Diplomats urge return of ousted Honduran president

In the October 8, 2009 article "Diplomats urge return of ousted Honduran president," Associated Press writer Ben Fox reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Diplomats from across the hemisphere on Wednesday told Honduras' interim government to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya during at-times confrontational talks aimed at ending a standoff that has paralyzed this impoverished Central American nation.

Delegations from about a dozen countries met with representatives of Zelaya and the coup-installed government behind closed doors in Honduras' capital, then later held talks with interim President Roberto Micheletti in a confrontation broadcast on local television.

Micheletti, his voice at-times bristling with rage, scolded the diplomats for refusing to recognize what he insisted was the lawful removal of Zelaya under the Honduran constitution and for isolating his country and suspending aid to one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere.

"You don't know the truth or you don't want to know it," Micheletti said, imploring the delegates from the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean to "reflect on the damage you are doing to a country that has done nothing to you."

The diplomats sat stone-faced, a few rubbing their eyes in apparent fatigue during his outburst. Canada's minister of state for the Americas, Peter Kent, then told Micheletti that the international community respects the Honduran Constitution, but it oppose the military's ouster of Zelaya.

"However it happened, a mistake was made on June 28," Kent told the interim president. "A democratically elected leader, whatever his behavior in recent years, was undemocratically removed."

The diplomats took turns urging Micheletti and his ministers to reconsider their position, but no breakthroughs were announced. The delegates, brought to Honduras by the Organization of American States, were scheduled to leave Thursday.

"Today we saw Hondurans sitting together, working on a Honduran solution," Ronald Robinson, a Jamaican representing the Caribbean Community, said during the meeting. "For me, I thought it was a good step in the right direction."

After the talks with Micheletti, the delegation met with Zelaya in the Brazilian Embassy, where the ousted president has been holed up with dozens of supporters since sneaking back into the country from his forced exile.

The diplomats returned to their hotel later without commenting on their meetings to waiting journalists. Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza would only say there would be a news conference Thursday to discuss the progress.

Tensions rose before Wednesday's meeting, with riot police firing tear gas to disperse about 200 Zelaya supporters protesting near the U.S. and Brazilian embassies.

Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya's military-backed ouster was legal because it was sanctioned by Honduras' Supreme Court after he defied of a court order that he drop a referendum on changing the constitution. Most of the international community maintains the coup was illegal and must be reversed.

"We are not here to create a debate. We are here to find concrete solutions to a situation that cannot be prolonged," Insulza said before the round of meetings started.

Insulza presented a proposal to restore Zelaya as head of a unity government until his term ends in January and offer amnesty to both the coup leaders and the deposed president, who faces abuse of power and other charges in Honduras.

The proposal, which also would require Zelaya to abandon any ambitions to change the constitution, is very similar to one proposed months ago by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, known as the San Jose Accord, and rejected by the interim government.

Zelaya gave negotiators an ultimatum, calling for the postponement of upcoming presidential election if he is not restored to office before Oct. 15. The interim government wants to go ahead with the election — scheduled before Zelaya's overthrow — and move past the crisis.

The Canadian minister said it was imperative for an agreement to be reached before the Nov. 29 election, which many countries in the Americas have warned would not be recognized if Zelaya remains out of the power.

"I sense that everybody involved understands that we are nearly out of time and this crisis needs to be resolved now," Kent said.

Interim Vice President Marta Lorena Alvarado, however, said she did not expect an agreement Wednesday.

"It would be fantastic, but the problem is difficult and there are a lot of players. I don't think it will be today," she said.

She insisted the world was too quick to condemn Zelaya ouster. Still, she said, the two sides were "initiating conversations that had not occurred before and expectations are positive" for an eventual resolution.

Zelaya warned that the interim government would seek to persuade the delegates to pursue a new plan that would prevent his return to office.

"We warn the ministers that the de facto regime is planning to stay in power longer and to deepen the crisis by preventing the return of the elected president and continuing the repression of the people," Zelaya said in a statement.

Honduras restricts liberties to prevent rebellion

In the September 28, 2009 article "Honduras restricts liberties to prevent rebellion," Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Interim government leaders have suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted President Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup.

Zelaya supporters said they would ignore the decree issued late Sunday and march in the streets as planned. Some already had arrived in the capital, Tegucigalpa, from outlying provinces.

The measures — announced just hours after Zelaya called on his backers to stage mass protest marches in what he called a "final offensive" against the government — are likely to draw harsh criticism from the international community, which has condemned the June 28 coup and urged that Zelaya be reinstated to the presidency and allowed to serve out his term, which ends in January.

Officials also issued an ultimatum to Brazil on Sunday, giving the South American country 10 days to decide whether to turn Zelaya over for arrest or grant him asylum and, presumably, take him out of Honduras. They did not specify what they would do after the 10 days were up.

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

Interim President Roberto Micheletti has pledged not to raid the Brazilian Embassy building where Zelaya has been holed up with more than 60 supporters since he sneaked back into the country a week ago. The building is surrounded by armed police and soldiers. On Tuesday, the day after Zelaya's return, baton-wielding troops used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of his supporters.

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

Interim Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez has said that, because Brazil has broken off diplomatic relations with the interim government, it would have to remove the Brazilian flag and shield from the Embassy "and it (the building) becomes a private office."

