Manuel Zelaya's return stumps Honduran coup leaders

[Agnapostate]

I don't know why this was never in BN, but here it is now.

Manuel Zelaya's return stumps Honduran coup leaders | World news | The Guardian

It was the type of journey Latino illegal immigrants know all too well: a clandestine border crossing, remote mountain roads, hiding in a car boot, dodging police checkpoints.

But Manuel Zelaya was no impoverished job-seeker smuggling himself into the United States. He was president of Honduras and he was returning home to reclaim power.

The leftist leader apparently traversed valleys and rivers and used a variety of vehicles, including a tractor, to wrongfoot coup leaders who banished him into exile three months ago.

Honduran security forces had orders to arrest Zelaya if he crossed the border. But somehow the tall, moustachioed president evaded checkpoints and on Monday made it to the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Today troops surrounded the compound and used batons and tear gas to disperse thousands of Zelaya supporters gathered outside. They made no move to storm the embassy.

The deposed president has not regained power but he has outfoxed his foes and seized the initiative – and the spotlight – in the week the UN general assembly is meeting in New York. The homecoming opened a new, volatile phase in a crisis that has divided Hondurans and confronted central America with its gravest diplomatic dispute since the cold war.

The Post - Honduras police break up pro-Zelaya protest

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran troops and police clashed on Tuesday with hundreds of supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya outside Brazil's embassy where he took refuge after slipping back into the country in a bid to return to power.

Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, who threw rocks back at security forces, and a Reuters photographer said at least two gas canisters landed inside the embassy compound.

Soldiers patrolled streets around the embassy and enforced an all-day curfew called by Honduras' de facto government to dampen the protests in support of the leftist Zelaya, who was toppled in a June 28 coup.

Zelaya ended almost three months of exile by sneaking back into Honduras on Monday. He sought refuge at the Brazilian embassy to avoid being arrested, and accused security forces on Tuesday of preparing an attack.

"The embassy is surrounded by police and the military ... I foresee bigger acts of aggression and violence, that they could be capable of even invading the Brazilian embassy," Zelaya said in an interview with Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur.

A police spokesman said all the protesters had been dispersed.

There's also this report of a protester killed by the army on the 22nd. Considering the status of the present regime as an authoritarian military administration, we can expect little respect for the rights of protesters and perhaps even the possibility of violent and brutal repression if they are seriously threatened by the restoration of the prior administration.

 

[Agnapostate]

Awww...no contributions from our rightist friends? I thought we were going to hear about the evil Stalinism of the leftist despot.

 

[Agnapostate]

Coup-installed Honduras leader to revive liberties - Yahoo! News

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' coup-installed government silenced two key dissident broadcasters on Monday 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.

Filthy dissenters trying to subvert the Constitution. Don't they know that Glenn Beck doesn't like them?!

 

[Oftencold]

What is there to say? Z is a lunatic who thinks he's being bombarded with death rays from invisible Israeli mercenaries, and he was barred by his constitution from running for another term. He's illegitimate as president.

Meanwhile, the "coup" leaders are treating the country pretty much with kid gloves.

I think that maybe we, as a country founded on revolution, should butt out, wait a decent three months, then if the new leaders are still in power, recognize them.

 

[The silenced majority]

**rough translation**

Several computers containing the results of the referendum Zelaya wanted to conduct are seized at the Presidential Palace

The National Directors of Criminal Investigation seized various computers from the Presidential Palace that had recorded the supposed results of the referendum to reform the constitution that the deposed leader, Manuel Zelaya, was planning to conduct on July 28, the day he was removed from office.

The official investigation now deals with the possible crime of fraud and falsification of documents due to the fact that some of the certified voting results had been filled with the personal information of individuals that supposedly participated in the failed referendum that did not take place because of the coup.

One of the district attorneys that participated in the operation that took place this Friday showed reporters an official voting result from the Technical Institute Luis Bogran, of Tegucigalpa, in which the specific number of people that participated in table 345, where there were 550 ballots, 450 of which were votes in favor of Zelaya's proposal and 30 were against, in addition to 20 blank ballots and 30 ballots, which were nullified.

The seizure took place on the third floor of the building attached to the Ministry of the Presidency that had been rented to the ex-minister of the Interior, Enrique Flores Lanza. The deputy district attorney, Roberto Ramirez, declared this area as a "crime scene" and, although he did not want to provide further details, said that further evidence had been found that could be categorized as crimes of fraud, embezzlement of funds, falsification of documents, and abuse of authority.

.​

Decomisan varios ordenadores en la Casa Presidencial con los resultados de la consulta que quería hacer Zelaya. europapress.cat

 

[Agnapostate]

he was barred by his constitution from running for another term.

That's probably why he didn't attempt it. Meanwhile, what we see now are authoritarian measures from a military regime of a nature so typical of Central and South American countries, and allegations of an intent to falsify an election on Zelaya's administration's part.

 

[Red_Dave]

What is there to say? Z is a lunatic who thinks he's being bombarded with death rays from invisible Israeli mercenaries, and he was barred by his constitution from running for another term. He's illegitimate as president.

Meanwhile, the "coup" leaders are treating the country pretty much with kid gloves.

I think that maybe we, as a country founded on revolution, should butt out, wait a decent three months, then if the new leaders are still in power, recognize them.

Declaration of martial law, arrest without trial and supressing opossition demonstrations/broadcasts is treating the country with kid gloves?