ZELAYA RETURNS!

Question...when do we hang Micheletti and his thugs?

Hopefully never. It was Zelaya who went against the Honduran Constitution, broke their law and is now facing conseqences of his own actions which he copied from some of his best friends.

No coup in Honduras. It was a botched legal action, but legal just the same according to the law and constitution in Honduras.

"General Assembly condemns coup in Honduras

30 June 2009 – The General Assembly today condemned this weekend’s coup d’état in Honduras, calling for the restoration of the democratically-elected President and constitutional Government.

According to media reports, President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales was ousted by the military on Sunday, hours before a referendum was slated to be held on changing the Honduran constitution.

Today’s Assembly resolution, which was adopted by acclamation, deplored the coup, which it stated has “interrupted the democratic and constitutional order and the legitimate exercise of power in Honduras.”

The resolution – sponsored by Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States, among dozens of Member States – also stressed that it will not recognize any Government other than that of Mr. Zelaya’s.

“It is the participation of the citizenship that empowers democracy,” the Honduran leader said in the Assembly before the resolution was adopted, praising the United Nations for “[upholding] freedom and democracy.”

On Sunday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his deep concern over the takeover in Honduras and voiced his strong support for the Central American nation’s democratic institutions.

In a statement, Mr. Ban urged “the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country and full respect for human rights, including safeguards for the security of President Zelaya, members of his family and his government.”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31314&Cr=honduras&Cr1=

It was a good old right wing military coup.

"International reaction to the 2009 Honduran coup d'état of June 28, 2009, was that the coup was widely repudiated around the globe. All Latin American nations (with the exception of Honduras itself), as well as the United States, United Nations, and others, publicly condemned the military-led ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as illegal and most labelled it a coup d'état. Every country in the region, except the United States, withdrew their ambassadors from Honduras. All EU ambassadors were withdrawn from the country."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reaction_to_the_2009_Honduran_military_coup

Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

UPDATE:

"Micheletti to set up team to discuss Honduran crisis

Tegucigalpa, Sep 23 : Honduras interim President Roberto Micheletti has decided to set up a commission to begin discussion on ending the political standoff in the country after Manuel Zelaya was ousted from presidency in a military coup in June.

Micheletti said the team will include representatives of the civil society and foreign diplomats.

"I make a call to the entire world: We are ready to dialogue," Micheletti told reporters Tuesday.

He requested the UN to send an "impartial" representative to "listen the position of the Honduran people".

Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian embassy since he returned to Tegucigalpa Monday.

On June 28, he was forced into exile in Costa Rica by the military."

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-117180.html

UPDATE:

"The Minimum Wage and the Coup in Honduras

The coup in Honduras - and the at best grudging and vacillating support in Washington for the restoration of President Zelaya - has thrown into stark relief a fundamental fault line in Latin America and a moral black hole in U.S. policy toward the region.

What is the minimum wage which a worker shall be paid for a day's labor?

Supporters of the coup have tried to trick Americans into believing that President Zelaya was ousted by the Honduran military because he broke the law. But this is nonsense. A Honduran bishop told Catholic News Service,

"Some say Manuel Zelaya threatened democracy by proposing a constitutional assembly. But the poor of Honduras know that Zelaya raised the minimum salary. That's what they understand. They know he defended the poor by sharing money with mayors and small towns. That's why they are out in the streets closing highways and protesting (to demand Zelaya's return)"

This is why the greedy, self-absorbed Honduran elite turned against President Zelaya: because he was pursuing policies in the interests of the majority. The Washington Post noted in mid-July,

To many poor Hondurans, deposed president Manuel "Mel" Zelaya was a trailblazing ally who scrapped school tuitions, raised the minimum wage and took on big business.

In a statement condemning support for the coup by U.S. business groups, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation expressed its concern that under the coup regime, there are

worsening working conditions, and in particular at efforts to claw back a wage increase ordered by President Zelaya six months ago in order to reflect the increased cost of food and other essentials. In reality the increased wage barely covered 90% of basic food needs and less than a third of a living wage covering basic needs such as food, rent, transport, education, and medical care.

It's not just in Honduras that raising the minimum wage provoked a coup. In reporting about efforts by Haitian lawmakers this week to raise the minimum wage in Haiti, AP noted:

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in 2004, in part after business owners angered by his approval of an increased minimum wage organized opposition against him.

This May, the Haitian Parliament approved a proposal to triple the minimum wage to about $5 a day. But President Preval rejected this, saying

the increase should omit workers at factories producing garments for export. Preval said those workers should receive an increase to about $3.

What's the argument in Haiti against raising the minimum wage?

The debate has fueled unrest across the impoverished Caribbean nation, with some critics arguing that an increase would hurt plans to fight widespread unemployment by creating jobs in factories that produce clothing for export to the United States.

There are the magic words I search for in these articles, often buried at the bottom: "United States."

So, the argument is being made that Haiti can't afford to raise the minimum wage for workers in the export sector to $5 a day, because if they did Americans would buy clothes and shoes produced in some other countries.

Let me underline this, dear reader. You, as an American consumer, you are being invoked in Haiti as the reason that the minimum wage cannot be raised to $5 a day.

Of course this is nonsense. The overwhelming majority of Americans, along with the overwhelming majority of Haitians and Hondurans, would be absolutely delighted if Haitian and Honduran workers producing clothes for the U.S. market would be paid more. Labor costs are a small fraction of the prices that consumers face. Wages are so low because that yields even more profits for those who already have more money than they can ever spend; the low wage floor is being determined by government policy in Washington, Haiti, Honduras, and elsewhere, not by the desires of consumers. No magic formula of economics determines the minimum wage that can be sustained in Haiti and Honduras. At the margin - whether the minimum wage shall be $3 a day or $5 a day in the export sector in Haiti - it is determined politically.

If you say that the leverage of the U.S. consumer market should be used to support higher wages for poor workers in poor countries, rather than the opposite, you're likely to be told that this is not allowed. This leverage has been allocated to something else. The power of the U.S. market can only be used for things like forcing developing countries to enforce the patents, trademarks, and copyrights of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, software companies, and Hollywood.

Indeed, if you say that we should be supporting efforts to raise the minimum wage in Honduras and Haiti, you'll likely to be accused of "trying to impose American values." But this is a baldfaced lie, the twisted-mirror image of the truth. The majority of Hondurans and the majority of Haitians want the wages of workers producing for export to the United States to be raised. Far from imposing "American values," in Honduras and Haiti, we're imposing Wall Street values, every day, through U.S. government policy, against the wishes and interests of the majority of the population, there and here.

And by its failure to help effectively Latin American efforts restore President Zelaya, the Obama Administration is helping to drive down the minimum wage in Honduras, Haiti, and throughout the world. And the reason that the Obama Administration is, de facto, taking the side of the corrupt and greedy ruling elite in Honduras, is that, as usual, U.S. foreign policy is being determined by Corporate America, not Main Street America, because the power and efforts of Main Street America to affect U.S. foreign policy in Honduras - the U.S. labor movement and its friends, basically - is too weak, compared to the infrastructure and efforts of Corporate America's actions to shape U.S. policy.

Count this too as a casualty of the failure of Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. If the Employee Free Choice Act were law, and more American workers were organized into unions, Main Street would have more power in Washington, and Corporate America wouldn't be calling the shots on U.S. policy towards Honduras.

So, the next time some lying moron invokes "economics" to "explain" to you that the wages of impoverished third world workers who produce for the U.S. market cannot be raised, remember the coup in Honduras, and how Washington sat on its hands while a democratically elected government was punished by greedy elites with a military coup for trying to raise the minimum wage."

By
Robert Naiman

National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/the-minimum-wage-and-the_b_254023.html

very interesting, we both get gold stars today, you taught and i learned

Lady, check out the video I added to the post.

WILL DO

10 4 u

UPDATE:

"Tegucigalpa - Police used tear gas Tuesday to disperse thousands of supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he had taken refuge after returning to the country. Orlin Cerrato, spokesman for the Security Ministry in the government set up after Zelaya's ouster on June 28, confirmed the clashes between police and supporters of Zelaya.

Cerrato said several people, including some police officers, were injured and that the demonstrators set fire to a police patrol car.

Honduras was placed under a fresh curfew as Zelaya's supporters gathered outside the embassy.

"My position is, fatherland, reinstatement (as president) or death," Zelaya told the crowd.

The de facto government led by former Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti extended the curfew from Monday to Tuesday, while diplomatic pressure mounted for Zelaya's restoration to office."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/286751,zelaya-supporters-clash-with-police-in-honduras.html

Thanks.

It's interesting how these things are reported. Most of the Anglo/American periodicals and newspapers say...'police'...when in reality it's the military:

"Zelaya supporters attacked by troops



Soldiers loyal to the Honduran coup regime used tear gas and live rounds on Tuesday to break up a rally by celebrating supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who slipped back into the country on Monday.

Thousands of National Front Against the Coup activists defied a curfew to spend the night outside the Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa, where Mr Zelaya was being protected.

Mr Zelaya said: "Thanks to Brazil, we have protection and a temporary home here."

Mr Zelaya, who reportedly crossed numerous military checkpoints in the boot of a car and on a tractor to return to his country, has since given TV interviews declaring his intention to restore constitutional order.

He briefly appeared on the balcony of the embassy on Monday, saying: "I am committed to the Honduran people and I am not going to rest one day, one minute, until the dictatorship is toppled."

Mr Zelaya called on "all the population to come to Tegucigalpa because we are in the final offensive for the restitution of the presidency."

However, the president signalled his readiness to negotiate, stressing that he is "seeking a peaceful conclusion to Honduras's crisis."

Neverthless, rattled coup chief Roberto Micheletti ordered a 26-hour shutdown of the capital starting from Monday afternoon.

He also closed the airport and set up roadblocks on main roads leading into the town.

Riot police began firing tear gas and live rounds on Tuesday after pro-democracy activists ignored the curfew and refused to clear the streets around the embassy.

A spokesman for the coup regime said at midday on Tuesday that the area was "under control."

It was unclear if anyone had been killed or wounded.

Mr Zelaya said that the embassy "is surrounded by police and the military.

"I foresee bigger acts of aggression, even an invasion of the embassy."

Mr Micheletti, who initially rubbished reports of Mr Zelaya's return as "media terrorism," has called on Brazil to hand over Mr Zelaya so he can face trial on treason charges.

Mr Micheletti and his cronies in Congress, along with the judiciary and the military, deposed Mr Zelaya three months ago after he had enraged the Honduran elite by adopting socially progressive policies halfway through his presidential term.

The coup regime has since refused to countenance a power-sharing agreement hammered out by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, which calls for the restoration of Mr Zelaya and the establishment of a national unity government."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/world/Zelaya-supporters-attacked-by-troops

Note, both mention police, but, both don't mention the military.

UPDATE:

"Lula Issues Warning To Honduras' de facto government

New York/Brasilia/Rio de Janeiro - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday in New York that he expects Honduras' de facto government not to attack the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge. Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup on June 28, secretly returned to Honduras on Monday and has since being staying at the Brazilian embassy.

Lula told Brazilian media that coup leaders "should give their place to the person who has the right to hold that place, namely the democratically elected president of Honduras."

Zelaya continues to be recognized by the international community as the legitimate Honduran leader. The government set up after the coup is headed by former congress speaker Micheletti, who was next in line under presidential succession rules.

Honduras' de facto government on Tuesday accused Brazil of allowing Zelaya to turn its embassy into his "headquarters," from where he was trying to instigate an "uprising."

Brazil had "shamefully" allowed Zelaya to address a crowd from the embassy, urging Hondurans to break the law by coming to the capital in spite of a curfew being in force, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado said.

The minister said Honduras would give Brazil a deadline to grant Zelaya political asylum or hand him over for a trial in Honduras.

"We cannot accept that, due to political differences, people think that they have a right to oust a democratically elected president," Lula was quoted as saying. "What cannot be is that a coup perpetrator thinks he has the right to be president without winning an election."

Brazil's ambassador to Honduras said Tuesday that Zelaya's arrival at the embassy in Tegucigalpa was "a complete surprise."

"He showed up there and surprised everyone. There is speculation that he came from Guatemala, but it's speculation. We do not yet know how he got there, if he was in disguise, we don't know," ambassador Brian Michael Neele told the Brazilian news website G1.

Neele was in Brazil the day of the coup. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry ordered him not to return to Tegucigalpa until Zelaya was reinstated, and he has since been waiting for the crisis to end.

The Brazilian government's Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff - widely regarded as Lula's favourite in the race to succeed him in next year's election - stressed Tuesday that Brazil did not "encourage" or assist Zelaya in his return to Honduras Monday.

"Brazil was simply respectful. These are fundamental human rights," Rousseff.

Lula's advisors told reporters that the Brazilian leader spoke to Zelaya over the phone Tuesday to request from him "great care so as not to allow any pretexts that lead the coup perpetrators to use violence.

Lula said that Brazil has no intention to replacing the current mediator in Honduras, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, but noted that the best mediator would be Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary- general of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Ambassador Neele expressed his concern over the future of Honduras.

"We do not know what is going to happen. It is a country that is looking for a solution to a very serious problem. (They are) a very peaceful people, and I hope there is dialogue."

Brazilian political analyst Eliane Cantanhede, however, noted that despite the claims of being taken off guard, Brazilian authorities celebrated Zelaya's arrival at the embassy.

It showed "the leadership and the power as moderator that Brazil is gradually taking on" in the region.

"There were other more obvious destinations, like the Mexican embassy, for example, since Mexico is in several respects a country that is closer to Central America and that has (influence) in Honduras," Cantanhede told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.

"But Brazil is not only more a politically half-way line between Washington and Caracas, but it is also a country that is rising in that region," the analyst said."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/286789,lula-issues-warning-to-honduras-de-facto-government--summary.html

UPDATE:

"Honduran Women Under Siege After President's Return

WASHINGTON, Sep 22 (OneWorld.net) - Hours after Honduras' ousted president returned to the country and sought refuge in a foreign embassy, the military-backed regime launched a brutal attack against supporters of the former leader.