The government's suspension of civil liberties violates rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution: The decree prohibits unauthorized gatherings and allows police to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others."
The Honduran Constitution forbids arrests without warrants except when a criminal is caught in the act.

The government measures also permit authorities to temporarily close news media outlets that "attack peace and public order."

In a nationally broadcast announcement, the government explained it took the steps it did "to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the calls for insurrection that Mr. Zelaya has publicly made."

There was no immediate reaction from Zelaya, who is demanding to be reinstated and has said that Micheletti's government "has to fall."

Zelaya's supporters pledged to ignore the restrictions and forge ahead with their scheduled demonstrations.

"The protest is on," said pro-Zelaya leader Juan Barahona. "Tomorrow we will be in the streets."

The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations that — while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup — had been allowed to operate freely, openly criticizing the interim government and broadcasting Zelaya's statements.

Under Sunday's order, authorities may now "prevent the transmission by any spoken, written or televised means, of statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law."

The decree states that the country's national telecommunications commission, known as Conatel, is authorized "through police and the armed forces ... to immediately suspend any radio station, cable or television network whose programming does not comply with these regulations."

Pro-Zelaya television station Channel 36 warned earlier Sunday that restrictions on the news media were coming and said they were part of a pattern by the interim government of quashing constitutional rights.

Micheletti's administration had previously bragged about the democratic atmosphere in the country, citing media outlets such as Channel 36 as proof. The station continued broadcasting without interruption Sunday night.

Talks between Zelaya and interim government officials aimed at resolving the political standoff have gotten nowhere. Prospects for success appeared even grimmer after the government expelled at least four members of an advance team from the Organization of American States who had arrived Sunday to re-establish negotiations.

Micheletti has previously said the OAS was welcome to come, but suggested that representatives begin arriving Monday. Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said that the team's arrival didn't come "at the right time ... because we are in the middle of internal conversations."

In addition, while many nations have announced they would send diplomatic representatives back to Honduras to support negotiations, the interim government said Sunday that it would not automatically accept ambassadors back from some nations that withdrew their envoys.

Honduras spurns OAS, vows to close Brazil embassy

In the September 27, 2009 article "Honduras spurns OAS, vows to close Brazil embassy," Patrick Markey and Gustavo Palencia report:

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – The de facto government of Honduras denied entry on Sunday to an Organization of American States delegation and threatened to close Brazil's embassy, where ousted President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge.

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 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 with his family and some supporters in Brazil's embassy in the capital.

"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 has 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 government said in a statement. "If not, we will be obliged to take additional measures."

Carlos Lopez, the de facto government's foreign minister, said Brazil would lose its right to have an embassy in Honduras if it ignores the deadline. But he stressed that the government would respect the sovereignty of the compound and has no plans to storm the building to arrest Zelaya.

"There has been no discussion of raiding Brazil's compound," Lopez said at a news conference in Tegucigalpa where he faulted Brazil for escalating the crisis by agreeing to house Zelaya in its embassy.

"The Lula government is to blame," he added.

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 mobilize 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.

Zelaya upset conservative elites by allying himself with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez. He demands to be restored to power, but the de facto government says presidential elections in November will resolve the crisis.

The showdown in Honduras is shaping up as U.S. President Barack Obama's first diplomatic test in Latin America, a region where Washington's influence has waned in recent years.

Obama has cut some U.S. aid to Honduras since the coup and pushed for Zelaya's return, but several Latin American leaders say he has not done enough to broker a solution.

Brazil, which has sought to assert itself as a regional leader under Lula, has backed Zelaya from the outset but was reluctant to take a leading role in a crisis outside its traditional sphere of influence in South America.

Soldiers toppled Zelaya at gunpoint and sent him into exile in his pajamas after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest. His critics say he broke the law by pushing for constitutional reforms they saw as a bid change presidential term limits and extend his rule. Zelaya denies wanting to stay in power.

His return stoked tensions in Honduras, a coffee and textile producing nation. One man was shot and killed in a clash between police and Zelaya supporters last week as pressure mounted to let him return to office.

The United States, European Union and Organization of American States have urged dialogue to bring Zelaya back to office. But the Micheletti government insists he must face justice at home.

Honduran businessmen at center of coup dispute

In the September 26, 2009 article "Honduran businessmen at center of coup dispute," Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Die-hard supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya are increasingly turning their anger toward the country's wealthy business elite, a small but powerful cadre believed to solidly back the interim government that removed him at gunpoint three months ago.

The capital is now covered with graffiti demanding "Turks out!" — apparently a reference to the Central American country's large number of business people of Middle Eastern descent — and on Saturday pro-Zelaya marchers lashed out at the elite's dominance over wealth in a country where millions are poor.

"They own almost the whole country," pro-Zelaya protester Arnoldo Pagoaga, a medical doctor who marched in his white uniform, said Saturday. "They're terrorists. ... They own the army, and sic it on us."

Fellow demonstrator Rafael Alegria complained that Honduras "has a large immigrant community that owns everything: commerce and industry."

"We don't really have our own economy," Alegria said. "We have to set that right."

Meanwhile, reports emerged that the business community's firm support of interim President Roberto Micheletti might be faltering somewhat amid intense international economic and diplomatic pressure — and the coup's substantially negative impact on the economy.

