The Rio Group has strongly condemned the coup d’etat perpetrated in the Republic of Honduras and reaffirms its support of the constitutional president of that country Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

In a press release from the Mexican Embassy in Guyana, the Rio Group said the coup has interrupted the constitutional and democratic order in that country given that Zelaya “was illegitimately retired from his office.”

The Rio Group’s Permanent Mechanism for Consultation and Political Coordination, also rejects the use of armed force in the arbitrary detention of the Chief of the Executive who was forced out of that country. It reiterates that strict compliance with democratic values and principles and the unrestricted respect to the constitutional order and the rule of law must prevail above any political difference.

The Rio Group is committed to contributing to the immediate restoration of Zelaya to the presidency. It called on all political actors in the Republic of Honduras to avoid violence and to demand Zelaya’s immediate and unconditional restoration as well as the other legally constituted authorities of Honduras.