What's the Story?

"Early this morning, military forces attacked those of us outside the Brazilian embassy. There are no words to describe the brutality of the attack," reported a member of the group Feminists in Resistance. "They chased us, threw bombs, beat us, and now are hunting down everyone who took refuge in the surrounding area."

The women say there are 65 members of their group "under siege," hiding in houses as military squads search the neighborhood. Their reports were sent by email during a brief period when electricity had been turned on.

"We can hear the military movements outside, the cars, helicopters, bombs, shots, clashing of metal, stomping of boots, sirens -- and in a cruel joke on all Honduran citizens they are playing the national anthem at full volume over and over."

The women say they have little water and no food, and tear gas hangs in the air. Some have reportedly been detained and taken to Chochi Sosa stadium on the far eastern edge of the city.

A Severe Crackdown

The violence came as thousands gathered outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa to show support for Manual Zelaya, the democratically elected president who was kidnapped and expelled from the country in June. Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras yesterday and then appeared on national television from within the Brazilian Embassy.

According to Associated Press (AP) reports, Zelaya said earlier today that he had no plans to leave the embassy and repeatedly asked to speak with Roberto Micheletti, the military-installed leader currently in charge of the country.

Zelaya, his wife, some of their children, Cabinet members, and journalists have spent the day holding hushed conversations, napping on couches, and curling up on the floor beneath travel posters of Brazilian beaches, according to AP reporters.

As many as 70 of Zelaya's friends and family are believed to be trapped inside the embassy without water, electricity, or phones. Police and soldiers have set up a three-mile-wide cordon around the embassy. Heavily armed soldiers are posted on rooftops, and helicopters are monitoring the section of the city, according to the AP.

In addition to sending police and military units to confront Zelaya's supporters with tear gas and water cannons this morning, Micheletti's regime reportedly cut off electricity to two of the most widely used news sources, television's Channel 36 and Radio Globo.

Many cell phones have been blocked, and the airports and border crossings closed, in what's being seen as a move to keep out international diplomats and reporters.

The city of Tegucigalpa has ostensibly been militarized, say observers, with specialized police forces, the army, and masked agents all on patrol. A government-imposed curfew has left city streets deserted.

There are even concerns that Micheletti's regime will take the highly unusual step of storming a foreign embassy to capture Zelaya.

Months of Repression

A four-member delegation of U.S. human rights observers traveled to Honduras in August, finding strong support for Zelaya among the country's working people and reporting on the brutal government repression of pro-democracy demonstrations at that time.

Human Rights Watch and the The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also documented repeated violations by security forces since the June coup. An August report from the Commission noted violations including excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, and attacks on the media, as well as several confirmed deaths and possible "disappearances."

"Given the reports we have received, and the poor track record of the security forces since the coup, we fear that conditions could deteriorate drastically in the coming days," said Human Rights Watch's José Miguel Vivanco today.

U.S. Secretary Clinton Urged to Step In

The Americas Policy Program, a U.S.-based political research and analysis group with correspondents in the region, is calling on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to immediately condemn today's violence in Honduras and "take every peaceful measure possible to avoid a bloodbath in that country."

In a recent commentary, the group's Laura Carlsen pointed out that only the United States has the leverage to force Micheletti's regime to return democratic rule to the country, since the Central American nation's economy is heavily dependent on exports to the United States and remittances from Honduran families living in the United States.

The Americas Policy Program and other human rights groups have been calling on the U.S. State Department since June to officially condemn the coup, which would trigger the immediate blockage of all U.S. aid to the country.

"Sec. of State Hillary Clinton cannot call herself an international advocate of women's rights while ignoring the plight of these Honduran women who are a worldwide inspiration for feminist organizing in the fight for democracy," wrote Carlsen this morning. "She cannot call herself a representative of U.S. values abroad while turning a blind eye to the brutality and illegality of a coup regime crazed by power and isolated among governments for its lack of respect for the rule of law."

http://us.oneworld.net/article/366912-honduran-women-under-siege-after-presidents-return

UPDATE:

"Day Two of the Coup in Honduras

During the 2002 coup in Venezuela by an alliance of military generals, corporate media, that country's disgraced political class and the Bush administration in Washington, our colleague (and victorious codefendant) Mario Menéndez Rodríguez spoke some words to me that I've never forgotten:

"You will know the true character of a person by his actions during an hour of moral crisis."

As the coup-plotters in Honduras (similarly of a military-media-political class alliance, but this time without the support of Washington) enter their second day of temporary power with the rejection of the entire hemisphere and planet upon them, and the inconformity of the Honduran people (who defied martial law last night to erect barricades in the streets and otherwise resist the coup), we can observe "the true character" of various media and political voices across the political spectrum.

Let's start with the "newspaper of record," the New York Times, which in 2002 at first editorialized in praise of the Venezuelan coup, only to be forced to publish an unprecedented correction and apology (in large part urged by an email campaign sparked by readers of Narco News) for its initial anti-democratic position.

This time, the Timesmen are more circumspect, acknowledging that there was indeed a coup d'etat in Honduras, but they're having a very hard time wrapping their Columbia School of Journalism-addled brains around the reality that Washington is on the same page as Caracas and the rest of the hemisphere's democracies in opposing the coup. In what is billed as a "news analysis," titled "Rare Hemisphere Unity in Assailing Honduran Coup," Simon Romero, who holds the Gray Lady's Juan Forero seat in defense of oligarchies, Romero tries to come to grips with the new geopolitical realities of our América. He almost pulls it off, but then the fangs come out:

And while governments in the region may reject military ousters much more easily than, say, the civilian demonstrations that forced democratically elected leaders to resign earlier this decade in Argentina and Bolivia, the Obama administration has also shifted the way in which Washington reacts to such events.

In other words, Romero equates mostly peaceful acts of civil resistance by societies with those of violent military coups d'etat if social movements cause the resignation of a president. The means mean nothing, to Romero, compared to the ends. (There were, in the United States in 1974, a certain similar group of crazies that thought President Nixon's resignation was akin to a coup, too.) In those words is Romero's "tell," in poker terms, of how exasperating he finds this situation. It's unfamiliar to him, and to so many, that Washington would, for the first time, side against an oligarchic coup in Latin America. The only handle of hope Romero can grasp onto now is to try and lump nonviolent civil resistance (what the US Constitution calls "redress of grievances") of the kind that has changed our América for the better in recent years in with the violent actions of military gorillas at the bidding of the upper classes.

That the New York Times struggles bombastically to adjust to new realities shouldn't surprise anyone. Big, lumbering and bureaucratic institutions, including those in the corporate media, don't adapt well to change and consider it instinctually as threatening.

But there has also been a very similar dynamic in response to the new reality from some corners of the left (this is very similar to - in some cases overlapping with - responses we recently covered to the crisis in Iran, too).

Over just 24 hours, we have seen certain colleagues first claim that if there is a coup in Latin America, Washington must be behind it. Then when Washington - in contrast to the Bush administration's cheerleading reaction to the 2002 coup in Venezuela - rejected the coup plotters' scam that the removed president had "resigned," that line of critique began moving the goal posts. Okay, some said, Washington says it opposes the coup but it hasn't denounced it strongly enough!

They sound like John McCain scolding the Obama administration for not denouncing the regime in Iran with sufficient testosterone.

My point is this: Look at Simon Romero's spin in the NY Times, and deduce where it is coming from: He is fundamentally uncomfortable with a situation in which an overreaching oligarchy in Latin America can't count on Washington for support of its violent coup against a left-leaning government. And in some corners of the left, there are counterparts to Romero that have the exact same unease, only from an equal and opposite direction.

For years we (this newspaper included) have justifiably denounced it when US foreign policy got out ahead of the democratic aspirations of Latin Americans and began dictating what other countries should do through tough talk and open blackmail. Such "cowboy diplomacy" was inherently anti-democratic and imperialistic.

Today, when Washington has taken the opposite stance, there are some misguided voices that express upset with that, too. First, because they are deprived of the same easy-to-navigate script that has allowed them to drive on automatic pilot for so many years. It's confusing to some to have to navigate new terrain, even if it is improved terrain. Second, without the bogeyman of Washington to blame as the root of all evil in the hemisphere, they are at an exasperated loss for an enemy to demonize. (One would think that the Honduran oligarchy, or the capitalist system, alone would be a sufficiently bad actor to cast in the role of devil - indeed, they are the source of this coup d'etat - but for some it appears to involve too much heavy lifting to educate and inform the public of that reality.) They seem surprisingly nostalgic for the old Uncle Sam as the villain in every movie.

I should add that Washington's clear opposition to the coup plotters in Honduras - and its unambiguous stance that it will not recognize any president other than the elected one, Manuel Zelaya - is immensely demoralizing to the Honduran oligarchy and its own cast of upper class esqualidos, or "squalid ones."

Since demoralizing the enemy is one of the first rules of battle, one would think that all intelligent opponents of the coup would find this development - Washington's clear rejection of the coup - very satisfying, for it will speed the collapse of the coup. Reading the "oh noes" Twitter comments from coup defenders, their heads exploding over Obama's opposition to their coup, should be gratifying enough. But some are so addicted to the comfort of the past roadmap that they fail to think strategically about how this coup will be dismantled most quickly and bloodlessly.

Complaints that Washington hasn't acted fast enough to denounce the Honduran coup are silly and ignorant on the face of them. The Obama administration has already acted faster - in a single day - than the Organization of American states acted when it denounced the 2002 coup in Venezuela. In fact, Washington was very much involved in yesterday's OAS statement, which it endorsed.

One can in fact read in the transcript of yesterday's conference call with "two senior administration officials" (since I wasn't party to the call I've made no agreement not to note that they sound a lot like Thomas Shannon and Dan Restrepo, the latter of whom did most of the talking) that the US was out in front of the OAS as an organization, and participated positively in steering it toward its unanimous statement.

These are exact quotes from those senior officials. And while no reporter should ever take the words of any official as gospel, these refer to a collective process with other OAS governments that, had they been untrue, would have already been denied by the other governments, including Venezuela, that also worked together on the OAS statement rejecting the coup. Therefore, astute observers can be certain that they offer an accurate recount of events of the past 24 hours:

"...we’ve been working in the OAS Permanent Council towards a consensus resolution that will condemn the effort to depose President Zelaya of Honduras, calling for his return to Honduras and for full restoration of democratic order. Although that resolution is not done yet, but I think it shows how quickly the OAS under the leadership of a variety of key countries, the United States included, has responded to this event and how relevant the OAS, and in particular the Inter-American Charter, has been in determining how the OAS and the regional countries respond to this kind of event..."

In other words, rather than come out blasting with "cowboy diplomacy," Bush-style, Washington sought and found consensus with the other nations of the hemisphere. This is unprecedented, and is to be cheered. It is also a more effective path to more quickly dismantle the coup. When the US and Venezuela, among other nations, can come to agreement on a unified strategy via the OAS, that strategy is going to be more effective than merely having a US president shoot from the hip, given the long bad history of US meddling in Latin America's sovereign affairs.

The senior US officials also said:

"It’s profoundly regrettable that that was not the case and that this morning the military moved against President Zelaya, detaining him, and then expelling him from the country to Costa Rica. As noted, we’ve condemned this action. We view President Zelaya as the constitutional president of Honduras, and we’ve called for a full restoration of democratic order in Honduras. And we will continue to work with our partners in the OAS and elsewhere to ensure that that happens...

"...our ambassador in a public press conference called for the release of all officials who have been detained, demanding that Honduran authorities release them immediately...

"We have been attempting to communicate with especially members of congress and others who have been driving this process, and insisting that they need to step down and restore full democratic and constitutional order....

"We recognize Mel Zelaya as the democratically elected and constitutional president of Honduras. We see no other...

"I believe the word 'coup' will be used in the OAS resolution. And I would certainly characterize a situation where a president is forcibly detained by the armed forces and expelled from a country an attempt at a coup. We – I mean, we still see him as the constitutional president of Honduras. So it was an attempt at a coup. We don’t think it was successful...

"...once the forces that have conducted this act in Honduras recognize and understand how isolated they are and how committed the region is to restoring democratic order, that they’ll see they have no choice but to do so...

"...it was the armed forces that detained the president today and expelled him from the country. But as we’re seeing now with the naming of an interim president by the congress, this was an effort that has included other political institutions..."

Some who complain that somehow those words aren't strong enough, or tough enough, or macho enough, are - really, they should look in the mirror and admit it - full of a kind of perverted and twisted line of thought that wishes the US would return to its bullying role in the hemisphere. (Again: Whether it's because they really don't understand that such unilateral meddling by Washington in Latin American affairs is what we're against, or because they don't know how to formulate a narrative without casting the US as the "chico malo" of the movie, it reveals their own vast shortcomings and weaknesses as strategists and tacticians more than it says anything about the current situation.)

Of course, what some will claim - again errantly - is that I'm merely being some kind of apologist for the Obama administration here. But no apology is needed nor given. I'll simply remind that when Obama policy toward Latin America is wrongheaded, as with its support for Plan Mexico and its Calderon regime - no news source has been more frequently critical of those Obama policies than Narco News. One need only browse the 436 instances in which we have criticized that harmful US policy regarding Mexico, to see that when Washington is wrong or harmful, we spare no punches and take a back seat to none of its critics. Not one of the poor souls that has made that claim, by the way, has done any heavy lifting at all in opposition to Plan Mexico; they're all talk, no action.

No, what I'm saying is that if we are to effectively dismantle the Honduras coup, we need to use an accurate road map of how that coup came to be and who is really behind it, just as we did when participating in the undoing of the 2002 Venezuela coup.