"There are people who say that it was a businessman" who helped Zelaya sneak back into Honduras, Micheletti told The Associated Press in an interview late Friday. He added, however, that "there are so many theories that nobody knows" if it is true.

Zelaya has said he made a 15-hour, cross-country overland journey using various vehicles to slip into the country undetected Monday. But the Spanish newspaper La Nacion reported Friday that the scion of a local media and banking family, attorney Yani Rosenthal, had lent him a helicopter to whisk him to Honduras.

Rosenthal emphatically denied the report Saturday.

"I don't even have a helicopter, much less one to lend to somebody," he said.

He did acknowledge, however, that there are divisions within Honduras' elite.

"There are differences in the upper class, just as there are in the middle class and the lower class," he said, though he added that he doesn't think they have led to a significant reduction in support for Micheletti.

While the rich haven't suffered as much as the country's impoverished majority from the near-daily curfews and cutoff of international aid, industrial and retail interests are starting to feel the pinch.

"There has been significant damage to the economy ... especially from the curfews," Rosenthal noted. Another curfew was reinstated Saturday at 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Sunday.

Some members of the business community have had their U.S. visas revoked, several business people told the AP on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens told foreign journalists Friday that the visas of key supporters of the de facto regime had been revoked.

Nonetheless, Micheletti says he has received no pressure from the business community to show more flexibility in talks with Zelaya, who is holed up at the Brazilian Embassy along with supporters and demanding to be reinstated as president.

Also Saturday, about 2,000 Zelaya backers marched through downtown Tegucigalpa in a daily show of support for the ousted leader and to protest what they claim was the release of toxic gas inside the Brazilian Embassy compound. Zelaya said that the unidentified gas caused headaches, nosebleeds and nausea among about 65 of his supporters inside.

Francisco Catunda, the charge d'affaires of the Brazilian Embassy, confirmed Saturday that some sort of gas had affected those at the Embassy.

"Yes it was released," he said in a rare interview outside the Embassy. "One of our officials felt it, felt symptoms."

Catunda added that some people "had throat problems, but I don't want to get into details."

Negotiations to resolve the country's political standoff are at a standstill. Zelaya has said that an envoy of the interim government with whom he met Wednesday night took "an extremely hard" stand and he called the government's positions "totally outside of any possibility of agreement."

Hopes for international mediation also faded Friday when Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated previous talks, announced that Micheletti's government had rejected a visit by a commission of foreign ministers meant to help break the stalemate.

Government spokesman Rene Zepeda said interim leaders wanted Arias to visit Honduras first so they could explain the situation to him, and that the ministers would be welcome next week.

In Friday night's interview with the AP, however, Micheletti suggested the whole thing had been a misunderstanding. He said both the foreign ministers and Arias were now welcome to come to Honduras. None of them arrived Saturday.

Previous negotiations moderated by Arias broke down after Micheletti's government refused to accept a plan that would allow Zelaya to return to the presidency with limited powers and prohibit him from attempting to revise the constitution.

Zelaya was removed by the military at gunpoint on the morning of June 28 after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest on charges of treason and abuse of authority for repeatedly ignoring court orders to drop plans for a referendum on rewriting the constitution.

But the coup has drawn international condemnation, including from the United States, and world leaders have insisted that Micheletti restore Zelaya to the presidency and let him serve out his term, which ends in January.

Micheletti has refused, saying that presidential elections in November will bring an end to the crisis. He has pledged to arrest Zelaya if he leaves the Brazilian Embassy but his government has promised not to enter the compound to go after him.

Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya waves to supporters from inside Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 21, 2009. Zelaya said he returned to Honduras Monday to reclaim his presidency, defying threats of arrest and summoning supporters. (AP)

In the September 22, 2009 article "Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest," Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas reports that Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras to reclaim his presidency:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya made a dramatic return to Honduras' capital Monday, taking shelter from arrest at Brazil's embassy and calling for negotiations with the leaders who forced him from the country at gunpoint.

The interim government initially ordered a 15-hour curfew, but then extended it to a 26-hour shutdown of the capital, but thousands of Zelaya supporters ignored the decree and remained outside the embassy, dancing and cheering.

Others in the capital rushed home, lining up at bus stands and frantically looking for taxis. Electricity was cut off for hours at a time on the block housing the embassy and in areas of Tegucigalpa where news media offices are located — something that happened the day of the coup that ousted the leftist leader.

Security Vice Minister Mario Perdomo said checkpoints were being set up on highways leading to the capital to keep out Zelaya's supporters from other regions, to "stop those people coming to start trouble." Later, Defense Minister Lionel Sevilla said all flights to Tegucigalpa had been suspended indefinitely.

Without giving any specifics, Zelaya said he snuck into the country by traveling for 15 hours overland in a series of vehicles — pulling off a homecoming that created a sharp new challenge for the interim government that had threatened repeatedly to throw him in jail if he returned.

Chants of "Yes we could! Yes we could!" bellowed from the crowd outside the Brazilian Embassy.

Zelaya told The Associated Press that he was trying to establish contact with the interim government to start negotiations on a solution to the standoff that started when soldiers flew him out of the country June 28.

