Ousted president exiled from Honduras

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has begun a voluntary exile in the Dominican Republic after a newly-elected president was sworn in. It marks the end of political turmoil that began with a military coup last June.

President Porfirio Lobo accompanied Zelaya to the airport as part of a reconciliation process in a bid to bring peace to the country.

The Honduran Congress has also approved amnesty for the ousted president and those involved in the coup.

Sergio Moncada, co-founder of the Hondurans for Democracy foundation in Washington DC, blames the country's political crisis on inconsistent US policies in Latin America.

“What we saw was a US government flip-flopping on its position on the coup – refusing to call it a coup for a while and then calling it a coup and then claiming that the election was free and fare. The majority of countries in the world still deny this and most Hondurans don’t recognize these elections as legitimate,” Moncada told RT.

“They [the US leadership] were correct in saying the elections had been scheduled before Zelaya was ousted – but the circumstances in which the elections took place, an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, did not lead to a free and fare election at all.”