Inventing convenient untruths while doing that only muddies the waters. It also loses the credibility any publication or writer needs to have any impact at all. The public is not stupid. Most can see when one is trying to "fool the crowd" in a moment of crisis. It bears repeating the words of our colleague Mario, quoted atop these words: "You will know the true character of a person by his actions during an hour of moral crisis."

In this hour, those that adhere strictly to the documented facts are those that are showing character worth trusting, today and into the future. Others are squandering that credibility just as badly as NY Timesman Simon Romero fritters away his own. We leave it to the public to sort out the conflicting claims, and to the authentic coup opponents to draw the accurate roadmap that successfully defeats this anti-democratic and violent coup d'etat."

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/am%C3%A9rica-held-hostage-day-two-coup-honduras

UPDATE:

"Seven Million Hondurans Under House Arrest as Micheletti Writes of "Democracy"

Hondurans in civil resistance surrounded the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet their returning president. This morning, coup regime troops attacked them violently, sending 24 wounded to hospitals. D.R. 2009 Mariachiloko, Chiapas Indymedia.

The Honduran coup regime’s 26-hour martial curfew upon the entire country effectively places 7.5 million Honduran citizens – men, women, children and elders – under house arrest. They are prohibited from going to work, to the store, or to walk down the street to visit a neighbor. Anybody on the street is subject to arrest, for violation of the curfew.

If this happened to you, what would you call it?

The stated pretext for this heavy handed maneuver is nothing more or less than that the regime, its “president,” and its security forces have been embarrassed before their countrymen and the world. Yesterday morning’s claims by coup “president” Roberto Micheletti that news reports could not possibly be true that legitimate President Manuel Zelaya was back in town, that the regime’s intelligence forces had his every step followed and “knew” he was “in a hotel suite in Managua,” became egg on Micheletti’s face when Zelaya appeared from the rooftop of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet a multitude of citizens that want their elected president restored.

The military curfew has no practical reason. It will not bring the expulsion, anew, of Zelaya from national territory. It will not hasten his capture by the regime. And it does not make the regime any more legitimate. To the contrary, it demonstrates, again, its repressive, anti-democratic and usurper character. It is a desperate act meant to punish the entire Honduran people for, after 86 days, not “getting with the program” and backing the coup. It is a tantrum by the man-child Micheletti to lash out and insist, “I’m in charge, here,” but it only serves to underscore, again, that he is not in control of the country or its people.

Thousands violated the curfew blatantly last night keeping watch outside the Brazilian Embassy. In the morning, the coup’s security forces entered, shot tear gas canisters at the crowd (and over the Embassy wall) and violently attacked the peaceful protesters. Local hospitals report 24 wounded from the invasion. National Police, additionally, waged a separate attack on the human rights organization COFADEH (family members of the disappeared and detained) at 8 a.m. this morning, launching tear gas missiles through its glass windows.

Radio Globo now reports that the same Supreme Court that contorted the Honduran Constitution to create a legaloid curtain around the June 28 coup d’etat is now meeting to cook up its latest kangaroo jump: a court order to invade the Embassy – under International Law, Brazilian territory – to capture (or assassinate) President Zelaya. So large and irrational is the regime’s obsession with the presence of one solitary man in the country that it confines every citizen to his and her home and tears up the Constitution, again.

In a whining attempt to claim victory out of what is the coup regime’s single most stunning defeat to date, Micheletti had his US handler Lanny Davis whip up an op ed column published last night in the Washington Post. Here’s a quick translation from its hurried English to plain talk: “I did nothing wrong and why doesn’t anybody in the world understand me?” It is the speech of a child to mommy and daddy after he is caught stealing from the candy store again. From the first sentence, when he complains that, “Manuel Zelaya has surreptitiously returned to Honduras,” Micheletti seems to think that the world has forgotten that Zelaya very openly attempted to enter his own country twice this summer – announcing where and when in advance – and it was Micheletti who blocked an airport runway and sent troops to the border to keep the elected president out, even as he insisted that he wanted to place Zelaya under arrest.

“The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic,” Micheletti lamented at the very hour he was ordering the 26 hour curfew. How could anybody possibly think that a warden that orders 7.5 million people to remain locked in their homes could somehow be “undemocratic?”

“Coups do not allow freedom of assembly, either. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights,” wrote Micheletti, as his troops readied this morning’s attack on a free assembly and a human rights office, and just hours after he accused independent TV and radio stations of “media terrorism” for having reported the truth that Zelaya had returned (see Belén Fernández’s related report from Tegucigalpa today: Radio Globo and Channel 36 Announce the Return of Zelaya).

Micheletti’s column is easily recognizable to readers in the United States as coming from the same script that his lobbyist Lanny Davis used last year to insist, long after Secretary Clinton had lost the Democratic presidential nomination, that she was, in fact, winning. And it comes off just as pathetically.

Meanwhile, in the regime he calls a “democracy,” seven and a half million people are confined to their homes. Micheletti isn’t a “president.” He’s a two bit warden, coming to grips with the painful reality that he is neither a head of state, nor ready for prime time.

Update 2:46 p.m. Tegucigalpa (4:46 p.m. ET): Further showing his grand commitment to "democracy" and law, Micheletti's security forces are presently reading the search and seizure order through a megaphone to the Brazilian Embassy. It could be a bluff, but if Zelaya doesn't fall for it (and The Field predicts he won't), and the coup troops invade the Embassy, all hell is going to break loose on an international level, just as the United Nations General Assembly begins its most important session of the year in New York.

Brazil's foreign minister, in New York, has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The US State Department has called on the de facto regime to respect Brazilian territory, as President Obama has just appointed US Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), leader in the US Congress against the Honduran coup, to the US delegation at the UN session, perhaps an indication of some plans afoot up there.

Is the coup regime that desperate and stupid to commit an act of war against Brazilian territory? (Two words to ponder: Blue helmets.) We'll shortly find out, and report it here.

3:18 p.m.: Micheletti blinks:

Honduras' de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti, said on Tuesday he has no intention of confronting Brazil or entering its embassy where ousted President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge to avoid arrest.

"We will do absolutely nothing to confront another brotherly nation. We we want them to understand that they should give him political asylum (in Brazil) or turn him over to Honduran authorities to be tried," Micheletti told Reuters.

Meanwhile, at least two popular barrios in and around Tegucigalpa have defied, en masse, the curfew order and chased National Police out of their communities: El Pedregal and Colonia Kennedy. They've erected barricades and declared the coup regime and its security forces non grata.

5:57 p.m.: Brazil has now put its request for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council in writing. It clearly considers the hostile actions by the Honduras coup regime of cutting water, telephone and electricity to its Embassy and the physical intervention by regime security forces to prevent food, water or other provisions from entering the building as acts of war.

The Security Council has five permanent member states - Russia, China, Great Britain, France and the United States - and five rotating seats now filled by Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya, Burkina Faso and Vietnam. Do the math. The presidency of the Security Council rotates month by month. In September of 2009 that chair belongs to the United States. The Council will meet tomorrow morning to discuss the situation in Honduras and whatever requests Brazil makes. Perhaps related: US President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly at 10 a.m. ET tomorrow in New York.

8:03 p.m.: An interesting development today in the popular barrios and colonias of Greater Tegucigalpa: The coup's military curfew - now extended for a total of 36 hours until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning - is causing major hardship for the great mass of Honduran citizens that live day to day. Small shop owners, ambulant street sellers, mercado workers and so many others generally don't have savings. If they don't work on a given day, they and their families don't have food to eat that night. A great many don't have refrigerators and they shop the same day for the food they will eat. The curfew is causing shortages of food and other basic products of daily life, and preventing many from being able to afford what little they need. And while the general view in the popular (read: poor) barrios has been anti-coup, the curfew has brought forward a rage and a higher level of organization overnight.

Add to that the fact that the National Police have spent last night and today busting into those neighborhoods to enforce the curfew - because many citizens aren't paying it any mind as it interferes with their daily subsistence level survival - and has overreacted with great violence, shooting tear gas canisters into homes, invading people's houses, and such. This has caused a generalized phenomenon throughout the metropolitan area: People have come en masse out of their homes, chased the police out of many of those neighborhoods, and erected barricades to keep them out. They are now organizing to maintain those barricades. The coup regime thus, overnight, has lost any semblance of control of considerable tracts of urban Honduras. Tegucigalpa is beginning to look a lot like the city of Oaxaca, Mexico in 2006.

8:46 p.m.: After a bizarre press conference held in English and translated into Spanish, in which a staffer, Carlos Lopez Contreras, represented coup "president" Micheletti (without Micheletti being present - his handlers have hidden him away for good reason), and in "cadena nacional" (broadcast on all stations by law), the regime has extended the curfew now for 50 hours, until 6 p.m. tomorrow night.

8:54 p.m.: From Quotha.net, more detailed info on the neighborhood-by-neighborhood uprising underway in Greater Tegucigalpa today and tonight:



The de facto government, through its violence and denial of constitutional and human rights, has managed what Zelaya alone had not fully succeeded in doing: uniting the entire country in the struggle for freedom. Today, they resistance underwent an important shift: it went local. The following Tegucigalpa neighborhoods are defying the curfew and protesting against the coup d'etat:

1. Arturo Quesada
2. Barrio Morazán
3. Centroamérica Oeste
4. Cerro Grande
5. Ciudad Lempira
6. Colonia 21 de Febrero
7. Colonia 21 de Octubre
8. El Bosque
9. El Chile
10. Flor del Campo
11. Hato de Enmedio
12. Kennedy
13. La Fraternidad
14. Pantanal
15. Pedregal
16. Picachito
17. Reparto
18. Residencial Girasoles
19. Residencial Honduras
20. San José de la Vega
21. Sinaí
22. Víctor F. Ardón
23. Villa Olímpica
24. Villanueva

In some places people have repelled the police, while in others the terrain is in dispute. The police are using live ammunition. Barricades are everywhere. This list was current at 7pm local time in Tegucigalpa.

The latest extension of the curfew just announced - preventing Hondurans from working or shopping all day tomorrow, too - will only exacerbate this situation."

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3444/seven-million-hondurans-under-house-arrest-micheletti-writes-democracy

UPDATE:

"The One-Sided War on the Streets of Honduras

“They’re the Only Ones Using Violence,” Human Rights Leader Bertha Oliva Observes of the Coup Regime on Day Two of Zelaya’s Return

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009: Government forces attacked a peaceful crowd outside the Brazilian Embassy Tuesday morning, in an apparent attempt to dispel support for deposed President Mel Zelaya. Mr. Zelaya had returned to the country on Monday after almost three months in exile.

“It was terrible repression,” said National Congressman Marvin Ponce, who was with Zelaya in the Embassy until around nine o’clock the night before. “This is a reflection of their philosophies, this government of putchists. They don’t respect human rights. They don’t want a political dialogue,” said Ponce, and he ought to know: The Congressman was himself assaulted during a nonviolent protest last month, suffering several broken bones, including his right arm, which was fractured in three places.

Eye-witness testimony indicated that the soldiers and police fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and live rounds into the crowd.

“It was brutal,” said resistance organizer Juan Barahona, director of El Bloque Popular. “I was outside the embassy when the police began their dispersal. Afterwards we reorganized, and marched through some of the poor barrios. But the police attacked us there as well.”

The day before, thousands had gathered in front of the Brazilian Consulate in the Colonia Palmira, to welcome home Mr. Zelaya with chanting and songs. The de facto government imposed a curfew starting at four p.m., and cut power to the Embassy; but Zelaya’s supporters stayed on in the streets all night long, defying orders to disperse.

This reporter spent most of Monday inside the embassy with Mr. Zelaya. The ousted President addressed the thousands gathered outside, urging them to pursue a nonviolent resistance to “Los Golpistas.”

“We will continue the struggle for democracy,” said Zelaya, as the crowd voiced their desire for a new constitution. “This time I won’t be caught napping,” joked Zelaya, referring to the episode on June 28, when the military accosted him in his pajamas.

Later, when the lights were cut, there were fears the authorities might storm the gates at any moment, and side arms were handed out to security guards. The lights soon returned courtesy of the compound’s generator (and gas supplied by La Resistencia). The expected attack didn’t come until dawn, when police launched tear gas shells into the courtyard, and forcibly occupied neighboring buildings.

“These bullies can enter my home, and do anything they please,” said one disconcerted neighbor, lugging her valuables away from the scene. “Just because I live next to the Brazillian Embassy, they treat me like a criminal.”

Apparently, the “bullies” could do as they pleased throughout the capital on Tuesday. To mention just one example: The offices of the Committee for Detained and Disappeared Persons of Honduras (COFADEH) were attacked without provocation, when police fired tear gas canisters at the building.

“They want us to give up our investigations,” said COFADEH Director Bertha Oliva, “because they’re scared of the evidence we have against them.”

I arrived at COFADEH about ten minutes after the attack, and people were still weeping from the gas. “But bullets and bombs will not dissuade us,” Oliva said. “[We] refuse to be intimidated.”

Later that day, Oliva told me that COFADEH alone had documented 36 injured people on Tuesday, many bearing severe welts and scalp lacerations from police batons. She also reported at least two deaths. Congressman Ponce believes put the total number of wounded at 172. Independent reports indicated about 350 people were also arrested and detained in the Villa Olympica soccer stadium.

The official police tally, however, told quite a different story. According to their numbers, there were only 23 arrests, 10 injuries and zero fatalities. Law enforcement officials also made clear their intentions for Zelaya.

“The minute he steps outside the building, he goes to jail,” said Colonel Samuel Mengiver of Police Intelligence. And if Zelaya doesn’t come out of his own volition? “We’re ready to take him out of there by force,” said the Colonel. “We’re just waiting for the order.”

One did not have to go far to see evidence of the tactics being employed by the authorities. Leaving the hotel this morning on my way to the Brazilian Embassy, I encountered several young men fleeing a squadron of baton-wielding police. As I watched, the officers caught up to two of them and commenced beating them viciously, even after they had fallen to the ground.

