2009 Honduran constitutional crisis

The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis or the 2009 Honduran coup d'état began on 28 June 2009, when soldiers of the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica. The military's seizure of the President preempted a non-binding plebiscite on the possibility of changes to the Constitution of Honduras, which the President had scheduled to be held later that day. The coup occurred in the context of an ongoing dispute between the President, who wanted to convene a National Assembly for the purpose of rewriting the Constitution, and his opponents, who held that such a procedure was illegal and expressed fears that a new constitution would allow the President to seek reelection, which is prohibited under the present constitution. Various official bodies declared that the 28 June poll would be illegal, including the Supreme Court, which on 26 June issued a secret order for the detention of President Zelaya. At dawn on the 28th, about 100 soldiers stormed the president's residence in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, overcame about ten presidential guards, bundled Zelaya onto the presidential jet, and dispatched him to San José, Costa Rica. Later that day, Roberto Micheletti, the Speaker of Parliament, and next in the Presidential line of succession, was sworn in as President by the National Congress. Besides Zelaya, several dozen other officials including the Foreign Minister and the Mayor of San Pedro Sula were detained, and a "state of exception" suspending civil liberties was declared on 1 July by Micheletti's de facto government.
Honduras said that Zelaya had been arrested in compliance with the Constitution, and that the succession was a completely legal process as set out in Honduran laws. However article 102 of the Honduran constitution expressly prohibits the removal of a Honduran citizen from the country. No foreign governments have recognized the new government and many of them have described the events as a coup d'état. The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the United States, and the European Union condemned removal of Zelaya as a military coup. The OAS suspended Honduras on Saturday, 4 July, after the caretaker government refused to reinstate President Zelaya. In response, the military's chief lawyer, Colonel Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, stated, "In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there was a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us." Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho has begun an investigation into why Zelaya was removed from Honduras by force instead of being charged in court. Zelaya also faces 18 criminal charges, including treason and failure to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since he took office in 2006. He could be sentenced to 20 years in prison, although Supreme Court spokesman Danilo Izaguirre has said that Zelaya could be granted political amnesty in order to solve the crisis.