"As of now, we are beginning to seek dialogue," he said by telephone, though he gave few details. Talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have been stalled for weeks over the interim government's refusal to accept Zelaya's reinstatement.

He also summoned his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protests and urged the army to avoid attacking his supporters.

"It is the moment of reconciliation," he said.

The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti, who took power after Zelaya's ouster and has promised to step aside following a presidential election scheduled for November, said the curfew would continue until 6 p.m. (0000 GMT) Tuesday. It first declared a curfew running from 4 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The government said in a statement the army and police were ready to "guarantee the safety of people."

The shifting orders reflected the surprise of Zelaya's arrival, which caught the interim government off guard. Only minutes before he appeared publicly at the embassy, officials said reports of his return were a lie.

Zelaya's presence could revive the large demonstrations that disrupted the capital following the coup and threatens to overshadow the presidential election campaign.

Teachers union leader Eulogio Chavez announced that the country's 60,000 educators would go on strike indefinitely Tuesday to back Zelaya's demand to be reinstated.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged both sides to look for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

"It is imperative that dialogue begin, that there be a channel of communication between President Zelaya and the de facto regime in Honduras," Rodham Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session in New York.

The U.S. State Department announced Sept. 4 that it would not recognize results of the presidential vote under current conditions. The coup has shaken up Washington's relations with Honduras, traditionally one of its strongest allies in Central America.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, called for calm and warned Honduran officials to avoid any violation of the Brazilian diplomatic mission. "They should be responsible for the safety of president Zelaya and the Embassy of Brazil," he said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said neither his country nor the OAS had any role in Zelaya's journey before taking him in.

"We hope this opens a new stage in negotiations," Amorin said. He also warned: "If something happens to Zelaya or our embassy it would be a violation of international law," which bars host countries from arresting people inside diplomatic missions.

Honduras' Foreign Relations Department criticized Brazil, saying it was violating international law by "allowing Zelaya, a fugitive of Honduran justice, to make public calls to insurrection and political mobilization from its headquarters."

Micheletti urged Brazil in a nationwide radio address to turn Zelaya over to Honduran authorities.

In the days following the coup, at least two of the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets were killed during clashes with security forces. Thousands of other Hondurans demonstrated in favor of the coup.

The country's Congress and courts, alarmed by Zelaya's political shift into a close alliance with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba, backed Zelaya's removal.

He was arrested on orders of the Supreme Court on charges of treason and abuse of power for ignoring court orders against holding a popular referendum on reforming the constitution.

Micheletti said Zelaya sought to remove a ban on re-election — grounds for immediate removal from office under the Honduran constitution. Zelaya denies any such plan.

International leaders were almost unanimously against the armed removal of the president, alarmed that it could return Latin America to a bygone era of coups and instability. The United States, European Union and other agencies have cut aid to Honduras to press for his return.

Zelaya said he had "evaded a thousand obstacles" to return, traveling 15 hours by land in different vehicles. He declined to give specifics on who helped him cross the border, saying that he didn't want to jeopardize their safety.

His staunch supporter, Chavez, described the journey: "President Manuel Zelaya, along with four companions, traveled for two days overland, crossing mountains and rivers, risking their lives. They have made it to Honduras."

Sevilla, the defense minister, told reporters that Zelaya allegedly entered Honduras from Nicaragua in a car licensed in a South American nation that "is not Venezuela."

If the interim administration attempts to imprison Zelaya, protesters who have demonstrated against his ouster could turn violent, said Vicki Gass at the Washington Office on Latin America.

"There's a saying about Honduras that people can argue in the morning and have dinner in the evening, but I'm not sure this will happen in this case," said Gass. "It's been 86 days since the coup. Something had to break and this might be it."

Leadership Standoff Leaves Honduras In Limbo

Supporters of ousted and deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya march during Independence Day in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. Zelaya has vowed to return to the country and reclaim his office.

In the September 16, 2009 National Public Radio story "Leadership Standoff Leaves Honduras In Limbo," Jason Beaubien reports:

Honduras continues to rebuff international demands that it reinstate deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup in June.

Even before the coup, the global financial crisis and a significant drop in money being sent home by Hondurans working in the United States were squeezing the country's economy.

Now, the impoverished Central American nation is also losing hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance from the international community. Nicaragua and Guatemala temporarily closed their borders with Honduras. And the coup has been universally denounced throughout Latin America.

After the coup, the U.S. blocked millions of dollars in aid, much of it intended to build roads and develop the country's agricultural sector. The World Bank froze almost $300 million in loans.

It is being felt in poor neighborhoods like La Cuesta, tucked into a series of crevices in the steep, lush hills that ring Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. In this tough barrio, cement shacks are strung along deeply rutted dirt roads, and many of the houses lack running water.

The Atlanta-based aid group CARE runs several programs in the area. They help fund a shelter for sexually abused children. And they work with the local school to try to improve the level of education and keep the poorest of the poor from dropping out.

On a recent afternoon, two CARE employees held a class on conflict resolution. Two dozen girls, ranging in age from 10 to 14, had a heated debate about who is to blame if a teacher gets one of his students pregnant.

Conditions Worsening

The public schools in Honduras lack many things, and international aid groups assist with everything from classroom supplies to teacher training.

Under international sanctions imposed on Honduras, the work CARE is doing at this school will continue, but the organization has been forced to shut down another program that would have worked with schools nationwide.