“We were just walking to work,” said Aron Antonio, bleeding profusely from multiple head wounds. “I can’t understand why they attacked us.” I called an ambulance on my cell phone, but by the time it had arrived, Antonio’s companion had lost consciousness. The youth’s eyes refused to dilate, and he began to vomit where he lay in the gutter.

“The people can’t even walk the streets in peace,” Bertha Oliva told me. “They’re being beaten just for stepping out of doors. [The police] hunt them as if for sport. What kind of a country has this become?”

By the time I reached the Embassy, the crowds had been dispersed, and masked police and soldiers had cordoned off the street, forbidding even international journalists and human rights workers from approaching. A few hours later, a pick-up truck with massive speakers was wheeled in, to direct constant loud music toward the building.

I spoke by phone with Father Andres Tamayo – Catholic priest, and leading figure in the anti-coup movement – who was trapped with Zelaya inside the Embassy. “There are police in front of the building, and all of the surrounding houses. The government is also listening in, and blocking our calls,” he said, just before the line went dead.

Late Tuesday afternoon, 85 people were allowed to leave the Embassy. About 70 more – including Zelaya’s wife and young grandchildren – remain inside. Meanwhile, the resistance movement shows no signs of slowing down.

“We will be in the streets again tomorrow,” said Juan Barahona. “We will not give up until Mel Zelaya returns to the presidency.”

When asked what he thought would be the likely response from the authorities, Barahona conceded it might well be more of the same. ““The police will not tolerate us. They’ll probably attack us again. But what else can we do? This remains an unequal struggle.”

Shortly after being turned away by police, while seeking to bring food and water to those in the Brazilian Embassy, Bertha Oliva echoed Mr. Barahona’s sentiments.

This is a one-sided war,” she said, nodding towards the masked officers. “They’re the only ones committing violence.”

http://narconews.com/Issue60/article3822.html

UPDATE:

"Brazil Urges Action On Honduras

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says the international community demands the reinstatement of ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya.

Mr Lula told the UN that the crisis in Honduras is an example of where greater global political will is needed.

In another development, the UN has suspended any assistance for November's planned elections in Honduras.

A statement said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did not not believe conditions are right for "credible elections".

The suspension is temporary, but a UN spokesperson gave no indication of when assistance might be resumed.

Mr Zelaya has been holed up in Brazil's embassy in Honduras since Monday.

He had been in exile since July, when he was forced from the country at gunpoint, but made a surprise return to Honduras two days ago.

Brazil has warned Honduran security forces not to enter the embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and is seeking an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address the crisis.

"Without political will, we will see more coups such as the one that toppled Manuel Zelaya in Honduras," Mr Lula told the UN General Assembly in New York.

"The international community demands that Mr Zelaya immediately return to the presidency of his country and must be alert to ensure the inviolability of Brazil's diplomatic mission in the capital of Honduras."

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8271309.stm

UPDATE:

"EU Warns Honduras To Respect Zelaya, Brazil Embassy



(BRUSSELS) - The European Union told the de facto government in Honduras on Wednesday to respect the "physical integrity" of ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the inviolability of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where he is holed up.

In a statement issued at EU headquarters in Brussels, the Swedish EU presidency threw the bloc's support behind a declaration by the Rio Group of Latin American and Caribbean nations on the crisis.

"The presidency aligns itself with the declaration's strong call for guaranteeing the inviolability of the embassy of Brazil in Tegucigalpa," it said.

"The inviolability of diplomatic premises is a universally accepted principle of international relations, codified in the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961, to which Honduras is a party."

Its statement added: "The presidency further aligns itself with the demand from the Rio Group to respect the physical integrity of president Zelaya, his family and members of his government."

In line with the Rio Group states, the Swedish EU presidency called for an immediate halt to "acts of repression and violations of human rights, to avoid further aggravating the crisis."

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/honduras-politics.lq

UPDATE:

Latin American Leaders Support Zelaya in UN Debate

By David Gollust
United Nations
23 September 2009

Latin American leaders pressed for the return to office of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in their U.N. General Assembly speeches on Wednesday, as the deposed leader remained holed up in Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa. In his U.N. speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded protection for his country's mission in Honduras.

The ouster of the Honduran president in June was condemned by all other member countries of the Organization of American States, or OAS. And U.N. General Assembly policy statements by several Latin American leaders on Wednesday made clear that diplomatic support for Mr. Zelaya has not diminished.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country by tradition opens the annual General Assembly debate, warned that unless international support for Mr. Zelaya is able to force his return to office, Latin America could see a return to an era when military coups were commonplace.

"Unless there is more political will, we will see more coups, like the one which toppled the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, who has been granted refuge in Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa since Monday," said Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "The international community demands that Mr. Zelaya immediately return to the presidency of his country, and must be alert to insure the inviolability of Brazil's diplomatic mission in the capital of Honduras."

See: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-23-voa47.cfm

UPDATE:

"Two Days After Honduran President Returns to Capital, Amnesty International Reports Rise in Police Beatings, Mass Arbitrary Arrests, Closing of Media Outlets, Harassment of Activists Since Coup

Human Rights Organization Cites "Alarming" Incidents, Including Police Tear Gas Attack Monday on Rights Organization in Capital

(New York) -- Amnesty International reported today that police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights groups have risen sharply in Honduras since the June coup d'etat, including the firing of tear gas at the building of a prominent rights group on Monday with 100 men, women and children inside.

Two days after President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales returned to Honduras following a June coup, Amnesty International warned that fundamental rights and the rule of law in the Central American nation are in grave jeopardy.

According to reports received by Amnesty International on Monday morning, about 15 police officers fired tear gas canisters at the building of the prominent human rights organization COFADEH. Around 100 people, including women and children, were inside the office at the time. Many had come to denounce police abuses during the break up of a demonstration earlier outside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge.

“The situation in Honduras can only be described as alarming,” said Susan Lee, Americas director at Amnesty International. “The attacks against human rights defenders, suspension of news outlets, beating of demonstrators by the police and ever increasing reports of mass arrests indicate that human rights and the rule of law in Honduras are at grave risk.”

“The only way forward is for the de facto authorities to stop the policy of repression and violence and instead respect the rights of freedom of expression and association,” said Lee. “We also urge the international community to urgently seek a solution, before Honduras sinks even deeper into a human rights crisis.”

Following the break up by police of a mass demonstration outside the Brazilian Embassy yesterday, numerous demonstrators were reported to have been beaten by police and some several hundred detained across the city. Reports also indicated similar scenes of human rights violations across the country.

Amnesty International received information that dozens of protestors were taken to unauthorized detention sites across the capital last night. Although most of those detained have been released, mass arbitrary arrests may make those detained vulnerable to human rights abuses such as ill-treatment, torture or enforced disappearance.

Amnesty International has documented the limits which have been imposed on freedom of expression since the coup d’état, including the closure of media outlets, the confiscation of equipment and physical abuse of journalists and camerapersons covering events. Radio Globo and TV channel 36 yesterday suffered power stoppages or constant interruptions to their transmissions which prevented them from broadcasting.

Background Information
Concerns about human rights in Honduras have intensified since the democratically elected President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales was forced from power on June 28 and expelled from the country by a military-backed group of politicians led by Roberto Micheletti, former leader of the National Congress. There has been widespread unrest in the country since the coup d’etat with frequent clashes between the police, military and civilian protestors. At least two people have died after being shot during protests.

President Zelaya returned to the country on Monday September 21 and is currently in residence at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

On August 19, Amnesty International published testimonies and evidence, which documented excessive use of force and beating of protestors by police. In the report, Honduras: Human rights crisis threatens, as violence and repression increase, Amnesty International produced evidence confirmed from first hand testimony that detention and ill treatment of peaceful protestors are being employed as a form of punishment against those openly opposing the de facto government. Other protestors who support the de facto regime did not suffer the same abuses from security forces. Evidence contained in the report shows that during the mass arrests of protestors by the police and military, some women and girls were subjected to gender-based violence. At least two people have died after being shot by firearms allegedly by police or members of the military during protests.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and woArks to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Please visit www.amnestyusa.org for more information.

Suzanne Trimel
Media Relations Director
Amnesty International USA
5 Penn Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10001
212-633-4150
201-247-5057 (mobile)

"People everywhere need to be continually reminded that violations of human rights, whether arbitrary arrest and detention, unjust imprisonment, torture, or political assassination, are threats to world peace."
Mumtaz Soysal
Nobel Peace Prize lecture
1977
www.amnestyusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20090924002&lang=e

UPDATE:

"Coup Regime Continues The Repression

TEGUCIGALPA, September 23.— The coup government forces’ repression of Honduran citizens demonstrating in support of the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya today led to the death of a young man, the looting of businesses and markets and numerous riots despite the curfew, EFE reports.

Early this Wednesday, groups of citizens defied the authorities in at least 50 different locations in incidents that left one person dead and 113 people detained, according to official information. The police and army, using tear gas and rubber bullets, also repressed a demonstration approaching the area surrounding the Congress building.

Meanwhile, President Zelaya informed AFP that the Brazilian embassy, where he is located, is the target of electronic interference that is preventing telephone communications and that the coup government has installed ultrasound machines to distress people in the building.

"That electronic equipment affects and inflames the brain. We have been attacked (with these sound waves) in the last 24 hours but a district attorney arrived and they are now dismantling them," he added

Juan Barahona, general coordinator of the National Front against the Coup, emphasized the pacific nature of the anti-coup struggle and urged people to maintain order and discipline in order to prevent actions by provocateurs.

Chanting slogans like "The people, united, will never be defeated" and "Forward, forward, the struggle is constant," a thick human column of more than one kilometer in length moved down the city streets.

In the Villanueva district, demonstrators were blocked by a strong contingent of riot police backed up by the army but, after through tense negotiations, managed to advance slowly to the nearby Palmira neighborhood.

The police eventually halted their march a few blocks from the Brazilian embassy.

During a demonstration there, campesino leader Rafael Alegría announced the Front’s creation of a commission of dialogue and asked the crowd to move to the Parque Central and await further instructions.

When most of the demonstrators had left the area, a firecracker exploded a few meters from the riot police, who immediately responded by launching tear gas grenades.

The protest in the Parque Central, in Tegucigalpa’s historic quarter, was cleared later on when police arrested an undetermined number of people.

PRESSURE ON ANTI-COUP MEDIA

The coup regime has been exerting constant pressure on the media covering the peaceful resistance against the coup, as is the case with Radio Progreso, Carla Rivas, a journalist from this radio station, reported.

In an exclusive statement for the National Radio Coordinating Committee from Tegucigalpa, she said that the pressure has intensified since Monday, when the news came out that President Zelaya was in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital.

Radio Globo was also off the air at several points yesterday due to power cuts, because the army is controlling the electrical distribution center.

Translated by Granma International

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/septiembre/juev24/honduras-repression-continues.html

UPDATE:

"EXTRA: Gas, noise bombs thrown into Brazilian embassy, Zelaya says

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said Friday gas and non-lethal noise bombs had been thrown into the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has taken refuge, but Honduras' de facto government denied that the embassy had been attacked. Zelaya said the air felt heavy and strange, and people in the building had become sick, with one aide vomiting blood. He said he had stomach cramps, and that his eyes and throat had become itchy as a result of the attacks, which he said seek to "scare" him.

Police spokesman Daniel Molina said no gas or noise blasts had been used against the Brazilian embassy.

Zelaya was ousted by a military coup on June 28 and sent into exile. However, he secretly returned to the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, Monday and sought refuge at the Brazilian embassy.

The UN Security Council on Friday condemned any acts of harassment by the de facto Honduran government against the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amotim appeared before the 15- nation council at UN headquarters to appeal for the safety of the embassy personnel. He said the de facto government in Honduras has restricted staff movement, adding that food and clothing have to be brought in by humanitarian groups.

"It is against the Vienna conventions" that protect the inviolability of foreign embassies, Amorim said."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/287276,extra-gas-noise-bombs-thrown-into-brazilian-embassy-zelaya-says.html

UPDATE:

"Arias admits 'things are going badly' in Honduras

San Jose - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Friday that "things are going badly" in Honduras and regretted the uncompromising stance taken by Honduras' de facto government. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who returned secretly to Tegucigalpa this week and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, held talks Thursday night with a representative of the de facto government. But Zelaya said they remained "inflexible."

However, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, told Chilean radio Friday that he was optimistic about an agreement being reached.

"I believe it is going to take some time, it is going to be difficult, but if there is goodwill from both parties we can solve this problem," Insulza said.

Arias, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to secure peace in Central America, has been playing the role of mediator in the Honduran conflict following the June 28 coup that ousted Zelaya.

Arias drafted the so-called San Jose Accord, which called for Zelaya's reinstatement as president to head a government of national reconciliation until his term ends in January. However, the accord was rejected by the de facto government headed by former Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti.

"They may sit down to negotiate again, but (Micheletti) has not budged an inch," Arias said.

The international community has refused to recognize Micheletti's government and backs Zelaya as Honduras' legitimate president."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/287267,arias-admits-things-are-going-badly-in-honduras.html

UPDATE:

"Honduran Coup Regime Mocks UN Security Council with Embassy Attacks

After today’s emergency session of the United Nations Security Council in New York, US Ambassador Susan Rice emerged to read a warning to the Honduras coup regime:

"We condemn acts of intimidation against the Brazilian embassy and call upon the de facto government of Honduras to cease harassing the Brazilian embassy.”

The wording is unequivocal. After investigating the claims (and the de facto regime’s denials) of constant technological and chemical attacks on the diplomatic seat in Tegucigalpa, and illegal impediment of ingress and egress to and from the embassy, where legitimate President Manuel Zelaya and at least 85 aides, supporters and some members of the news media are sheltered, the UN Security Council has concluded that said harassment i s real and it is ongoing.

If the coup regime believed that its use of chemical and sonic devices would render its attacks less visible, it has already lost that gamble.

