panday said it was not a matter for him to condone or not to condone. "That was a peripheral issue." Prime Minister Patrick Manning, in a statement hours after the coup, had called for the immediate restitution of Zelaya.
Meanwhile, the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) has joined an increasing list of international organisations which have condemned the military coup on Sunday morning.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power by the military in a bloodless coup and taken to Costa Rica because he was proceeding with a referendum in defiance of the Supreme Court there, which ruled the initiative to be illegal. The ACS, which is headquarted in Port-of-Spain, said it adhered to the position of the Central American Integration System (CISA), the Rio Group and other international organisations that have condemned "the violation of the constitutional and democratic order in Honduras."
The ACS added that it also condemned the way the Honduras military personnel treated the country's Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, and the Ambassadors of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. "The situation is a serious violation of international law, and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. "This rupture of the constitutional order is unacceptable, and the ACS reiterates and demands his restitution as president of the republic."