Honduras Crisis May Spur Latin America Coups – Castro

Fidel Castro, former Cuban leader, predicted that Latin America would be swept by a wave of military coups if Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was not returned to power after his ouster in a June 28 coup.

Photo: Honduras Crisis May Spur Latin America Coups – Castro

Castro, in a column published late on Friday on an Internet site run by Cuba's communist government, said right-wing military leaders trained by the United States could be encouraged to take up arms against their governments, depending on how the Honduras crisis turned out.

"If President Manuel Zelaya is not returned to his post, a wave of coups threatens to sweep many Latin American governments, or they will be left at the mercy of military men of the extreme right, educated in the security doctrine of the School of the Americas," he wrote, Reuters informs.

According to Wall Street Journal, representatives from Honduras's interim government and the nation's ousted president will continue talks in the coming days aimed at resolving the country's political crisis, mediator Oscar Arias said Friday, even as Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez blasted the talks and hopes of a quick solution faded.

Low-level Honduran officials continued discussions for a second day over the recent removal of President Manuel Zelaya, but neither Mr. Zelaya nor interim President Roberto Micheletti attended. The two men refused to speak to each other Thursday, the first day of the talks, and didn't stay in Costa Rica for Friday's negotiations.

Mr. Arias, Costa Rica's president, said talks would continue. In response to Mr. Chávez's criticisms, Mr. Arias said he was immune to the "verbal bullets" coming from Caracas, and asked that Central American nations be allowed to resolve their own problems, a dig at Mr. Chávez's interventions in the crisis.