Panama City - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya continued Wednesday to represent his country abroad, attending the inauguration of Ricardo Martinelli as new president of Panama along with other regional leaders. The move defied the new government installed by a coup in Honduras over the weekend and flaunted its threats to arrest him if he returns home.
Martinelli and Zelaya were joined by presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Mauricio Funes of El Salvador and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, among others.
Zelaya flew in from Washington, after receiving the support of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. He was ousted from power by a military coup over the weekend.
He remains the Honduran president that the international community recognizes, to the detriment of the government set up after the coup, which is led by former Congress Speaker Roberto Micheletti.
The conservative Martinelli, 57, the owner of the largest supermarket chain in Panama, was elected in May with 60 per cent of the votes, in a race against ruling-party candidate Balbina Herrera.
"We are going to take our experiences in the private sector and put them to work in government," Martinelli said.
The son of Italian immigrants, Martinelli has vowed to focus on the fight against poverty, on job creation and on the pursuit of equality among citizens during his mandate. About 40 per cent of Panama's 3.3 million people live in poverty.
Panama has lived through an economic boom in recent years, although the current global financial and economic crisis was likely to hit the canal country hard, according to many experts.
"This is the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Our government will not have the resources that the previous one had, but that is an even better reason to get to work quickly," Martinelli said in his inaugural address.
