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.”

Demonstrations
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.

Signatory Erik Velzing, who works for a local development organisation in Honduras, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

“If you read the Honduran law, the Honduran constitution and all the documentation there is, you can see legally he was not president anymore when he was taken out of the country. I think if the referendum had taken place, the next day Manuel Zelaya could have dissolved the Honduran state. He could have been president for the rest of his life in Honduras.”

Little impact
Mr Velzing acknowledges the letter is likely to have little impact but hopes it will convince people to read between the lines about the situation in Honduras.

“Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and a financial, economic blockade would be really disastrous for the country. Honduras is a country that really needs help, in all the ways it can get it.

I hope some people might just read a little bit more about the Honduran history, things that are going on between Venezuela, Nicaragua, those countries, and think that might have happened in Honduras.”

The Dutch government said it had received the letter but has not changed its view that the coup d'état was illegal.

A spokesman said: "The Dutch Foreign Ministry stresses that the Netherlands, like the rest of the international community, condemns the coup. We can't allow a democractically elected head of state to be extradited by the army.

"In addition, the Netherlands - along with the EU - strongly urges all of the parties to come up with a peaceful solution to quickly restore democracy in Honduras."

Listen to the full interview with Erik Velzing