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Home > What's New > Honduran President Unseated in Military Coup
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Honduran President Unseated in Military Coup
Posted: Monday, June 29, 2009
By Gregory Mottola
Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was removed from office at gunpoint on Sunday by a congress-approved military force after Zelaya attempted to overstay his four-year term. Congress immediately named congressional leader Roberto Micheletti as Zelaya's successor.
Zelaya, whose presidency was about to end in 2010, planned on appealing to the Honduran population in hopes for a referendum that would have ended presidential term limits and kept him in office indefinitely. Such referendums are forbidden by Honduras' constitution and contradict the country's current democratic laws on voting.
Zelaya was taken from his bed by Honduran soldiers with full support from Congress and the Supreme Court, and exiled to Costa Rica. The transfer of power has been officially condemned by U.S. president Barack Obama, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and former Cuban president Fidel Castro. But what does this political move mean for the significant cigar industry in Honduras?
"We know that the president was trying to stay in power indefinitely, and we know that everyone was against it," said Alan Rubin, president of Alec Bradley Cigar Co., which has some of its brands made in Honduras. "In retrospect, it looked like he was trying to gain the people's support by raising the country's minimum wage. The coup probably kept the country stable, upholding democracy for the country's capitalist society."
Rubin said that there have been no interruptions at the Fabrica de Tabacos Raices Cubanas factory in Danlí, Honduras, where his Tempus brand is made.
There were also no interruptions at the Scandinavian Tobacco Group Danlí factory, (formerly known as Latin Cigars de Honduras) where many Toraño and C.A.O. brand cigars are produced.
"I was on the phone at 7 this morning and everyone was at work," said Charlie Toraño, president of Toraño Cigars. "The Supreme Court, Congress, military and a great majority of the people were against the president who, in my opinion, was working his way into a dictatorship."
For more responses from the cigar industry, see the entire story in the next issue of Cigar Insider.
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