And CARE isn't the only group that's had to suspend some activities.

Juan Sheenan, who runs Catholic Relief Services' operations in Honduras, says the group has shut down two programs as a result of the new U.S. sanctions.

"Honduras is probably one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere," Sheenan says, with some of the lowest indicators in literacy and education, and access to health care and schools.

The coup has made conditions worse, Sheenan says.

Micheletti: Zelaya Violated Constitution

Honduras' de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, is a big, feisty, grandfather of a man with a crushing handshake.

"We found out it's very hard to rule a government alone," says Micheletti. "Nobody in the whole world believes us. But the Hondurans believe that the thing we did is correct."

On June 28, the Honduran military seized Zelaya, forced him onto a plane and deported him to Costa Rica in his pajamas. Micheletti says this was not a coup, because Zelaya had violated the constitution.

Micheletti, then the president of the National Congress, was next in line to the presidency; he was quickly sworn in to office.

He says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez controlled Zelaya, who was plotting to impose a communist dictatorship in Honduras. It's a claim Zelaya — who has been trying unsuccessfully to return and reclaim power — denies.

Zelaya's ouster has exposed a deep fissure in Honduran society, with some people taking to the streets in support of the deposed president and others marching in favor of Micheletti.

Asked how Hondurans resolve this conflict, Micheletti says the important thing was that Zelaya and his supporters had to be stopped.

"The Zelaya people, they are our brothers, our sisters. We love them. But we are going to let them rule this country because they believe in communism, and we are not? We are democratic people, and we are going to sustain our democracy," Micheletti says.

Conflict Ruptured Social Fabric

But many Hondurans haven't seen results from this "democracy," says Jose Rolando Bu, head of Foprideh, a coalition of nonprofit development groups in Honduras.

Roughly two-thirds of the population still lives in poverty, Bu says. The country each year "expels" thousands of its young people, who head north to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities. Corruption and impunity are rampant, he says.

Bu says that since the coup, Honduras has been in limbo. It is unclear whether Zelaya is going to return. Public school teachers have been taking to the streets every Thursday and Friday in favor of Zelaya, thus shutting down their classrooms.

Some families are split between the Zelaya and the Micheletti camps — two groups that appear unable to reach common ground.

Bu says the social conflict in Honduras is very strong.

"When the fabric of a society is ruptured, it's very complicated," Bu says.

And he says fixing the deep political polarization in Honduras won't be easy. But he adds that in every social conflict, eventually the parties come to a point where they sit down and work out their differences.

But the military ouster of Zelaya only underscored that the parties aren't yet ready for that.

The transcript of the story as heard on All Things Considered

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: In Honduras, the political crisis is making that country even poorer than it was before. President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup in June. The de-facto government is refusing international demands to reinstate him. Even before the coup, the country was squeezed by a significant drop in money sent home by Hondurans in the United States. And then it got hit hard by the global financial crisis.

Now, Honduras is losing hundreds of million of dollars in international assistance, as NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from Tegucigalpa.

JASON BEAUBIEN: The neighborhood of La Cuesta is tucked into a series of crevices in the steep, lush hills that ring the Honduran capital. It's a tough barrio, cement shacks, strung along deeply rutted dirt roads, many of the houses lack running water. As the Coca Cola delivery truck crawls through La Cuesta, a guard with a shotgun sits in the back, atop a stack of bottle crates.

The Atlanta-based aid group CARE runs several programs in the area. They help fund a shelter for sexually abused children. And they work with the local school to try to improve the level of education and keep the poorest of the poor from dropping out.

On this afternoon, two CARE employees are holding a class on conflict resolution. Two dozen girls, ranging in age from 10 to 14, are having a heated debate about who is to blame if a teacher gets one of his students pregnant.

The public schools in Honduras lack many things, and international aid groups assist with everything from classroom supplies to teacher training. Under the international sanctions tightening down on Honduras right now, the work CARE is doing at this school will continue, but the organization has been forced to shut down another program that was going to work with schools nationwide. And CARE isn't the only group that's had to suspend some activities. Juan Sheenan, runs Catholic Relief Services' operations in Honduras.

Mr. JUAN SHEENAN (Country Representative, Catholic Relief Services): Honduras is probably one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

BEAUBIEN: CRS has shut down two programs as a result of the new U.S. sanctions.

Mr. SHEENAN: You know, some of the lowest indicators in literacy, education, health, access to health posts(ph), access to schools, these type of things.

BEAUBIEN: And the coup has just made conditions worse, Sheenan says. The U.S. has blocked millions of dollars in aid, much of which was going to build roads and develop the country agricultural sector. The World Bank froze almost $300 million in loans. Nicaragua and Guatemala temporarily closed their borders with Honduras. And the coup has been universally denounced throughout Latin America.

President ROBERTO MICHELETTI (Honduras): We find out it's very hard to rule a government alone, you know, alone.

BEAUBIEN: The De Facto president, Roberto Micheletti, is a big, feisty, grandfather of a man with a crushing handshake.

Pres. MICHELETTI: Nobody in the whole world believes us. But the Hondurans believe that the thing we did is correct.