Article 31 of The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 is titled “Inviolability of the consular premises,” and states:

“Consular premises shall be inviolable to the extent provided in this article… The authorities of the receiving State shall not enter that part of the consular premises which is used exclusively for the purpose of the work of the consular post except with the consent of the head of the consular post or of his designee or of the head of the diplomatic mission of the sending State… the receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the consular premises against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the consular post or impairment of its dignity… The consular premises, their furnishings, the property of the consular post and its means of transport shall be immune from any form of requisition for purposes of national defence or public utility.”

Article 33 states: “The consular archives and documents shall be inviolable at all times and wherever they may be.”

Article 34, titled “Freedom of movement,” states: “the receiving State shall ensure freedom of movement and travel in its territory to all members of the consular post."

Article 35, titled “Freedom of communication,” states:

“The receiving State shall permit and protect freedom of communication on the part of the consular post for all official purposes. In communicating with the Government, the diplomatic missions and other consular posts, wherever situated, of the sending State, the consular post may employ all appropriate means, including diplomatic or consular couriers, diplomatic or consular bags and messages in code or cipher… The official correspondence of the consular post shall be inviolable. Official correspondence means all correspondence relating to the consular post and its functions… The consular bag shall be neither opened nor detained.”

In light of those international laws, the device you see in the photograph up top, deployed by Honduran coup regime security forces at the gates of the Brazilian Embassy, offers a smoking gun of proof that the regime is violating the Vienna Convention.

Narco News and its team of technical engineers and counter-surveillance consultants has identified the apparatus as the LRAD-X Remote Long Range Acoustic Device, manufactured by the American Technologies Corporation.

The instrument is an offensive weapon, used on US Navy warships and by other nations, which can emit sounds that, “Through the use of powerful voice commands and deterrent tones, large safety zones can be created while determining the intent and influencing the behavior of an intruder.”

The LRAD-X machine can shoot sounds of up to 151 decibels. According to the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders sounds less loud than those it produces can cause Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL): “Sources of noise that can cause NIHL include motorcycles, firecrackers, and small firearms, all emitting sounds from 120 to 150 decibels. Long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. The louder the sound, the shorter the time period before NIHL can occur.”

In other words, the LRAD-X is the source of the high-pitched and pain-inducing sounds that have been fired both at those inside the Brazilian Embassy and turned around when anti-coup demonstrators have tried to come close to it. As such, it interferes with the Vienna protected inviolability of the Embassy and its free communications.

Under international law, this violation already serves as sufficient justification for intervention by UN Peacekeeping Forces of the multinational kind that the country of Brazil has led in Haiti.

But that’s not all: Narco News has received the following photos of a C-guard LP Cellular telephone jamming device designed for low power indoor use. The black out range can be set to cover an area of 5 to 80 meters. The device was found inside the premises of the Brazilian embassy yesterday.

(On Monday a large multitude of people, including journalists, including some from pro-coup news agencies, were able to enter the Brazilian Embassy to welcome or interview President Zelaya. It is possible that the cell phone jamming device was placed inside the premises then.)

Sold by Netline under the product category of "Counter Terror Electronic Warfare," the device, the company boasts, "C-Guard LP cellphone jammers block all required cellular network standards simultaneously: GSM, CDMA, TDMA, UMTS (3G), Nextel, 2.4 GHz and more."

The deployment of a cell phone jamming device is in direct violation of the Vienna Convention articles above protecting the inviolability of embassy and consular communications. What’s more, sources inside the embassy that are in constant direct contact with Narco News testify that prior to locating and removing the device, cell phones of the President, his aides and others in the building were impeded by much interference.

Additionally, around noon today, President Zelaya called a press conference inside the embassy, during which a medical doctor testified that two of the people staying inside the embassy displayed symptoms of bleeding from the nose or the stomach, and that a larger number of them displayed symptoms of nausea, throat and sinus irritation and related problems that can be caused by neuro-toxic gases used in chemical warfare that are also prohibited by international treaties.

Zelaya said, calmly and deliberatively, that upon awaking at 7:30 a.m., he had felt an unfamiliar irritation, “first in the mouth, next in the throat, and later a small pain in the stomach. I drank water and milk. And I came out to find others feeling sick. Since then we’ve been trying to figure out where it is coming from.”

Understanding the dramatic nature of this kind of warfare and its capacity to generate panic, fear and anger, Zelaya urged members of the anti-coup civil resistance, “Please, do not attack the police. Maintain yourselves at a respectable distance. Don’t come near enough to be beaten. Protest your grievances peacefully.”

Displaying the cell phone jamming device, President Zelaya said, “This apparatus is installed to interfere and practically act against all telephones inside the Embassy. We practically have a sonic intervention that could also be affecting the health and nerves of people inside."

“They have also aimed frequencies of high intensity against the Embassy. This is also to affect our psychological state. Other machines are installed in the neighboring houses, where the owners have been kicked out and the military has occupied them.”

Hortensia “Pichu” Zelaya, also inside the embassy, sent out this photograph, below, taken earlier today of a device, partly covered by a green plastic bag, that security forces erected from one of the neighboring properties in clear view and air stream of the Brazilian embassy. “As soon as we discovered it,” she wrote, “they immediately took it down.”

By Al Giordano

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3460/honduran-coup-regime-mocks-un-security-council-embassy-attacks

NOTE:

Exact same sonic device being used in Pittsburgh

Submitted September 25, 2009 - 4:46 pm by John Slade

At the G-20 conference. Guess this week was the international rollout!

http://nihilix.blogspot.com/2009/09/robocops-vocals-super-pain-ray.html

UPDATE:

"Several Reported Dead in Honduras Turmoil

The Honduran authorities must immediately halt their "repressive" response to a week of violent political unrest that left five people reportedly killed, Amnesty International has said.

Police are alleged to have shot dead an 18-year-old man in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday. Four more deaths have been reported in the capital Tegucigalpa amid widespread demonstrations against the de facto authorities.

"The de facto authorities must put an immediate halt to these repressive tactics and commit to respecting fundamental human rights," said Susan Lee, Amnesty International's Americas Director.

There has been a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders since the return to Honduras on Monday of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who was expelled from the country in a coup in June.

There are reports that protestors have been shot by security forces. A 65-year-old man died of gunshot wounds during a demonstration in Tegucigalpa. The circumstances of three more reported deaths in the capital remain unclear.

The man reported to have been shot dead in San Pedro Sula was identified as José Jacobo Euceda Perdomo, 18.

Amnesty International understands that police raided poor residential neighbourhoods in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, searching for opponents of the authorities who had taken part in protests.

Police are reported to have fired live ammunition and tear gas as they entered homes, before beating and detaining individuals. Young people appear to have been particularly targeted.

The location of those detained in Tegucigalpa remains unclear. Some were taken to the main police stations, while others may have been held in the residential neighbourhoods.

Such irregular methods of detention place individuals at risk of grave human rights abuses, since their detention may never be formally registered.

Witnesses in Tegucigalpa have also reported seeing soldiers randomly beating people on the street with wooden clubs.

Concerns about human rights in Honduras have intensified since the democratically elected President Zelaya was forced from power on 28 June and expelled from the country by a military-backed group of politicians led by Roberto Micheletti, former leader of the National Congress.

There has been widespread unrest in the country since the coup d’etat with frequent clashes between the police, military and civilian protestors. Tensions have mounted since the return of deposed President Zelaya on 21 September.

Amnesty International has documented the restrictions that have been imposed on freedom of expression since the coup d’état. These include the closure of media outlets, the confiscation of equipment and physical abuse of journalists and camerapersons covering events."

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGNAU2009092513305&lang=e&rss=recentnews

UPDATE:

Heat Rises in Honduras as Embassy Holds Out

PROTESTS in support of Manuel Zelaya have strengthened, with thousands on the streets 90 days after the Honduran president was ousted, and hopes fading for a way out of the deadlock.

A top diplomat leaving the Brazilian embassy, where Mr Zelaya has been holed up since Monday, denounced the state of ''siege'', with troops lined up around the compound.

''It's the only place in the world where there's an embassy under siege,'' said Francisco Catunda, the Brazilian charge d'affaires. ''You can't imagine how many papers, checks and negotiations I had to undergo so that I, the charge d'affaires of Brazil, could leave,'' he said.

The UN Security Council has warned Honduras' current leaders not to harass the embassy, but the de facto government at the weekend asked Brazil to immediately stop offering protection to Mr Zelaya to ''instigate violence in Honduras''.

Mr Zelaya's return set off a flurry of diplomatic activity, but both sides have so far stuck to hardline positions.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that Mr Zelaya ''could stay as long as necessary for his safety'' in the embassy. The de facto leaders have insisted the compound will not be taken by force and deny they were responsible for initial power and water cuts. A night-time curfew remains in place."

See: http://www.theage.com.au/world/heat-rises-in-honduras-as-embassy-holds-out-20090927-g7p7.html

UPDATE:

"Protests Grow in Honduras

Tegucigalpa - Protests in support of Manuel Zelaya picked up on Saturday, with thousands on the streets 90 days after the Honduran president was ousted, and hopes fading for a way out of the deadlock.

After thousands marched to the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya has been holed up since Monday, hundreds more took part in a vehicle protest, hanging out car windows, honking horns and waving Honduran flags as they drove through a main axis of the capital, Tegucigalpa.

A top diplomat leaving the Brazilian embassy denounced the state of "siege," with troops lined up around the compound.

"It's the only place in the world where there's an embassy under siege," said Francisco Catunda, the Brazilian charge d'affaires, as he left the building for the first time since Zelaya appeared there at the start of the week.

...Surrounded by anti-riot police and soldiers, thousands of Zelaya's supporters took to the streets in growing protests Saturday.

"Thanks, Brazil, for protecting Mel (Zelaya's nickname) from this vile regime," one banner read.

Many said that Zelaya's suprise return to the country on Monday - nearly three months after he was ousted in a dispute over his plans to change the constitution - had strengthened his support.

"The coup leaders have more pressure to negotiate" now, union leader Juan Barahona said.

European Union countries however decided to send back their envoys who were withdrawn after the coup, the Swedish EU presidency said Saturday.

It added that the return of the ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy and Spain would in no way imply recognition of the country's de facto government.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that Zelaya "could stay as long as necessary for his safety" in the Brazilian embassy."

See: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_World&set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20090927102352353C289022

UPDATE:

"Honduras Issues Deadline to Brazil Over Ousted President

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- Honduras is accusing Brazil's government of instigating an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian Embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who has taken refuge there.

"Since the clandestine arrival to Honduras by ex-president Zelaya, the Brazil embassy has been used to instigate violence and insurrection against the Honduran people and the constitutional government," the secretary of foreign affairs for Honduras' de facto government said in a statement late Saturday night.

The statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if Brazil did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be.

"No country is able to tolerate that a foreign embassy is used as a command base to generate violence and break tranquility like Mr. Zelaya has been doing in our country since his arrival," the statement said.

Zelaya was removed from power in a military-backed coup in June.

Claiming he is still the president, Zelaya returned to Honduras on Monday and has been staying at the Brazilian embassy since then.

On Friday, Zelaya said he and supporters were victims of a "neurotoxic" gas attack that caused many people to have nose bleeds and breathing difficulties."

See: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/27/honduras.president/index.html?eref=ib_topstories

UPDATE:

"Brazil Rejects Honduras Ultimatum Over Zelaya

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Brazil plans to ignore a 10-day deadline set by Honduras' de facto government to decide the fate of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who took refuge in the Brazilian embassy last week after sneaking back into the country.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Silva rejected the ultimatum on Sunday and demanded an apology from Honduras' de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, who issued a harsh statement on Saturday warning Brazil to define Zelaya's status.

"Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup mongers," Lula told reporters at a summit in Venezuela, adding that international law ensures the sovereignty of its embassy in Tegucigalpa."

See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090927/ts_nm/us_honduras_3;_ylc=X3oDMTB0MnYzNTlvBF9TAzIxN
TExMDUEZW1haWxJZAMxMjU0MDcyNjE5

UPDATE:

"EU Diplomats Return To Honduras Backing Zelaya

The European Union says the blocs ambassadors are back in Honduras in a show of support for the ousted President Manuel Zelaya who is seeking a return to power.

Announcing the news on Sunday, the Swedish EU presidency warned in a statement that this is not going to mean recognition of the interim government.

"This is an important step in support of the ongoing talks to restore the constitutional order and the democratic process in Honduras, but it does not mean we recognize the de facto government," the statement read, according to RIA Novosti.

The European nations summoned their diplomats from the Central American nation to protest the June 28 military coup that overthrew Zelaya.

Most of the countries, including the US, have asked for the reinstatement of Zelaya as the constitutional President, although there is a wide suspicion that the coup ousting Zelaya was backed and facilitated by the United States.

Zelaya has returned home and has taken refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa.

So far no political solution has been found to end the deadlock in the poor country which had been under heavy US influence until Zelaya, the first leftist candidate in decades, was elected president."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=107274&sectionid=351020706

UPDATE:

"Honduras Deadline on Embassy Standoff

Honduras's interim government has given Brazil a 10-day ultimatum to decide what to do with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who took refuge in the Brazilian embassy after sneaking back into the Central American nation.

A spokesman for interim President Roberto Micheletti on Sunday warned Brazilian authorities to "immediately take measures to ensure that Mr Zelaya stops using the protection offered by the diplomatic mission to instigate violence in Honduras".

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva immediately rejected the missive, saying his government "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotters".

Micheletti didn't specify what he would do after 10 days. He has said previously he plans to arrest Zelaya, who was deposed in a June 28 coup. Zelaya faces treason and abuse of authority charges for ignoring court orders to drop plans for a referendum on rewriting the constitution.

But Micheletti has also said he has no plans to raid the embassy and Zelaya could leave if Brazil offers him political asylum.

