CNA: Military Coup in Honduras will Increase Poverty in that Country

[magbana]

acnnews 6

Military Coup in Honduras will Increase Poverty in that Country

HAVANA, Cuba, July 8 (acn) Honduran Minister for Finances, Rebeca
Patricia Santos, denounced that the coup d’etat against President José
Manuel Zelaya will increase poverty and the effects of the world
economic crisis in her country.

In statements in Mexico to Telesur multinational television network, she
warned that until such time as democratic institutional order is
restored in Honduras, with the reinstatement of Zelaya, social plans and
development projects devised by his government are in danger.

As an example, she said that this year the country would have been able
to count on 700 million dollars coming mainly from multilateral
organizations and the Andean region, most of which was destined to
investments in popular sectors.

According to the Honduran Minister, who took refuge in Mexico after the
overthrowing of her country’s constitutional government on June 28, six
of every 10 inhabitants of that Central American nation live in poverty
or in abject poverty.

The government of President Zelaya made great efforts to implement
social programs that would benefit some three million and a half of my
compatriots, emphasized Santos during her interview with Telesur, one of
the few international media outlets objectively reporting the situation
in Honduras.

However, the military coup and the isolation of its perpetrators in
Honduras, after being suspended by the Organization of American States
and condemned by the United Nations, endanger international donations,
which represent 20% of the national budget, she specified.

All this, she added, affects the population directly, particularly the
dispossessed, since Honduras is Latin America’s fourth poorest nation.
Growth predicted for Hondurans this year was 2%, after registering 4.3 %
in 2008.

The fact that investments have been brought to a standstill also have
direct impact on poverty level in the country, where a rate above
demographic growth, which is over 2%, is needed.

For his part, Zelaya assured on Tuesday in Washington that there can’t
be any negotiation with the coup perpetrators, and that the only
solution is his reinstatement in his post.

During a press conference after his conversation with US Secretary of
State Hillary, he said that he accepted the mediation of Costa Rican
President Oscar Arias to restore constitutionality in the Central
American nation, and clarified that it’s a question of planning the exit
of those who forcibly divested him from his post and expelled him to
Costa Rica.

Inaccuracies were evidenced during the news conference, when some of the
journalists, while asking about the de facto government of Roberto
Micheletti, didn’t define whether it was a military coup or not.

worldnews/trm/trm/aga

Golpe de estado en Honduras incrementará la pobreza


Cuban News Agency
www.cubanews.ain.cu
[e-mail]

[Judi Lynn]

1. They are also going to lose the edge they had with oil at a helpful discount. n/t

[EFerrari]

2. Her numbers are 'way low, I think. n/t

[Bacchus39]

3. the Honduran embargo n/t

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