Aide: Zelaya plane stopped at base with US troops

Aug 15, 10:26 PM EDT
Aide: Zelaya plane stopped at base with US troops

By FREDDY CUEVAS
Associated Press Writer

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- 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, then 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, although she offered no evidence that American personnel at the base interacted with the Honduran military officials on the plane or that they even knew Zelaya was there.

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