Honduras leader refuses to restore military chief

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The Honduran president vowed Thursday to ignore a Supreme Court ruling ordering him to reinstate the military chief he fired, escalating a showdown that has threatened the leftist leader’s hold on power.

President Manuel Zelaya’s attempt to hold a referendum Sunday on changing the constitution has pitted him against the country’s top courts, the attorney general, military leaders and even his own party, all of whom argue the vote is illegal.

But Zelaya has galvanized the support of labor leaders, farmers and civic organizations who hope constitutional reforms will give them a greater voice in a conservative country where 70 percent of the population is poor.

The crisis quickly ballooned when Zelaya fired Gen. Romeo Vasquez as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff late Wednesday for refusing to support the referendum, which is intended to measure popular support for possible constitutional changes. Zelaya has not said what he wants, but critics accuse him of trying to extend presidential terms before his ends in January, like his ally Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela.

The Supreme court ordered Vasquez reinstated Thursday and warned Zelaya would face penal consequences if he does not respect the ruling.

“We will not obey the Supreme Court,” Zelaya told more than 2,000 cheering supporters gathered in front of the presidential offices. “The court, which only imparts justice for the powerful, the rich and the bankers, only causes problems for democracy.”

The top court, Congress and the attorney general say the vote is illegal because it would violate constitutional clauses barring some changes.

Late Thursday, lawmakers voted to open an investigation of Zelaya and determine whether his refusal to obey the Supreme Court order threatens the rule of law, said Ramon Velasquez of the opposition Christian Democratic Party.

“Once we conclude the investigation, we may will take more drastic measures, but they will be to save the republic,” Velasquez said.

The president’s dismissal of Vasquez prompted the chiefs of the army, navy and air force to resign. The president himself announced Wednesday night that Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana had resigned.

Vasquez said he could not support a referendum that the courts had declared illegal, but he ruled out the possibility of a coup.

“We are prudent and we accept the decision of the president, whom we respect and who has the right to dismiss whom he wants,” Vasquez said.

The Organization of American States called an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the crisis.

The president’s nonbinding referendum asks voters if they want a further, formal election on whether to call an assembly to write a new constitution.

Zelaya, who is close to Chavez and the Castro brothers in Cuba, has argued that Honduras’ social problems are rooted in the 27-year-old constitution. Critics say Zelaya, like Chavez and other Latin American leaders, wants to expand presidential powers and remove limits on re-election.

Venezuela’s socialist president offered Zelaya his full support. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the Honduran people’s will and sovereignty is respected,” Chavez said during his “Alo, Presidente!” program.

Zelaya, a wealthy landowner grappling with rising food prices and a sharp spike in drug violence, is currently barred from seeking re-election when his four-year term ends in January.

“What you see is the growing delegitimizing of a president by a larger and growing group of leading elites, including the military,” said Manuel Orozco, a political analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.

But Zelaya has tapped into discontent among civil organization who see their chance to have greater influence in Honduran politics, Orozco said. And it will be hard to prevent the referendum from happening unless the military steps in directly, he added.

“This fragmentation of the political circles of power have given an opportunity to leverage the demands that civil society has, such as more freedom of expression in a country where the media is owned by a few families,” Orozco said. “I think he has the upper hand right now. The army is uncertain as to whether they should prevent the referendum.”

U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a leftist Nicaraguan priest and former foreign minister, “clearly and strongly condemns the attempted coup d’etat that is currently unfolding against the democratically elected government of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras,” his spokesman said.

Earlier Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered police to remove all electoral material stored an air force base at the international airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa. After his speech, Zelaya and his supporters headed to the military base and took ballots and other materials out in military trucks and headed to an undisclosed location.

On Wednesday, the 128-seat unicameral legislature also voted unanimously to ask a group of international election observers to leave, arguing their presence legitimizes an illegal vote.

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Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City and Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.