One Country, Two Presidents

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 1, 2009 — -- Roberto Micheletti sat down in a chair in front of the blue and white Honduran flag in the Presidential Palace on Tuesday and insisted he is the rightful occupant of the President's office.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News -- Micheletti's first with an American Network -- he said he'd like to be called "Mr. President."

"You have to because I am the President," he said, then added playfully, "or you can call me Roberto if you want."

Micheletti may think he's the president of Honduras, but the world isn't prepared to call him that and nor are a lot of Hondurans.

That's because Micheletti became President on Sunday after masked Honduran army soldiers stormed the home of the country's elected president, Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, while he was sleeping. Still in his pajamas, he was forced onto a plane and taken to San Jose, Costa Rica, where he was left at the airport. Hours later the Honduran Congress proclaimed Micheletti the new president.

For decades Latin American countries were plagued by political coups. Those coups ended almost 20 years ago as democracy spread across the hemisphere and dictatorships tumbled.

In the eyes of the world this was a coup.

Not so says Micheletti.

"No, no, it is not a coup," he told ABC News, "this is called a constitutional succession."

Micheletti insists the army was acting with permission from the Supreme Court, which had determined that Zelaya was acting beyond his powers in trying to amend the constitution so he could run for a second term in November's elections.

"The problem is simple -- he did not respect the orders of the judges. The judges told him not to do it, and he could care less. He just did what he was planning to do…. Then, can you tell me who is breaking the constitutional order, him or ourselves?"

When it was pointed out that the left-wing President of Venezuela and the right-wing President of Colombia pushed through similar amendments to term limits, Micheletti was unimpressed.

Micheletti, Zelaya Former Friends

Until Sunday Micheletti was leader of Honduras's Congress. He belongs to the same political party as Zelaya and they were once friends. But as Zelaya became more populist and moved closer to Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, the two parted company.

"We were heading for a type of government that Hondurans do not want," said Micheletti.

But the world does not share that view. There is widespread concern that allowing power to change hands this way will inspire coups in other countries in the hemisphere -- a return to the bad old days.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Seventy percent of its 8 million people live in abject poverty.

The last coup in Honduras was in 1978 when one military government overthrew another. A few years later democracy was established, but in almost three decades that have followed there has been little improvement for the lives of most of the country's citizens.

Other Countries Condemn Takeover

At the Organization of American States, there is rare unity as left-wing and right-wing governments joined the U.S. to denounce what has happened in Honduras. And on Tuesday the U.N. unanimously condemned the Zelaya's ouster and called for his return to power.

"I'm going back to calm people down. I'm going to try to open a dialogue and put things in order," Zelaya said at the U.N. "When I'm back, people are going to say ... 'commander, we're at your service,' and the army will have to correct itself. There's no other possibility."

But Honduras is heading for a showdown because the country's attorney general says if Zelaya does come back he will have him arrested on charges of treason. And Micheletti told ABC News he will not interfere if that happens.

Arresting Zelaya when he returns may not be easy. The presidents of Ecuador and Argentina have offered to accompany him on his return, and so have senior officials from the U.N. and the OAS. Micheletti is undeterred.

"It [the arrest] does not have to happen when he is coming off the plane" he said. "We have to respect the presence of these important citizens coming from other parts of the world. But he is going to be judged. It can happen when he arrives or sometime later."

Micheletti Plans to Finish Term

Micheletti says only a military invasion will stop him from serving as president until the current term expires at the end of the year. He says no amount of international pressure will make him resign. He is confident the world will come to see circumstances as he does.

"I know that at this point it is difficult, I know that other countries of the world do not agree with what has happened, but if we give people the fact about what has happened here I believe there can be an understanding," he said.

That is not clear. What is clear is that two men claim to be Honduras's president, but there is only room for one at the Presidential Palace.

Micheletti says he hopes resolving this does not lead to bloodshed.