Honduras crisis: wife of deposed president leads protest
The wife of the deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has emerged from hiding to lead the daily protest by his supporters on the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa.
By Philip Sherwell in Tegucigalpa
Published: 6:22PM BST 07 Jul 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01438/Tegucigalpa_1438782c.jpgHonduras' First Lady Xiomara de Zelaya (C), wife of ousted President
Manuel Zelaya, joins a march demanding the restitution in power of
her husband Photo: AFP/GETTY
Xiomara Castro de Zelaya made her first public appearance, along with one of her daughters, since slipping clandestinely back into the city from the family's country home and taking refuge at the US ambassador's residence after her husband was overthrown on June 28.
"The eyes of the world are on Honduras," she said. "President Zelaya will return. He is the president and nobody can take that away from him."
Mrs Zelaya, 49, maintained a low profile as first lady, focusing on charity and educational projects, but she joined the march by her husband's supporters as her he met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in Washington.
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When violent clashes broke out as protestors awaited her husband at the airport, Mrs Zelaya revealed that she picked up the phone and called Gen Romeo Vasquez, the army chief who ordered his troops to depose her husband.
"I asked him to stop the army shooting and said 'don't stain your hands with blood'. But the phone went dead," she said.
Asked how she felt when her husband's plane was just a few hundred feet overhead above the capital, tears welled. "You can only imagine," she said.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/honduras/5770195/Honduras-crisis-wife-of-deposed-president-leads-protest.html