BEAUBIEN: On June 28, the Honduran military seized President Manuel Zelaya, forced him onto a plane and deported him to Costa Rica in his pajamas. Micheletti insist that this was not a coup because Zelaya had violated the constitution. Micheletti was next in line to the presidency and he was quickly sworn into office. He says Zelaya was being controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was plotting to impose a communist dictatorship in Honduras. Zelaya denies this. Zelaya has been trying unsuccessfully to return and reclaim power.

The ouster of Zelaya has exposed a deep fissure in Honduran society, with some people taking to the streets in support of the deposed president and others marching in favor of Micheletti. Asked how Hondurans resolve this conflict, Micheletti says the important thing was that Zelaya and his supporters had to be stopped.

Pres. MICHELETTI: The Zelaya people, they are our brothers, our sisters, you know. We love them. But we're going to let them to rule this country because they believe in communist and we are not. We are democratic people and we're going to sustain our democracy.

BEAUBIEN: Jose Rolando Bu is the head of Foprideh, a coalition of nonprofit development groups in Honduras.

Mr. JOSE ROLANDO BU (Head, Foprideh): (Foreign language spoken)

BEAUBIEN: He says Hondurans haven't seen results from democracy. Roughly two-thirds of the population still live in poverty. And his words, the country expels thousands of its young each year, who head north to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities. Corruption and impunity are rampant. And Bu says since the coup, Honduras has been in limbo. It's been unclear whether Zelaya is or is not going to return. Some families are split between the Zelaya and the Micheletti camps. Two groups that appear unable to reach common ground.

Mr. BU: (Foreign language spoken)

BEAUBIEN: Bu says the social conflict in Honduras right now is very strong.

Mr. BU: (Foreign language spoken)

BEAUBIEN: When the fabric of a society is ruptured, it's very complicated, Bu says. And he says fixing the deep political polarization in Honduras won't be easy. But he adds that in every social conflict, eventually the parties come to a point where they sit down and work out their differences. The problem in Honduras, however - and the military ouster of President Zelaya only underscored this - that the parties aren't yet ready to do that.

Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Tegucigalpa.

Why Obama Won't Use the M-Word for Honduras' Coup

In the September 5, 2009 TIME article "Why Obama Won't Use the M-Word for Honduras' Coup," Tim Padgett explains the timid U.S. response to the coup in Honduras:

The Obama Administration tried again this week to take on the coupsters of Honduras. With more than two months passed since Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was exiled in a military ouster — and less than three months to go before his impoverished Central American nation holds new presidential elections — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jabbed harder at the coup leaders to get them to let Zelaya back into Honduras and finish his democratically elected term. The U.S. cut all non-humanitarian aid to the de facto government, about $32 million; revoked the visas of all civilian and military officials who backed the June 28 coup, and threatened not to recognize the results of the Nov. 29 elections unless Zelaya is returned to office.

The measures could move de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti to sign on to the San Jose Accord, brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, which stipulates Zelaya's restoration and immunity for the coup participants. They may also help restore President Obama's standing among Latin American leaders, who have unanimously condemned the coup, as Obama has, but who have questioned the U.S. President's commitment to matching his rhetoric with action. U.S. officials called the latest sanctions "a strong signal" that Obama has reversed Washington's historic tendency to abide if not back coups carried out against its foes (the leftist Zelaya is a critic of the U.S.) and that he's defending democratic process in the hemisphere.

But the Administration also sent a significant mixed signal. It didn't use the m-word: Military. Its lawyers have determined that while Zelaya's overthrow was a coup d'etat, it was not technically a military coup. The main reason: even though soldiers threw Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint, in his pajamas, he was not replaced with a military leader. Instead, Micheletti, a civilian who headed Honduras' Congress, was made President. Other "complicating factors," as the U.S. calls them, include lingering questions about which Honduran institution — Congress, the Supreme Court or the Army — actually ordered Zelaya's removal after he openly defied a high court edict not to hold a non-binding referendum on constitutional reform.

The legal semantics matter. If the State Department labels a coup "military" — the most brutal and anti-democratic kind of overthrow — it automatically triggers a suspension of all non-humanitarian and non-democracy-related U.S. aid. In the case of Honduras, State Department officials insist that those measures have already been taken without the military-coup tag. But critics, who fear Obama is keeping the Honduras coup designation downgraded to mollify conservative Republicans, argue that further steps, like freezing Honduran bank accounts in the U.S., are still available to the Administration.

Either way, foreign policy analysts say Obama is setting a precarious precedent by trying to have it both ways. In the future, restless militaries in other countries may look at the U.S.'s Honduras ruling and decide coups are worth chancing as long as they don't install a guy wearing epaulettes in the president's chair. In that scenario, a full-bore U.S. aid cut-off won't kick in by default — and there's always the possibility, they'll reason, that the White House won't adopt enough punitive steps to make them cry uncle in the end.

The U.S.'s non-military coup rating is especially dicey given that two of Honduras' neighbors, El Salvador and Guatemala, recently elected leftist presidents who could also find themselves in the crosshairs of their countries' overweening generals. "I think the armies and the business elites they back in those countries are watching the Obama Administration's moves on Honduras very closely," says Vicki Gass, a senior associate at the independent Washington Office on Latin America. While Gass applauds Clinton's threat to reject Honduras' November election results as a "very positive step that shows the U.S. is serious again about multilateral effort in Latin America," she fears the U.S. has "created risks in other countries" by not designating Honduras' putsch as military.

