Triumphant Return?

As President Mel Zelaya waits in the small Nicaraguan town of Esteli, just 175 kilometers away, Honduran armed forces are massing along the border in what may be a dramatic conclusion to a tense standoff between a de facto government of the military-industrial elite and the impoverished Honduran majority.

"I know that they are suppressing people, but this is the big test, as they impose more obstacles to freedom the people will become more enraged (...) A curfew has been imposed on the border area with Nicaragua, but (...) they cannot rule the people by the barrel of a gun," said Zelaya at a press conference Thursday.

Despite nation-wide curfews and restriction of movement hundreds of supporters are expected to greet their president when, accompanied by Venezuela's foreign minister, he attempts once again to take back his seat as democratic leader of Honduras this Friday...

Hondurans Play the Waiting Game

Barging through the front door failed to bring a triumphant homecoming, so, for now, Manuel Zelaya has opted to try diplomatic channels in order to return to his post as the democratically-elected leader of his nation.

Zelaya claimed Wednesday that the de facto regime has sabotaged mediation before it began by restricting the movement of Zelaya's ministers, some of whom are still in hiding. However he has reiterated, "We are not holding a negotiation. There are things that are non-negotiable—the restitution of constitutional order in Honduras." On top of that mediator Oscar Arias expressed personal doubt with regards to his mediation, "The situation has to be solved from inside Honduras." Amid such speculation what talks will accomplish remains to be seen.

At a press conference on Monday, Zelaya gave the de facto government mere hours before its collapse and defended his actions before the coup, "All I did was to propose a fourth ballot. I have never talked about re-election because it does not exist in Honduras. I ask them to respect the voice of the people because it is this voice that will save us."

Despite the coup, Zelaya has not ruled out the possibility of moving forward with general elections originally slated for November 29, "They [those in the de facto regime] have nullified all the work that the government has accomplished. Those candidates should be very worried because they are isolated. The world is not with them."

The deposed Honduran leader promised that he could return at any moment. However, this time will be more inconspicuous, possibly ruling out another flight on the private CITGO jet that was diverted to Nicaragua last Sunday after military personnel barricaded the blacktop at Tegucigalpa's international airport.

After letting Zelaya supporters ring the airport compound the military expelled them by force, with snipers from the terminal leaving one dead and at least seven hit by gunfire.

The de facto government detained more than 800 demonstrators Sunday for breaking an imposed curfew. Hector*, a human rights lawyer from San Pedro Sula captured the mood of Zelaya's supporters, who are exhausted after marching daily for more than a week and a half and are frustrated with the current impasse:

"The Honduran people are outraged at the constant violation of their human rights. Yesterday [Sunday], at 6pm, after we had showed up expecting to welcome our president, we were informed by the traitors who stole power that there would be a 6:30 pm curfew. They captured at least 800 compañeros who weren't able to return to their homes during that short time period. Today [Monday] they extended the curfew for another 48 hours, once again cutting off our rights to free association, free movement etc. "

Meanwhile, differing viewpoints on the conflict continue to represent themselves in the language used by the international media. The major Spanish-language media label Roberto Michelleti's government de facto, with the lone exception being CNN en Espanol; whilst English media outlets on the whole refer it as an "interim government."

Within Honduras, pro-coup dailies are finding it increasingly harder to justify the actions of Michelleti's government to citizens. As Al Giordano of NarcoNews broke in the English media, Honduran newspaper La Prensa airbrushed out the blood in a picture of the dying demonstrator Isis Obed Murillo being carried out of Tegucigalpa airport Sunday. Giordano also points out the crackdown on independent and international media by the coup regime silences critisicm of these egregious journalistic sins being committed by the pro-coup media.

*Name changed.

A "Free, Sovereign and Independent" Honduras?

No it was not floods, earthquakes or hurricanes that devastated Honduras last Sunday, but a coup where democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya Rosales was abducted by the military at the behest of a Congress ruled by his own party. News reports either justify the coup painting Zelaya as an aspiring dictator or support him as the latest populist Latino leader bringing reform too fast for the national elites of his country to accept. Neighbouring leaders have all condemned the coup in Central America's second biggest and second poorest nation.

In a historically anomalous move the US has declared that the CIA has absolutely no involvement in the coup. However, the plotters needed no external help in abducting and exiling Zelaya to Costa Rica after he planned to go ahead with a non-binding national referendum on extending his mandate. "...President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking," is how Wall Street Journal editor Mary Anastasia O'Grady put it. Commentators like O'Grady agree with the new Honduran "government" that the autocrat Zelaya was subverting democracy and cementing his grip on power.

It seems a bit odd to me that such a powerful autocrat can't control his own military or party while late last week saw his party sponsor a congressional resolution to investigate his mental aptitude for the job. Upon his inauguration Zelaya, once a prominent businessman, angered the establishment by introducing social reforms like raising the minimum wage and by signing up for Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean(ALBA), Chavez's diplomatic pet project.

Currently, a large number of disenfranchised Hondurans are rising up and demanding that Zelaya be re-instated as President. With little to no contact with the outside world due to government censorship of international media, the average Honduran only receives the new establishment's party line. Human rights lawyer Hector* is living in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city and industrial center, and described the current situation to me in a seething email:

Today, while the rich force their employees into the streets in support of the de facto government, while the media supports and spreads their message, we the poor that are out in the streets on a national level are asking for the respect of our national democracy. We elected MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES. We are repressed by beatings and weapons; and our rights to move from place to place, engage in free thought or association etc. are being ignored. It is the strangest thing that the biased media, controlled by the traitors, omits this piece of news to the benefit of the USURPERS appointed by the circus we call Congress.

Translated from:

Mientras los ricos hoy desfilan y obligan a sus empleados salir a las calles para apoyar un gobierno de facto y que los medios de comunicacion apoyan y difunden sus actividades usurpadoras, nosotros los pobres que estamos en las calles a nivel nacional pidiendo el respeto a nuestra democracia, epues legimos a MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES, somos reprimidos por la fuerza y las armas, violentando el derecho a locomocion, libre pensamiento, asociacion, etc, y lo mas curioso es que los medios de comunicación parcialisados, manipulados por los golpistas no cubren esta noticia porque estan a favor de los USURPADORES de funciones que impuso el circo que llamamos Congreso.

Amidst a growing general strike Zelaya plans to return on Thursday to "take back the country". Hector later wrote throughout San Pedro Sula there has been greater freedom as the military is less a force there than the capital and that a reliable source said numerous military battalion chiefs will not support the new government.

What remains to be seen is how long a coup opposed by almost every major player in the region will survive. Hopefully the people of Honduras can resolve this crisis so that it may one day merit its national motto of "Free, Sovereign and Independent."

*Name has been changed.