Cuba urges
condemnation of coup
d’état in Honduras
HAVANA, June 28 (PL). — Cuba today urged
international organizations and Honduran public
opinion to condemn the coup d’état taking place in
that Central American country.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
called on the United Nations, the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM), the Rio Group and the Permanent
Council of the Organization of American States (OAS)
to demand respect for constitutional guarantees in
Honduras.
Cuba considers the coup d’état taking place in
that country to be brutal and criminal, and demands
the restoration to office of President Manuel
Zelaya, and demands guaranteed protection of the
life of Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas.
"I denounce the criminal and brutal character of
this coup d’état," Rodríguez Parrilla said in a
press conference.
The Cuban minister of foreign affairs also urged
the Honduran armed forces to protect the life of
their Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, whose
whereabouts were unknown shortly after midday.
Rodas had been with the ambassadors of Cuba,
Venezuela and Nicaragua at about 10 a.m. local time
in Honduras when Major Oceguera of the armed forces
tried to convince her to leave Honduras, the Cuban
foreign minister said.
However, a group of about 15 soldiers wearing ski
masks broke into the place where they were and took
the diplomats and the foreign minister to the
Tegucigalpa air base, according to Juan Carlos
Hernández, Cuban ambassador in Honduras, who spoke
via telephone.
Hernández emphasized that they were pushed and
beaten by the soldiers, who took away their cell
phones.
Rodríguez, for his part, called on international
public opinion, and the Honduran armed forces —
especially its honorable and honest officers — to
respect the life of Rodas.
The soldiers who kidnapped Rodas violated
international law and the Vienna Convention, the
Cuban foreign minister noted, and they acted in the
manner of the most cruel and violent Latin American
dictatorships of the past.
Likewise, he called for dignity and adhesion to
freedom and the Constitution on the part of Honduran
political parties and the Congress.
Translated by Granma International
