It is exactly a month since the Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was woken at dawn and bundled in his pyjamas onto a plane bound for Costa Rica. But although the military coup has been criticised by the world’s superpowers, a group of Dutch nationals living in Honduras have raised eyebrows by claiming it was perfectly legal.

The group of 40 Dutch businesspeople work in Honduras and many of them have lived there for several years. The letter was organised by a small group of friends and distributed to other Dutch expats across Honduras, who were asked to sign it. But the signatories stressed that they are not an organised action group.

The message was addressed to the Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen who they have criticised for taking a  “one-sided” view of the situation in the country.  The group claim the world has misunderstood the situation in Honduras. They say there is little support for President Zelaya in the Central American country, and have urged the Dutch government to reconsider imposing sanctions.

“Zelaya was removed from office on completely legal grounds,” they write. “The Supreme Court, Solicitor General and the parliament were in complete agreement that on the basis of Honduran law, this government had lost its authority to rule.”

The group say there have been countless demonstrations against Mr Zelaya in Honduras and that too much focus is being placed on support for his cause. Their main argument is that by seeking to hold a referendum on constitutional reform to extend the presidential mandate he was already in breach of the country’s law.

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