Zelaya, who surprised the world by sneaking back into Honduras last week, called on his followers nationwide to mark Monday's three-month anniversary of the coup with a mass march in the capital to demand his reinstatement.

Brazil - like the rest of the international community - recognises Zelaya as Honduras' legitimate president, and says it wants to protect him.

But Brazil has said Zelaya's arrival took embassy officials by surprise, and Silva asked Zelaya "to take care to give no pretext to the coup leaders to engage in violence".

On Tuesday, the day after Zelaya's return, baton-wielding soldiers used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of his supporters outside the embassy in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

Since then, the mission has been surrounded by police and soldiers. Zelaya and about 65 supporters inside accused authorities of temporarily cutting off water and electricity early in the week, and later said the government released an unidentified gas that caused headaches, nosebleeds and nausea.

Brazilian Charge d'Affaires Francisco Catunda confirmed on Saturday: "Yes, it was released," he said in a rare interview outside the building. "One of our officials felt it, felt symptoms." Catunda added that some people had throat problems, but did not give details.

The UN security council has issued a statement that "called upon the de facto government of Honduras to cease harassing the Brazilian Embassy".

A Honduran rights group, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, said on Saturday independent medical personnel entered the embassy and confirmed there were some symptoms. But Zelaya was in good health, they said.

Zelaya accused Micheletti's government on Sunday of bombarding the embassy with "electromagnetic radiation". In a statement broadcast by Channel 36 television, Zelaya did not offer any other details, nor specify whether the alleged radiation had hurt anyone.

New talks to resolve the dispute began after Zelaya reappeared in Honduras following what he described as a secret, 15-hour journey. Many nations have announced they would send diplomatic representatives back to Honduras to support negotiations.

But the Honduran government said on Sunday it would not automatically accept ambassadors back from some nations that withdrew their envoys.

Countries such as Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela would have to negotiate re-establishing diplomatic relations with the foreign ministry and re-accredit their diplomatic representatives, the government said.

A leader of Zelaya's National Front Against the Coup said a protester died on Saturday from complications due to inhaling tear gas when soldiers and police broke up Tuesday's demonstration. Local media reported the woman had asthma.

Protesters say 10 people have been killed since the coup, while the government puts the toll at three."

http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/honduras-deadline-on-embassy-standoff-20090928-g7w8.html

UPDATE:

"Zelaya Says Honduras Stopped OAS Officials at Airport

(Bloomberg) -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said authorities at the Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa stopped four officials from the Organization of American States from entering the country to organize talks to end the country’s political crisis.

“They won’t let these people enter to start a dialogue,” Zelaya said in a phone interview from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa today.

Zelaya said he wants to hold talks at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has been since sneaking back into Honduras this week, about three months after he was exiled by soldiers at gunpoint.

Local TV Channel 36 said some of the officials left the country without leaving the airport.

The acting government’s spokesman Rene Zepeda said he could not confirm whether the OAS officials had been blocked from entering the country. The Organization of American States could not immediately be reached for comment.

Michael Stevens, spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, declined to comment.

10-Day Ultimatum

Brazil doesn’t recognize a 10-day ultimatum from the acting government of Honduras to declare whether Zelaya has been granted asylum, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in Venezuela today.

Lula said it would be a violation of international law if the de facto government enters the embassy by force and called on the acting government to apologize and restore Zelaya as president.

Speaking by phone from the embassy, Zelaya said he and about 50 supporters are rationing food that was brought in by human rights observers. He said authorities have used toxic gases, sonic sound blasts and electromagnetic radiation to try to drive him out of the embassy.

“We all have headaches from the radiation. It’s making us nauseous,” he said in a raspy voice.

He called on supporters to march on the Brazilian embassy tomorrow after police and soldiers blocked thousands of Zelaya backers from marching on the embassy yesterday. The acting government announced a curfew 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. today in a televised broadcast.

Zelaya supporter Wendy Avila died yesterday after she was hospitalized for an asthma attack allegedly caused by tear gas at protests earlier this week, according to protest organizer Anarella Velez, who says she’ll file charges against police in the case.

Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said the death is being investigated.

“The resistance hasn’t stopped for one minute,” Zelaya said, “We’ll keep up until we revert this coup.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aPK7BPJQ9.4E

UPDATE:

"Honduras Spurns OAS As Tensions Mount With Brazil

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The de facto government of Honduras denied entry on Sunday to an Organisation of American States delegation as tensions mounted with Brazil, which has given refuge to ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The group of OAS officials had hoped to help broker a solution to Honduras' political crisis but was turned back at Tegucigalpa's international airport, a move likely to further isolate the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti.

Hours earlier, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would ignore a 10-day deadline set by Micheletti to decide what to do with Zelaya, who is holed up in Brazil's embassy in Honduras.

"Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup mongers," Lula told reporters at a summit of African and South American leaders in Venezuela.

Lula also demanded an apology from Micheletti, who issued a harsh statement late on Saturday warning that his government would be forced to take action if Brazil does not define Zelaya's status soon.

Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup on June 28, but on Monday he returned from exile, sparking a tense standoff with the de facto civilian government that has promised to arrest him on charges of treason.

Brazil had said Zelaya can stay as long as necessary, but Micheletti told the South American heavyweight to either grant the deposed leftist political asylum or hand him over to Honduran authorities to be prosecuted.

"We urge the Brazilian government to define the status of Mr. Zelaya in a period of no more than 10 days," the de facto government said in a statement. "If not, we will be obliged to take additional measures."

It did not say what those measures might be, but said Brazil must guarantee its diplomatic mission is not used by Zelaya to "incite violence."

Since Monday, hundreds of soldiers and riot police have surrounded the embassy where protesters have mounted almost daily marches to demand Zelaya be reinstated.

"If they enter by force, they will be committing an act that contravenes all international norms," Lula said of the security forces outside the building.

ZELAYA URGES "FINAL OFFENSIVE"

Zelaya, a logging magnate who is rarely without his trademark cowboy hat, urged his followers to descend on the capital to pressure for his return.

"I call on you to mobilise throughout Honduras, and that everyone who can come to Tegucigalpa to fight in the final offensive," he said in a statement on local Radio Globo.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned harassment of the Brazilian embassy. Brazilian officials say food and supplies have only occasionally been allowed in and troops have blasted the building with high-frequency sounds."

See: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6106059/honduras-spurns-oas-as-tensions-mount-with-brazil/

. . . Thanks again, Felix . . . simply appalling . .

It's surprising how the U.S. is mum on this situation...I thought we were the champions and defenders of democracy. The true colors, however, are coming through...note the following surprising reaction:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States blasted ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya for his "irresponsible and foolish" return from exile before a settlement was reached in the Central American country's political crisis.

At an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States to discuss the Honduran face-off, Lewis Anselem, the U.S. ambassador to the OAS, also criticized Honduras' de facto government for its "deplorable" action in barring entry of an OAS mission and declaring a state of siege on Sunday.

Anselem also criticized Zelaya for fueling violence by slipping back into Honduras last week and holing up in the Brazilian Embassy, from where he has called on his supporters to take to the streets.

"The return of Zelaya absent an agreement is irresponsible and foolish ... He should cease and desist from making wild allegations and from acting as though he were starring in an old movie," Anselm said."

http://www.spotlightnews.net/us_world_news/story.php?story_id=TRE58R4FE

""The return of Zelaya absent an agreement is irresponsible and foolish . .. . '

Freakin' slave master talk . .

UPDATE:

"Soldiers Raid Honduran Media Outlets

Honduras' coup-installed government has silenced two key dissident broadcasters just hours after it suspended civil liberties to prevent an uprising by backers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Dozens of soldiers raided the offices of Radio Globo. Officials also shut down Channel 36 television station, leaving it broadcasting only a test pattern.

Rene Zepeda, a spokesman for the interim government, said the two outlets had been taken off the air in accordance with a government emergency decree announced late Sunday that limits civil liberties and allows authorities to close news media that "attack peace and public order".

Supporters of the deposed leftist president vowed to march in the streets Monday in defiance of the emergency order and carry out what Zelaya calls a "final offensive" against his ouster on the three-month anniversary of the coup.

"They took away all the equipment. This is the death of the station," said Radio Globo owner Alejandro Villatoro, describing the dawn raid on the station.

Station employees scrambled out of an emergency exit to escape the raid that Villatoro said involved as many as 200 soldiers.

He said the office remained surrounded by soldiers. It was the second time soldiers have barged into the station - the first was June 28, the same day Zelaya was ousted.

The interim government has long argued it is trying to preserve democracy in Honduras, and even cited the fact that pro-Zelaya media such as Channel 36 were operating freely as proof.

But the emergency decree showed a tough new stance domestically and internationally, a reversal from last week, when interim President Roberto Micheletti indicated his administration was willing to hold talks with Zelaya, who has taken shelter at the Brazilian Embassy after sneaking into the country a week ago.

The Organisation of American States in Washington called a high-level emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the Honduras crisis after the interim government expelled at most members of an OAS advance team that had arrived Sunday to try to restart negotiations.

Micheletti's Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said the team had not given advance warning of its arrival and said it did not come "at the right time ... because we are in the middle of internal conversations".

Officials also issued an ultimatum to Brazil on Sunday, giving the South American country 10 days to turn Zelaya over for arrest or grant him asylum and, presumably, take him out of Honduras.

Lopez said Brazil had broken relations by withdrawing its ambassador and said if it does not restore ties, the diplomatic mission would become a private office - implying it could be raided by police.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded, saying that his government "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotters".

Micheletti has pledged not to raid the embassy where Zelaya has been holed up with more than 60 supporters.

The building is surrounded by armed police and soldiers, who have been there since baton-wielding troops used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of his backers when he returned to the country September 21.

Protesters say at least 10 people have been killed since the coup, while the government puts the toll at three.

The government's suspension of civil liberties limits rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution: The decree prohibits unauthorised gatherings and allows police to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others". It also allows officials to shut down media outlets for "statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law".

See: http://www.3news.co.nz/Soldiers-raid-Honduran-media-outlets/tabid/417/articleID/123138/cat/61/Default.aspx?ArticleID=123138

UPDATE:

"Honduran Police, Soldiers Raid Two Media Outlets

Radio Globo and Channel 36 are pulled from the air. The stations, known to be sympathetic to ousted President Manuel Zelaya, are accused of inciting rebellion.

Reporting from Mexico City and Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- The de facto Honduran government has silenced two dissident broadcasters, part of a crackdown on civil liberties aimed at undermining support for ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Soldiers and police before dawn today raided Radio Globo, a national broadcaster sympathetic to Zelaya. Late Sunday, Channel 36 television was yanked from the air. The two stations frequently carry interviews with Zelaya and his supporters -- voices given short shrift in most other Honduran media.

The coup-installed government of President Roberto Micheletti accused the stations of inciting rebellion.

"The radio station is a disaster," Globo's owner, Alejandro Villatoro, told the Spanish news agency EFE after the raid. Villatoro said soldiers had seized the equipment but that most employees had escaped.

Also today, two foreign journalists, one from a Guatemalan television station and the other from Televisa of Mexico, were beaten up by security forces, their employers said.

Supporters of Zelaya said they planned to go ahead today with a march despite a decree late Sunday in which the de facto rulers suspended several constitutional guarantees, including the freedom to congregate. The emergency decree also makes it easier for the army to arrest citizens."

See: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-honduras29-2009sep29,0,4038126.story?track=rss

UPDATE:

"Honduras: Restore Press Freedom Immediately

Source: Human Rights Watch

(New York) -Honduras's de facto government should immediately rescind an emergency decree that severely restricts press freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today. Honduran security forces seized the offices of Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur television early today and shut down their broadcasting, two days after the decree was issued. Both broadcasters have been openly supportive of deposed president Manuel Zelaya.

The de facto government issued the decree on September 26, 2009, prohibiting all public statements that offend public officials or question government decisions. It empowered the National Communications Commission to use the police or military to suspend broadcasters who do not comply.

"Roberto Micheletti has effectively outlawed public criticism," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "This kind of decree has been the norm for authoritarian rulers - from Chile's Pinochet to Cuba's Castros - who tolerate freedom of speech only when it favors the government."

The decree is effective for 45 days.

International law recognizes that states may temporarily derogate from some of their human rights obligations, but only under exceptional circumstances, including in time of war, public danger, or another emergency that threatens the independence or security of the state. Such temporary derogations, however, must be strictly limited to the exigencies of the situation, and not restrict rights more than is absolutely necessary. The provisions in this decree effectively shutting down free press do not meet those criteria, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch has condemned the coup and repeatedly called on the international community to exert concerted and effective pressure, including targeted sanctions, to press for an end to human rights abuses and the restoration of democratic rule in Honduras.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/cb11bae05172e2651521fc62385e1e77.htm

UPDATE:

OAS: Honduras' de facto authorities going the wrong way

Washington/Tegucigalpa/Madrid - Honduras' post-coup government is headed in "the absolute opposite direction" from a path leading to normalization, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), said Monday. The international community has refused to recognize the de facto government set up after a coup on June 28 that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and has demanded his reinstatement.

On Sunday, the de facto government expelled several OAS diplomats and restricted liberties in response to a call by Zelaya for his supporters to help him recover power. It also closed two media loyal to the ousted president.

"The chances for normalization of the situation in Honduras with a view to re-establishing the constitutional order and having democratic elections are in the absolute opposite direction to the one they chose (Sunday)," Insulza said in a special session of the OAS Permanent Councilin Washington to debate the situation in Honduras.

Insulza was also speaking of the interim government's decision to impose a 10-day deadline for Brazil to grant Zelaya asylum or hand him over, after the ousted president returned to the country and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa last week.

According to Insulza, "it is not possible to reconcile" this attitude with holding democratic elections.

Before Zelaya's ouster, a presidential election had been scheduled to take place on November 29. The election is still set to take place, although both the international community and Zelaya have declared it illegitimate.

