Bloodless coup in Honduras

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 19

Bloodless coup in Honduras

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) GUATEMALA CITY, December 5. President Ramon Ernesto Cruz, of the Central American republic of Honduras, was toppled by a bloodless military coup yesterday and put under house arrest.

General Oswaldo Lopez Arellano —a former President who held virtual power during the 18-month reign of Dr Cruz—was appointed to succeed him, according to a communique broadcast by Tegucigalpa Radio. The communique accused Dr Cruz of plunging the country into social and economic chaos with a Government coalition which was giving a “shameful spectacle.”

In recent months there have been bitter disagreements between the two coalition members, the National and Liberal parties, over proposed tax reforms. Take-overs of farms by peasants protesting against the Government’s land reform policies have also been reported. The reports said that there had been numerous clashes in which an undetermined number of people had been killed.

General Lopez was given full powers to rule Honduras by decree for a period of not

less than five years, the communique said.

Dr Cruz, a jurist and law professor who had considerable experience in international affairs, also pledged to seek a peaceful solution to Honduras’s festering border troubles with neighbouring El Salvador which led to a bloody six-day war between the two countries in July, 1969. During the reign of Dr Cruz, newly-arrived ambassadors made it a point to call on General Lopez, although protocol required only a presentation of credentials to the President. The Army was virtually independent of Government control, and General Lopez, aged 52, had the power,to dispute or ignore orders from the President. Although Dr Cruz had been in office for 18 months, longstanding problems remain to be solved. Major ones are the border dispute with El Salvador—which led to the six-day “soccer war” in 1969 —economic troubles and agrarian reforms.