The Obama Administration has political reasons for eschewing the m-word. The most important is that calling an overthrow a military coup requires certification by Congress — where Obama and Clinton foresee a fight they'd rather avoid. Conservative Republicans are angry at Obama's support of Zelaya, who they insist was trying to remove presidential term limits in Honduras and usher in a socialist government like that of his oil-rich left-wing ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As a result, they're blocking a number of the White House's State Department appointees, including Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's pick to oversee western hemisphere affairs.

But in a Los Angeles Times op-ed last week, Democratic Representative Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that whatever Zelaya's alleged infractions, they should have been addressed legally, not militarily. "It's time to call this bird what it is," a military coup, and move on with whatever tougher sanctions that might mean in order to get the Micheletti regime to back down, Berman wrote. Obama and Clinton still feel a negotiated settlement in Honduras can be reached. But the Micheletti regime, which human rights groups say has cracked down violently on many Zelaya supporters (a charge it denies), has so far indicated it won't be swayed by the latest U.S. sanctions.

A negotiated settlement is indeed the preferred solution. But the problem is that the U.S. loses leverage in that process when, by not calling Zelaya's ouster a military coup, it gives coup leaders the impression that what they did was merely second- or third-degree coup-mongering instead of the first-degree military kind. When the military hauls away a democratically elected president, it's a military coup, period, regardless of who takes power afterward. It's a rule that needs to apply not just in Honduras, but whenever the U.S. has to take on coupsters.

Honduran coup shows business elite still in charge

Honduran coup shows business elite still in charge

By MORGAN LEE and ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writers – Thu Aug 6, 4:46 pm ET

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup after betraying his own kind: a small clique of families that dominates the economy. Now those same families stand as the greatest obstacle to the U.S.-backed drive to return him to power.
Elites across Latin America are watching the standoff closely, as they plot their own strategies to combat democratically elected presidents such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who have demonized the wealthy as they push for a more even distribution of income.
Washington has shunned the interim government so as not to legitimize it, while lobbying Honduras' business leaders in an effort to resolve the crisis. It's an acknowledgment of the tremendous sway those elites hold on the country.
The cadre of bankers, industrialists, hoteliers and media barons has responded with a mix of bafflement and infuriation, many of them unable to understand how the United States — where they attend universities, forge business ties and shop at malls — could support a president they see as an agent of Chavez.
Adolfo Facusse, whose family is in publishing and textiles, recalled that Zelaya grew up in the same rarified air as he did, and as president invited him on trips to Taiwan and the United States. But Facusse said the government's refusal to give his company leeway amid the economic downturn forced him to close a textile factory last year.
In an interview at his heavily guarded home — a Jaguar and two SUVs parked inside the gates — Facusse still described Zelaya as a friend.
"We don't see it as a fight against Mel Zelaya," said Facusse, a cheerful man wearing jeans and a scraggy beard. "Mel Zelaya is one of us and — well — it just got out of his control. But the people think that he is an instrument of Chavez and that the fight is with Chavez."
Facusse, the MIT-educated president of the National Association of Industries, is used to having the president's ear. His cousin, newspaper publisher Carlos Flores Facusse, was Honduras' president from 1998-2002.
Facusse shrugs off the suspension of millions of dollars of U.S. development aid and doubts the United States would impose trade sanctions.
"The attitude here is, 'So what?'" Facusse said. "At any rate there will be elections in November."
The international community is concerned about setting a precedent if Zelaya is not returned to power. Heather Berkman, a Central America expert with the Eurasia Group, said the elites in other Latin American countries could feel empowered to try to force out their own leaders.
"Zelaya rocked the boat," Berkman said, "and these people made him fall off."
Honduras inspired the term "banana republic" when U.S.-owned plantations of fruit, coffee and tobacco dominated the country. Homegrown capitalists acted as intermediaries for U.S. companies such as Standard Fruit, then diversified into fast-growing sectors of finance, textiles, tourism, construction and electricity.
Zelaya, the son of a ranching and timber baron, was part of that elite. But he increasingly locked horns with the business community as his presidency progressed.
Business leaders attacked Zelaya for imposing a 60 percent increase in the minimum wage amid the global economic crisis. Zelaya also refused to submit a budget to Congress in 2008, fueling concerns that the government was being run at the president's whim.
Last year, after complaining about not getting enough help from the United States to fund his social programs, he publicly aligned himself with Chavez.
Amilcar Bulnes, president of Honduras' largest private business council, said he and Zelaya's other friends warned him against moving into the Chavez camp.
"We told him not to do these things, and he ignored us," he said.
Bulnes said Zelaya's final days look like a close brush with Venezuelan-style socialism.
"Chavez had a goal. He had Honduras in his mouth. He was a cat with a mouse that got away," he said.
Victor Meza, who served as Zelaya's interior minister, acknowledged that the president miscalculated.
"The impression that stuck with the traditional political class and with the most conservative business leaders of the country was that Zelaya had taken a dangerous turn to the left, and therefore that their interests were in jeopardy," he said. "We underestimated the conservatism of the Honduran political class and the military leadership."
When Zelaya called a referendum on June 28 to ask the public to support a constitutional assembly, opponents accused him of trying to abolish term limits and extend his rule, like Chavez did in Venezuela. Zelaya denies that. Meza said he didn't want immediate re-election, though he hoped to lay the groundwork for a return to the presidency in 2012.
The morning of the referendum, soldiers arrested Zelaya and flew him into exile.
Zelaya still enjoys broad support in Honduras, especially among the working class. On Thursday, thousands of Zelaya supporters marched from towns across the country toward Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, where they plan to converge Monday to demand their president's return.
But many supporters feel caught in the middle.

