TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A top aide to Honduras’ ousted president accused the United States of involvement in the coup, saying Saturday that the plane that flew Manuel Zelaya into exile stopped to refuel at an airfield where hundreds of U.S. troops are based.
Patricia Valle, the deputy foreign minister of the deposed government, said the Honduran military plane carrying Zelaya took off from the capital’s Toncontin airport and stopped for fuel at the Soto Cano air base before heading to Costa Rica. She said Zelaya did not get off the plane during the stop.
Soto Cano, also known as Palmerola, is a Honduran air base that houses at least 500 U.S. troops who conduct counter-narcotics operations and other missions in Central America.
Valle charged that the stop at Palmerola showed U.S. officials at some level were complicit in the June 28 coup. She didn’t offer any proof for that assertion and added that she didn’t think the highest levels of the Obama administration were involved.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Shantel Dalton said she had no information about Valle’s claim and could not comment.
Meanwhile, unknown assailants threw Molotov cocktails at the offices of the newspaper El Heraldo early Saturday, setting fire to the entrance. Nobody was hurt in the sixth attack on media outlets and other institutions critical of Zelaya.