Insulza said the OAS is "very concerned" about the latest measures adopted in Honduras, since they set up "a sort of state of emergency" and "free the hands of those who want to carry out more acts of repression."

See: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/287615,oas-honduras-de-facto-authorities-going-the-wrong-way--summary.html

UPDATE:

"Jailed Honduran farmers on hunger strike for Zelaya

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) - Thirty-eight farmers imprisoned by the military-supported interim Honduran regime began a hunger strike Saturday demanding the reinstatement of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

The protest comes as representatives of Zelaya and the regime led by Roberto Micheletti agreed to restart talks next week aimed at resolving the political crisis, sparked when soldiers ousted Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28 and kicked him out of the country.

Zelaya's surprise return on September 21 -- to the Brazilian embassy, where he is currently holed up -- triggered a new wave of protests and a clampdown on civil rights, but also boosted efforts to break the deadlock.

"We're being charged with sedition because we are calling for the return of our president to end all this," said Ramon Diaz, 43, one of the hunger strikers being held at the National Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa.

"The lawyers have said that they want to lock us up for the maximum term, 10 years," Diaz told AFP from the prison, located just outside the capital.

Diaz and 54 other Zeyala sympathizers were arrested Wednesday after police and soldiers violently ousted protesters from government offices they had taken over. Some of the protesters, including women and children, were released.

The farmer-protesters say they took over the office in an attempt to have their land rights respected: as president, Zelaya moved towards granting land to some 300,000 farmers that have been demanding plots for some 40 years.

"We are starting a hunger strike to demand a just trial, the restitution of president Zelaya, and respect for our right to the land," said Benedicto Flores, 48, another jailed farmer."

See: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/6141203/jailed-honduran-farmers-on-hunger-strike-for-zelaya/

UPDATE:

"Real Time" lawmaker Ros-Lehtinen taking Honduran coup show on the road

GOP lawmakers Jim DeMint, Aaron Schock, Peter Roskam and Doug Lamborn aren’t the only extremist grandstanders openly flaunting their disrespect for the Logan Act and contempt for President Obama by trekking to Honduras to play dice with a dictator.

This coming Monday, U.S. Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also is slated to make a trip to Honduras to play footsy with the Despot and Chief of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, and his putsch pals.

Ros-Lehtinen also has another ally in that endeavor — a former member of her staff who now works for a firm that is actually under contract to Micheletti’s gang of thugs (to the tune of more than a quarter million dollars).

Like South Carolina U.S. Sen. DeMint and company, Ros-Lehtinen will try to pass off her upcoming trip to Honduras as a mere fact-finding mission. After all, the GOP golpista-backers (GOPistas) are not the first lawmakers to visit a “shunned country,” and the right and wrong of what happened in Honduras is all relative, at least in the "objective" world of mainstream media reporting, as AP reports.

The brief, amicable visit [by DeMint and his fellow GOPistas] with the leaders of the coup highlighted a divide in Washington, where the Obama administration considers the interim government illegitimate and is working to reinstate [democratically elected Honduran President Manuel] Zelaya. Many conservatives, however, side with the government installed after soldiers arrested the president in his pajamas and flew him into exile.

DeMint said before the trip that even calling Zelaya's overthrow a coup is "ill-informed and baseless."

But in a "justice" sense, asserting that the Republican lawmakers’ Honduran trips are mere fact-finding missions, or are of no consequence to President Obama’s policy in the region, seems to be, in DeMint’s own words, an “ill-informed and baseless” claim. DeMint, through arcane Senate rules, is now blocking Obama nominees to Latin American diplomatic posts because he opposes Zelaya and the White House’s public stance supporting his return to the Honduran presidency. DeMint's glad-handing with the dictator Micheletti also only serves to confer credibility on a repressive regime that is already responsible for multiple human rights violations.

In the case of Ros-Lehtinen, the Florida lawmaker’s animosity toward the democratically elected, and deposed, President of Honduras, Zelaya, has already been made clear publicly. So her pending visit to Honduras, likewise, can only be viewed as an effort to undermine the Obama administration’s foreign policy goals in the region.

In late September, Ros-Lehtinen introduced a House Resolution calling on the Obama administration to recognize the “legitimacy” of the upcoming November presidential elections in Honduras, which, as matters stand now, will take place under the repressive rule of the coup government already deemed to be "not legal" by President Obama.

And in July, shortly after the coup, Ros-Lehtinen sent a letter to President Obama chastising him for not muzzling Zelaya — a foreign leader who is now holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Per a recent ABC report:

"This marked a serious failure in U.S. diplomacy and democracy advocacy," she [Ros-Lehtinen] wrote. "As such, many would argue that the U.S. is complicit in the escalation of the constitutional crisis in Honduras."

And if that isn’t enough evidence to raise doubts about Ros-Lehtinen’s supposed “fact-finding” or otherwise supposed non-obstructionist intentions in Honduras, then there’s this little inconvenient truth about her “ally”: Juan Cortiñas-Garcia, senior vice president of the high-powered Washington, D.C., PR firm Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates (CLSA).

Cortiñas-Garcia has some history with Ros-Lehtinen. He served previously (for some six years) as Ros-Lehtinen’s press secretary and legislative assistant.

"During that time, he worked on domestic and international affairs issues particularly dealing with U.S. policy toward Latin America," Cortiñas-Garcia's CLSA bio states.

And why is that of significance?

Well, Micheletti and his fellow golpistas recently shelled out some $292,000 to retain Cortiñas-Garcia’s PR firm. Part of CLSA’s mission under that contract is to “build a campaign of persuasion” supporting the interests of the coup regime by engaging in ”policy maker contacts and events, and public dissemination of information to government staff of government officials. …”

It seems Cortiñas-Garcia’s former boss, U.S. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, fits that bill quite well. Might this be a case of a little coup blood money for a little quid pro quo access?

So, let’s get this straight. Ros-Lehtinen is headed to Honduras next week to help preen the feathers of the leaders of the Honduran coup while at the same time her former press secretary is working under contract with an inside-the-Beltway PR firm to advance the despotic interests of those same coup leaders — all in open defiance of the Obama Administration’s stated policy on Honduras.

Maybe after she returns, Ros-Lehtinen can get HBO to once again pay her way to Los Angeles to appear on the “Real Time with Bill Maher” show — a gig she’s done at least four times since 2005, with the last such trip racking up nearly $2,300 in travel and lodging expenses (including a $750 town car ride), according to Congressional travel records.

And once on the show, maybe Ros-Lehtinen can give CSLA an assist with their coup contract by putting a positive spin (cloaked in humor, of course) on all the golpista-sanctioned democracy she discovered while fact-finding in Honduras.

Oh, and its worth pointing out that Ros-Lehtinen’s former press secretary also has done some work for an HBO affiliate in the past, as his bio on CLSA’s Web site reflects:

Mr. Cortiñas-Garcia has led crisis communications efforts involving legal disputes and complex Latin American transactions for leading corporations such as HBO Latin America….

So maybe Cortiñas-Garcia could even write the script for Ros-Lehtinen’s next HBO appearance, no?

Stay tuned …"

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/10/real-time-lawmaker-ros-lehtinen-taking-honduran-coup-show-road

UPDATE:

"Rich Vs. Poor At Root Of Honduran Political Crisis

n Honduras on Monday, de facto president Roberto Micheletti lifted an emergency decree and restored some civil liberties. He imposed the decree last week after nationwide protests erupted following the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The protracted presidential standoff is highlighting the deep divisions in the country's society, which is split between a powerful yet tiny elite and the vast majority of poor, ordinary citizens.

Zelaya remains holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. Both sides are calling for dialogue, but so far, there has been little progress on a negotiated settlement to the stalemate.

Since Zelaya — who is often referred to as "Mel" — was ousted, there have been protests in Tegucigalpa both for and against his return.

"In Honduras, we are accustomed to a government of the rich," says Marixa Gorgos, a pro-Zelaya demonstrator. "And the problem for our president, Mel Zelaya, was that he worked for the poor."

Poor Vs. Wealthy

On June 28, the military arrested Zelaya under orders from the Honduran Supreme Court. He was deported to Costa Rica. Zelaya managed to sneak back into the country on Sept. 21 and is taking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy.

His return sparked a social upheaval in this nation of 7.8 million people.

Micheletti initially shut the country's airports and borders. At different times, Micheletti declared nationwide curfews, closed down pro-Zelaya media outlets and banned public gatherings. But Zelaya supporters, including Gorgos, continued to defy the ban.

"I'm here and I'm part of this fight because I don't want my children to live the same way I lived," she says, meaning in a country so sharply divided between the rich and poor.

Honduras is one of the original "banana republics." In the 1800s, U.S. firms set up fruit companies that exploited cheap Honduran labor to export bananas to the port of New Orleans.

While things have improved since the days of the company store, the vast majority of Hondurans remain in poverty.

Ramon Romero, a professor of economics at the National Autonomous University, says power in Honduras is in the hands of about 100 people from roughly 25 families. Others estimate the Honduran elite to be slightly larger, but still it is a tiny group.

Romero says the country's elite have always selected the nation's president. They initially helped Zelaya get into office, and then they orchestrated his removal from power.

What Motivated Zelaya's Ouster?

Micheletti, the de factor president, says Zelaya was "taken out" because he tried to change the rule of the Honduran Constitution, which prohibits presidents from even trying to extend their one term in office.

"[Zelaya] was doing that. He [doesn't] care. He disobeyed the Supreme Court and the Congress and everything," Micheletti says.

Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya, despite only having a few months left in his term, was on the verge of creating a socialist state modeled after Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

But Romero, the economics professor, says this was a ruse. "The principal reason why the elites split from Zelaya was for economic and not political reasons," Romero says.

Zelaya ran for president as a center-right candidate but then moved sharply to the left while in office.

He governed with a bravado that endeared him to the poor and infuriated the rich. When Congress voted down his budget, Zelaya simply carried on without one.

When the business community and the trade unions locked horns over a minimum wage hike — business argued for no increase while labor wanted an 18 percent boost — Zelaya unilaterally raised the minimum wage 62 percent, to roughly $275 a month.

Several days after Zelaya slipped back into the country, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital yelling, "Mel Out! Mel Out!"

Protests Continue As Country Suffers

Jaime Perez, the chair of the industrial engineering department at a private university in Tegucigalpa, says Zelaya was going to turn Honduras into a communist state.

"We are trying to stand for peace and democracy. We are trying to fight back communism, because it has been proven that it doesn't work. It makes people that are poor [even] poorer. It's not solving the problems of the nations," Perez says.

The coup has been costly: Business groups say the country is losing millions of dollars a day. And there are signs that members of the elite are now desperate to find an end to the crisis. The head of the national Chamber of Industry even said the group might accept Zelaya being reinstalled, on a short leash, until next month's presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Zelaya's supporters — who call themselves La Resistencia, or the Resistance — hold protests almost every day in the capital.

One of their main arguments is that the elites in Honduras have had too much power for too long."

By Jason Beaubien

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113504873&ft=1&f=1001

UPDATE:

"Deal May Be Near On Zelaya's Return To Honduras Presidency

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- An international plan to return deposed President Manuel Zelaya to power suddenly gained new life Friday after de facto President Roberto Micheletti reversed course and moved close to accepting the deal, the chief intermediary between the two sides said.

"I think both are willing to solve this without violence," John Biehl, a diplomat representing the Organization for American States, told McClatchy. "Things are looking very good, completely different than before."

Biehl has been echoing the warnings of others that failure to end the three-month-old power struggle could unleash a wave of bloodshed and doom the Nov. 29 presidential elections that are seen as key to returning politics to normal.

In a sign of the improving climate, OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza confirmed plans to come to Honduras on Wednesday along with 10 regional foreign ministers."

See: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/76492.html

UPDATE:

"Ousted Honduran Leader Dismisses Decree Decision

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday dismissed the withdrawal of an emergency decree that curbed civil liberties, calling it a meaningless gesture from a coup-imposed government that refuses to restore him to power.

Two pro-Zelaya media outlets that were closed under the decree said the government had not returned seized equipment, preventing them from re-establishing normal operations. Channel 36 owner Esdras Amado Lopez called the lifting of the decree "a lie aimed at deceiving the international community."

Zelaya criticized Interim President Roberto Micheletti for lifting the emergency decree Monday only after security forces arrested dozens of protesters and closed down two critical media outlets. He expressed frustration that interim leaders continue to oppose his reinstatement less than two months before Nov. 29 presidential elections.

"Roberto Micheletti continues to mock the people, declaring that he is completely revoking the decree after achieving the most possible harm," Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy with dozens of supporters, said in a statement.

The ousted president — who was visited Tuesday by four European Union Parliament members on a fact-finding mission — said refusal to return him to power "puts the electoral process at risk and deepens the institutional and political crisis in our beloved Honduras."

Even many backers of the June 28 coup had denounced the Sept. 27 emergency decree, arguing that it undermined the interim government's portrayal of itself as a democracy and could damage the validity of the presidential election that Micheletti hopes will make Zelaya's demands moot.

The decree was imposed after Zelaya supporters staged large-scale demonstrations and clashed with security forces after the ousted president sneaked back into the country and sought refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.

Micheletti said Monday the decree had been necessary to control the burning of vehicles and businesses by protesters, and was imposed after officials learned of plans for more such actions. He said Monday that he had ordered the decree revoked.

The order empowered police and soldiers to break up public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media.

The main effect was to close down the two main pro-Zelaya media outlets, Radio Globo and Channel 36, and Micheletti said they would remain shut down until their owners "come to the courts to recover their right to be on the air."

"We thought that when the decree was revoked, the equipment would be returned, but that has not happened," said Yesenia Herculano, an activist with Honduras' Committee for Free Expression. "There has been no progress."

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer

See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091007/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

UPDATE:

"Hand Back Power, Lula Tells Honduras Coup Leaders


Stockholm - Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti should step down immediately in return for an amnesty, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday. "For us the solution will be easy if those that participated in the coup leave power and allow the legitimately elected president to take power," Lula told journalists at a summit with European Union leaders in Stockholm.

