[reporter]: Is it true that Hugo Chávez financed the resistance marches and violence in the country?
[President Micheletti]: I am totally sure.
[reporter]: Is there evidence of that?
[President Micheletti]: The mouth of the same Mr. Zelaya told a few peers, his friends, and then they forwarded it to me that he, not [Zelaya directly], but rather the "notebook commander"* and others received an average of 350 thousand dollars a week. In the most critical moments of the situation there was a huge dollar movement in the country, quantities in millions. I can prove this with facts. In San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa during those days the exchange rate for U.S. dollars declined to 16 Lempiras, 17 Lempiras, when it had previously remained at 19 for the longest time.
*Context Note: This is a reference to a notebook police discovered on Carlos Eduardo Reina's person (he's a Zelaya supporter), as he was entering the Brazilian embassy, with a record of substantial dollar payments he had made to several "resistencia" leaders.
[reporter]: You said that one of the most critical days of the political crisis was the day that former President Zelaya attempted to land at [Tegucigalpa's] Toncontín airport in a Venezuelan plane. Why was that? At any time was an order issued to the armed forces?
[President Micheletti]: No, at no time. I think we were clear. They had invested heavily to buy the will of the people who were there, so that many people gathered. I estimate about 8 thousand or 9 thousand people were there. It had been planned that he [Zelaya]would come.
We did authorize the armed forces to move some army trucks around the airport. He never gave instructions to the armed forces to fire a single shot against Hondurans. They were blanks. The shots they did fire were blank shots.
[reporter]: And was the Air Force given an order against the plane that tried to land illegally and had entered the country illegally?
[President Micheletti]: We raised a Tucano aircraft. A foreign aircraft had entered [our airspace] without permission from Honduras, which was already a crime. Mr. Chávez ordered the pilot to do so. It was invading our sovereignty, therefore, the corresponding calls had been given.
It was not our intention to shoot down the plane, because we already knew that it was going to be a show, as it was. We knew that this man was coming, and was going to star in [the show] in an attempt to cause more deaths in the country and make a scandal.
Logically, you can see that a Tucano is a propeller plane, but he [Zelaya] was in a jet and there was no way [the Tucano] could catch it, but it was a way of saying we intended to defend the homeland. They were abusing our sovereignty and we had to make a decision of this nature, but at no time were orders given to shoot anyone, no orders to attack anyone either.
[President Micheletti]: I am totally sure.
[reporter]: Is there evidence of that?
[President Micheletti]: The mouth of the same Mr. Zelaya told a few peers, his friends, and then they forwarded it to me that he, not [Zelaya directly], but rather the "notebook commander"* and others received an average of 350 thousand dollars a week. In the most critical moments of the situation there was a huge dollar movement in the country, quantities in millions. I can prove this with facts. In San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa during those days the exchange rate for U.S. dollars declined to 16 Lempiras, 17 Lempiras, when it had previously remained at 19 for the longest time.
*Context Note: This is a reference to a notebook police discovered on Carlos Eduardo Reina's person (he's a Zelaya supporter), as he was entering the Brazilian embassy, with a record of substantial dollar payments he had made to several "resistencia" leaders.
[reporter]: You said that one of the most critical days of the political crisis was the day that former President Zelaya attempted to land at [Tegucigalpa's] Toncontín airport in a Venezuelan plane. Why was that? At any time was an order issued to the armed forces?
[President Micheletti]: No, at no time. I think we were clear. They had invested heavily to buy the will of the people who were there, so that many people gathered. I estimate about 8 thousand or 9 thousand people were there. It had been planned that he [Zelaya]would come.
We did authorize the armed forces to move some army trucks around the airport. He never gave instructions to the armed forces to fire a single shot against Hondurans. They were blanks. The shots they did fire were blank shots.
[reporter]: And was the Air Force given an order against the plane that tried to land illegally and had entered the country illegally?
[President Micheletti]: We raised a Tucano aircraft. A foreign aircraft had entered [our airspace] without permission from Honduras, which was already a crime. Mr. Chávez ordered the pilot to do so. It was invading our sovereignty, therefore, the corresponding calls had been given.
It was not our intention to shoot down the plane, because we already knew that it was going to be a show, as it was. We knew that this man was coming, and was going to star in [the show] in an attempt to cause more deaths in the country and make a scandal.
Logically, you can see that a Tucano is a propeller plane, but he [Zelaya] was in a jet and there was no way [the Tucano] could catch it, but it was a way of saying we intended to defend the homeland. They were abusing our sovereignty and we had to make a decision of this nature, but at no time were orders given to shoot anyone, no orders to attack anyone either.
Translated from El Heraldo
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