The Impossible

U.S. Army School of America trained soldiers overthrow the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya. In a well-planned operation, 200 masked soldiers under the command of General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez stormed the presidential palace in the middle of the night. The soldiers grabbed President Zelaya from his bed, forced him onto an airplane and flew him into exile. The state television was taken off the air. Electricity to the capital, Tegucigalpa, was cut, as were telephone lines and cell phone service. SOA-trained Honduran Army Attorney Col. Herberth Inestroza justified the military coup and stated in an interview with the Miami Herald , "It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible.'' The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for a referendum to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans want to enter a process to modify their constitution.  In response, President Zelaya fired the head of the military, SOA graduate General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez. The heads of all branches of the armed forces then quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by a Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez remains in control of the armed forces. Vasquez Velasquez, along with Honduran Air Force, General Luis Prince Suazo and other coup leaders, graduated from the SOA. Records show that Vasquez Velasquez took a basic combat arms course at SOA in 1976 and another course on small military units in 1984, while Prince Suazo took a 1996 course on joint operations. While a repressive campaign against the ensuing resistance is unleashed, the U.S. refuses to call the overthrow a military coup and undermines efforts to restore democracy.