The army in Honduras ousted and exiled its leftist president, Manuel Zelaya, yesterday in Central America's first military coup since the cold war, after he upset the army by trying to seek another term in office.
The US president, Barack Obama, and the EU expressed deep concern after troops came at dawn for Zelaya, an ally of the socialist Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, and took him away from his residence.
Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chávez, who has long championed the left in Latin America, said he would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally. He said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was attacked or kidnapped.
"I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert," he said on state television. Chávez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the coup.
Chávez said that if a new government was sworn in it would be defeated. "We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said.
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