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Local Hondurans back Zelaya's ouster
With audiences largely made up of Hondurans, New Orleans' two most prominent Spanish-speaking radio stations have been flooded with phone calls since the weekend ouster of the Central American republic's president, most in support of the action.
An overwhelming majority of callers to Radio Tropical, KGLA-1540 AM, and La Fabulosa, WFNO-830 AM, likened the military's removal of President Manuel Zelaya to the U.S. Constitution's impeachment process, according to the stations' talk show hosts, managers and guests. Callers also denounced world leaders' use of the word "coup" to describe what happened.
Soldiers seized Zelaya and rushed him onto a plane to Costa Rica early Sunday, hours before he was scheduled to hold a referendum that the courts, Congress and voters had opposed. Zelaya's opponents said the courts ordered his removal because they feared he would use the results to modify Honduras' constitution, which allows presidents to serve just one four-year term, and attempt to run again, just as Hugo Chavez amended Venezuela's constitution to enable him to seek re-election repeatedly.
Honduran-born Mario Zavala, Radio Tropical's programming director, said that an "infinity of calls favored the change" in the country's leadership during the station's dozen of hours of coverage.
That is because "the military is not in charge of the country," meaning the ouster is not a military coup, listeners argued, according to Zavala. Lawmakers instead swore in Congressional President Roberto Micheletti, who will serve out the remainder of Zelaya's term, which ends Jan. 27. Micheletti is a member of Zelaya's own Liberal Party who nonetheless opposed him on the controversial referendum.
Ernesto Schweikert III, the station's owner, said his Honduran listeners were irked that Zelaya tried to hold the referendum six months before the presidential elections.
They questioned not holding the referendum on the day of the regular elections, when a new slate of candidates would vie for the presidency and voters would usually consider a referendum....
