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Aide: Zelaya plane stopped at base with US troops
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 16 - 08 - 2009

A top official in Honduras'
ousted government charges there was U.S. involvement in the
coup that deposed Manuel Zelaya, saying the plane that flew
him into exile stopped at an airfield manned by American
troops, according to AP.
U.S. officials declined immediate comment. Washington has
opposed the coup, cut off millions of dollars in aid to the
Central American nation and demanded Zelaya be returned to
office.
Patricia Valle, who served as Zelaya's deputy foreign
minister, says the Honduran military aircraft took off from
the capital's Toncontin airport, then landed to take on
fuel at the Soto Cano base before heading to Costa Rica.
She says Zelaya stayed on the plane during the stop.
Soto Cano, also known as Palmerola, is a Honduran military
base that is home to at least 500 U.S. troops engaged in
counter-narcotics operations and other missions in Central
America.
Valle charged Saturday that the stop at Palmerola showed
U.S. officials at some level were complicit in the June 28
coup, although she gave no evidence that American personnel
at the base interacted with the Honduran military officials
on the plane or that they even knew Zelaya was there.
«Zelaya was taken to Palmerola,» Valle told The
Associated Press. «The United States was involved in the
coup against Zelaya.»
She didn't offer any proof for that assertion and stressed
that she didn't believe the highest levels of the Obama
administration were involved.
Valle made the allegation in response to a question about
a report in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo
saying Zelaya spoke about stopping at the base and raised
suspicions about U.S. complicity during a meeting with
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday.
Silva's office could not confirm Zelaya's remarks during
the meeting. However, the deposed president mentioned his
concerns to reporters in Brazil.
«The Obama administration has been firm in condemning the
coup and demanding my restitution. I do not see reasons to
believe that the Obama administration has two faces,»
Zelaya said last week. «Now, there are some elements of
the CIA that could have been involved. When they took me by
plane to Costa Rica, it was a short flight but the plane
made a stop at the Palmerola air base to refuel. Palmerola
is a base administered by Honduran and U.S. troops. If it
was a short flight, some 40 minutes, why did they have to
refuel at Palmerola base?
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Shantel Dalton said she had no
information about Valle's claim and could not comment.
Joint Task Force-Bravo, the military unit that operates at
the base, and the U.S. Southern Command did not return
calls.
Palmerola was used by the United States during the Central
American civil wars of the 1980s. U.S. Air Force personnel
are responsible for maintaining the airfield and share air
traffic control duties with Honduran authorities, according
to the Joint Task Force-Bravo Web site.
Zelaya has increasingly voiced his frustration with the
U.S. government for failing to impose tougher penalties on
the coup-installed government.
Washington has suspended millions of dollars in military
and development aid to Honduras, one of the poorest
countries in the Western Hemisphere. But it has stopped
short of imposing trade sanctions that could cripple the
Honduran economy, which is highly dependent on exports to
the United States.
The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti is
trying to withstand international pressure to restore
Zelaya before scheduled Nov. 29 presidential elections. It
insists Zelaya was legally removed from office after
violating court orders to call off a referendum asking
voters whether they would support rewriting the
constitution.
Micheletti voiced his own anger over Washington's stance
on the coup, saying he hoped that U.S. Ambassador Hugo
Llorens would not return to Honduras from a trip abroad.
The U.S. Embassy has said Llorens left Honduras temporarily
for personal reasons and has not been withdrawn from his
post.
«I understand he is on vacation, so I hope he doesn't
come back,» Micheletti said Saturday during a meeting with
more than 3,000 army reservists in the northern city of San
Pedro Sula.


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