If Micheletti "leaves and allows (ousted president Manuel) Zelaya to call elections there will be an amnesty, because we want Honduras to live well," he said.

Micheletti took power in a coup on June 28.

Zelaya is currently in hiding in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, while Micheletti's regime is coming under increasing international pressure with the impending arrival of a high-level mission from the Organization of American States.

But Lula stressed that Honduras could solve the problem instantly if the coup leaders returned Zelaya to power.

"There is only one thing wrong in Honduras, there's someone in the presidency that shouldnt be there," he said.

At the summit, Lula, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, issued a joint statement condemning Micheletti's takeover.

"The EU and Brazil condemn the violation of the constitutional order in Honduras and reaffirm their deep concern over the ongoing political crisis in that country," the statement said.

The two sides "call on the actors involved, in particular the de facto government, to work in order to find a rapid and peaceful negotiated solution to the current situation," it said.

And they also warned Micheletti's supporters not to attack the Brazilian embassy, urging them to guarantee "the inviolability of the Embassy of Brazil in Tegucigalpa and respect the physical integrity of President Zelaya, his family and members of his Government."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/288949,hand-back-power-lula-tells-honduras-coup-leaders--summary.html

UPDATE:

"Republican Senator Defies U.S. Foreign Policy

Right wing Sen. Jim DeMint from South Carolina traveled to Honduras, leading fellow Congressional Republicans. They are meeting the de facto government which overthrew the elected president of Honduras in a military coup.

The Honduras coup has been condemned by the United States, and by Latin American leaders across the political spectrum — including rightists Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Felipe Calderon of Mexico. The General Assembly in June had unanimously adopted a resolution deploring the coup. The resolution – sponsored by Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States, among dozens of Member States – stressed that it will not recognize any Government other than that of Mr. Zelaya which was overthrown.

Right wing support for the coup recalls the days when neoconservatives (who most recently gave us the war in Iraq, nominally to "promote democracy") and other Cold Warriors in the Reagan administration threw their support behind brutal military juntas and death squads throughout Latin America. That kind of thing could lead to blowback."

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=197820

UPDATE:

"Soldiers Who Expelled Zelaya Could Face Trial In Honduras

Tegucigalpa - Honduras' de facto President Roberto Micheletti has said that the military officers who expelled ousted president Manuel Zelaya from the country could be brought to trial, according to reports Tuesday. "I am absolutely certain that they will be brought to trial, as should happen to anyone who makes a mistake," Micheletti was quoted as saying on Monday.

The Honduran Supreme Court has admitted to issuing an arrest warrant for Zelaya, but says it never authorized his expulsion to Costa Rica after his ouster in a June 28 coup.

Army chief Romeo Vasquez told the daily Proceso Digital that the military respected the law and would "submit to the appropriate court."

Army lawyers have said the decision to expel Zelaya was based on a situation of necessity described in the Honduran legislation.

The de facto government headed by Micheletti on Monday repealed a controversial decree that had restricted freedom of movement and expression in the Central American country.

Hours earlier, in Washington, Zelaya had issued a statement asking the de facto government to end repression and restore freedom of expression as signs it is serious about dialogue to end the country's political stalemate.

Zelaya returned secretly from exile on September 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. The international community has refused to recognize the de facto government and has demanded Zelaya's reinstatement.

The Organization of American States (OAS) is to send to Tegucigalpa on Wednesday a foreign ministers mission headed by OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza that will seek to bring the parties in conflict closer to each other.

The delegation was to feature the foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/288888,soldiers-who-expelled-zelaya-could-face-trial-in-honduras.html

""I am absolutely certain that they will be brought to trial, as should happen to anyone who makes a mistake," Micheletti was quoted as saying on Monday."

Whoa, that's a game changer . . . He's got people there that are not going to like hearing that, at all . .

Did you see that? I couldn't believe he actually said that. Isn't that what always happens, though, remember Lynndie England. These poor 'order-followers'. On the other hand...isn't this a confession...that it was a coup...and as such criminally prosecutable. Now the Legislators, the Courts and the Micheletti gang are pinning it on those dumb foot soldiers.

They never told them to fly the President to Costa Rica. I guess they also didn't tell them to stop at Soto Cano Air Base where the U.S. military in Honduras camps out. Politicians and the corporate media are absolutely convinced that the public are a bunch of idiots.

Note...I did this search...Zelaya Soto Cano Air Base...in the links given most of the articles are not available. Hmm, how convenient.

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu7e8XMxKWVkBiURXNyoA?p=zelaya+Soto+Cano+Air+Base&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-101-s&sao=1

I see such depth of corruption, and this sort of relentless reporting you do, can help one grasp the vastness of it, as well. The New World Order, is being built on bodies and souls of men, by ruthless gangsters. I tell you the truth, it's gettin' pretty dark these days, my freind. I ain't never seen such dark before . . .

UPDATE:

"Honduran Abuses Rampant After Coup: Rights Groups

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Suspicious deaths. Beatings. Random police shootings. Life under the de facto government of Honduras at times feels uncannily like Latin America's dark past of military rule.

In the three months since soldiers overthrew leftist President Manuel Zelaya and marched him out of the country in his pajamas, international and Honduran human rights groups say security forces have committed a litany of abuses.

They link at least 10 deaths to de facto rule under Roberto Micheletti, who was named president after the June 28 coup. The government admits three people have died in protests.

Amnesty International said in September that Honduras risks spiraling into a state of lawlessness where police and military act with no regard for rights.

Repression of protests against the coup increased after Zelaya slipped back into the country on Sept 21, took refuge in the Brazilian embassy and called his backers onto the streets.

Honduran human rights group Cofadeh said it had numerous reports of police firing guns in poor areas of Tegucigalpa.

Some shootings occurred during night-time curfews enforced by Micheletti.

Unemployed Angel Manuel Osorto broke the curfew to go out to borrow money for medical treatment for his pregnant wife and his 13-year-old son Angel David was hit in the lower back when a policeman fired a pistol from a motorbike.

"As we walked home a police patrol rode up shooting. One bullet hit him," said Osorto. "Thank God he is alive."

That same night a Zelaya supporter was shot dead. Five more were hospitalized with bullet wounds. "People are terrified to go out at night. I am scared of the authorities," said Osorto.

The curfew has been lifted in Honduras, but Micheletti has put in place an emergency decree allowing the army and police to break up protests. And they do so with gusto, firing gas at almost any small demonstration.

Tegucigalpa police chief Leandro Osorio denied abuses and said left-leaning rights groups are biased in favor of Zelaya.

"They will say there are lots of injured people in the hospital, but that's not true," he told Reuters.

RIGHTS GROUP TEAR GASED

Honduras did not suffer the same level of state-sponsored violence as South American nations under military regimes or neighbors Guatemala and El Salvador during Central America's civil wars in the 1980s. But veteran rights activist Bertha Oliva says in some ways things are worse now.

"Before, they hid the dead. Now they do it in public, challenging every principle of human rights," said Oliva, who formed human rights group Cofadeh when her husband, a left-wing activist, was abducted in 1982.

Two days after Zelaya's return, police fired tear gas into Cofadeh's office where about 150 people were gathered to report beatings by soldiers and police dispersing protesters from the streets of Tegucigalpa.

The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the attack. It said there had also been some cases of violence against people and property by protesters.

"The human rights situation in Honduras has worsened substantially in the sense that the controls and repression of protests have risen exponentially," the commission's president Luz Patricia Mejia told Reuters.

One 22-year-old medical student who declined to be named says she and other members of her leftist, pro-Zelaya group have received threats by text message. One recent message read: "The best communist is a dead communist."

Last week, the student says masked, armed men tried to force her into a black car with dark windows. She escaped, but broke a ligament in her arm struggling to free herself from one of the men's grip.

"The idea was to torture me for information about my organization, I am sure of that," she said, her arm in a cast and dark rings around her eyes from the stress."

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, editing by Anthony Boadle)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091013/ts_nm/us_honduras_rights

UPDATE:

"Delegation Probes Human Rights Abuses In Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — A delegation from the Organization of American States arrived Sunday to look into possible human rights violations in Honduras since the June 28 coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.

The three-member delegation, whose identities are kept secret for security reasons, will for two weeks meet with top officials of interim leader Roberto Micheletti’s administration and those opposing the coup, a human rights official said.

Micheletti’s de-facto regime recently suspended civil liberties in the country to stem anti-coup demonstrations and unrest that it admits have left four dead since the coup. The regime also closed Radio Globo and TV Channel 36, both opposition outlets.

The Committee for Missing Prisoners in Honduras, however, puts the number killed in the same period at 12, while Human Rights Defense Committee president Andres Pavon told AFP that another 25 people were wounded by military gunfire during the protests.

Micheletti reinstated civil liberties and lifted a curfew before an OAS mission came here October 7 to shepherd crisis-solving negotiations, but observers said the move is only cosmetic since the measure has not been published in the official newspaper.

‘’The dictatorship’s idea was to show that normalcy was being restored in the country, but the decrees are still being enforced,’’ Front of Resistance to the Coup leader Juan Barahona told reporters.

Micheletti’s Human Rights Commissioner Ramon Custodio said those accusing the interim administration of human rights violations lived ‘’glass houses’’ of their own, adding that he was interested to see ‘’what methodology the UN will use to gauge the situation.’’

The OAS delegation will stay here until November 7 to prepare a report for the UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay commissioned October 1 by the UN Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Research and Promotion Center director Reina Ribera told AFP.

United Nations officials here refused to provide details of the OAS mission.

Human Rights Watch, which visited Honduras in August, accused the Micheletti regime of blocking any investigation into alleged human rights abuses in the country.

Negotiations between Micheletti and Zelaya are deadlocked over the key question of whether the deposed leader will be reinstated and how that would be decided.

The negotiations passed a Friday deadline imposed by Zelaya, who immediately threatened to break off talks if agreement is not reached by Monday."

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/225451/delegation-probes-human-rights-abuses-honduras

UPDATE:

"Honduras' Tourism Minister: 'Don't Visit My Country!'

A vacation in Honduras can conjure up visions of spectacular destinations: the Mayan ruins of Copán, cloud forest after cloud forest filled with exotic flora and fauna, the gorgeous beaches and the dolphin filled waters off the the island of Roatán. But that's not what tourist industry reporters saw when the country's minister of tourism Ricardo Martínez presented a video at a recent convention in neighboring El Salvador. With a soundtrack of revolutionary music, it showed supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya clashing with riot police in the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Martínez, who was ousted from the government along with Zelaya after the country's June 28 coup d'etat, was apologetic but unflinching about showing the video. "I'd like to tell everyone to come to Honduras, and that it's a tranquil place and everything is beautiful, but you think I'd be successful with that message? Of course not." Acting Honduran Tourism Minister Ana Abarca, appointed by the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, and other representatives of Honduras' de facto tourism institute were prohibited from attending the Central American Travel Market, the region's largest international tourism tradeshow of the year. Much of the world, including the U.S. and all of Honduras' neighbors, have refused to recognize the Micheletti regime. (See TIME's cover story on the secrets of Mayan civilization.)

Tourism was the country's main economic motor but since the coup, says Martínez, Honduras' tourism industry, which grew by a robust 9% in 2008, has plummeted 70%. The 7% tourism growth projections for 2009 are now expected to dip into the red. And the 155,000 Hondurans employed by the tourism industry are, in the words of Martínez, "suffering violently." Several TACA airlines flights to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, which used to bring hundreds of tourists to Honduras every day, have been canceled. A project to build an international airport at the Copán ruins was suspended, and charter groups from Europe are backing out. Overall, it's estimated that Honduras' economy has been set back 10 years over the past three months. (See pictures of the violence in the wake of the Honduran coup d'etat.)

The military-backed regime has attempted to prop up the collapsing industry by promoting internal tourism. Working with resorts and hotels on Roatán Island, a popular Caribbean dive spot off of Honduras' northern coast, the de facto tourism board is promoting special two-for-one vacation deals. Many Hondurans have taken the bait, flocking to the white sands of Roatán and filling hotel rooms that were once occupied by U.S. and European travelers. Hondurans who support the de facto regime, such as tour operator Vilma Sauceda of Rema Tours, says the fact that Honduran are "traveling like crazy" is a sign of support for the Micheletti government. She blames the drop in foreign tourism on a "media conspiracy" and "disinformation campaign" by Zelaya supports who are trying to create chaos and undermine the Micheletti government, which is not recognized by any other country in the world.

Martínez, however, thinks Hondurans are traveling because of economics, not political solidarity. "It's an opportunity to see Roatán, which has always been expensive for Hondurans," he said. And in many ways, the ousted minister notes, promoting internal tourism is the only option the Micheletti government has, since no one else will pay attention to them.

Despite Honduras' string of misfortunes, Martínez remains optimistic that the country's political situation will normalize, and that tourism will help pull it out of the hole. Several big projects, such as Carnival Cruise Lines' tourism dock under construction in Roatán, and a $15 million golf course beach resort in the north of the country, are still moving forward - a sign, Martínez says, of future recovery. "it's a matter of recuperating our international image, and I think that can happen overnight - just the same way we moved from positive to negative, we can jump from negative to positive," he said hopefully.

In the meantime, however, says Martínez, "We are still a state without individual guarantees. The police can come into your house without court order, you can be arrested without reason, and there's no freedom of movement." He wants tourism to come back to Honduras, just not on Micheletti's watch. "I'm not saying I am encouraging travel to Honduras, because I have shown you that the situation [for tourism] does not exist," Martínez told the journalists in El Salvador. "But what I am saying is please don't forget us, because we are going to solve this crisis and once we do, we are really going to need your help."

By TIM ROGERS / SAN SALVADOR

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1932100,00.html?xid=rss-fullworld-yahoo