"You can't go against the businessmen," said seamstress Gladys Gomez, 48. "They're the ones that give us work."

U.S. Decides Not to Impose Sanctions on Honduras

U.S. Decides Not to Impose Sanctions on Honduras

AMERICAS NEWSAUGUST 7, 2009
U.S. Decides Not to Impose Sanctions on Honduras
By DAVID LUHNOW and JOSE DE CORDOBA

The U.S., in an apparent softening of its support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, won't impose economic sanctions on Honduras and has yet to decide whether Mr. Zelaya's removal from office constitutes a coup.

A letter from the State Department to Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, states that the U.S. "energetically" opposes Mr. Zelaya's June 28 ouster. But the letter also expresses the harshest criticism yet of Mr. Zelaya's own actions that preceded his removal from office, including trying to change Honduras's constitution to potentially stay in power.

"We energetically condemn the actions of June 28. We also recognize that President Zelaya's insistence on undertaking provocative actions contributed to the polarization of Honduran society and led to a confrontation that unleashed the events that led to his removal," Richard Verma, the assistant secretary for legislative affairs, said in the letter, reviewed Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.

The letter went on to say that U.S. policy wasn't aimed at supporting one person in particular, a reference to Mr. Zelaya, but to supporting the Honduran people's aspirations for democracy.

With Washington unwilling to take drastic steps such as sanctions to restore Mr. Zelaya to power, it seems increasingly unlikely that the leftist politician will return to his seat, analysts said. Honduras's interim government, backed by much of the country's establishment and middle class, appears unwilling to have Mr. Zelaya back, and Washington seems in no mood to force the issue.

"In Honduras, Washington's wavering will be seen as a sign that the government can wait it out until the elections and that the costs they are bearing for international isolation, while considerable, are preferable to the risks of allowing Zelaya to return, even for a limited time and with his authority curtailed," said Michael Shifter at the Inter-American Dialogue, a nonpartisan think tank on hemispheric affairs in Washington.

A State Department spokesman, who was unaware of the letter to Mr. Lugar's office, said "there has been no decision to soften the policy on Honduras." He added that the administration still supports a return of Mr. Zelaya to power, as called for in the mediation plan by Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias. The Supreme Court of Honduras has ruled that Mr. Zelaya's return as president would be illegal.

Analysts said the administration is staking out a middle ground, sending a message to Latin America that coups are unacceptable while not giving too much support to Mr. Zelaya, whose close relationship to Venezuela's populist leader Hugo Chávez has raised hackles among U.S. Republicans. Elected as a centrist, Mr. Zelaya took a sharp left turn in the past two years and became an outspoken critic of U.S. policy.

Sen. Lugar had asked the administration to explain its policy on the Honduran political crisis, warning that otherwise the Senate might delay confirmation of the top Latin America post in the State Department.

"I'm glad to see the State Department is finally beginning to walk back its support for Manuel Zelaya and admit that his 'provocative' actions were responsible for his removal," said Sen. Jim DeMint, another Republican member of the foreign relations committee.

A spokesman for Mr. DeMint said the move wasn't enough for the senator to lift his hold on the confirmation hearings for Arturo Valenzuela to become assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Write to David Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com and Jose de Cordoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A9

A Coup Without Friends

A coup without friends
Analysis: Unanimous condemnation of Honduran takeover highlights new US stance in the Americas

By Nick Miroff
Published: June 30, 2009 19:41 ET
Updated: July 9, 2009 18:00 ET

HAVANA — When Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was roused from home by military officers Sunday morning and sent off to Costa Rica in his pajamas, the banana-republic days of crude political succession seemed to be back in the Americas.
Then something different happened: Condemnation and scorn rained down on Honduras’ coup plotters from every corner of the hemisphere, uniting leaders from conservative Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to Cuba’s Raúl Castro to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Opposition to the Honduran coup has forged rare consensus among nations with a fractious past of bitter divisions, while injecting a new sense of purpose into regional organizations, like the Organization of American States, whose legitimacy has been recently questioned by some of its member nations.

More than anything, the episode seems destined to strengthen Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders who responded swiftly and decisively in support of Zelaya — and whose affinity with the Honduran president was cited by coup supporters as a justification for his removal in the first place.

And there’s surely more to come.

On Thursday Zelaya is planning a dramatic return to Honduras accompanied by other Latin American heads of state, José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of Organization of American States, and Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, Zelaya called the coup against him “an act of aggression attacking the democratic will of the people.” The assembly then approved a one-page resolution agreeing that none of its 192 member states would recognize a government led by anyone other than Zelaya.

His rivals in Honduras remained defiant, though, as Roberto Micheletti, sworn into the presidency by the Honduran Congress following the coup, threatened to arrest Zelaya when he returns Thursday, setting up a showdown.

Micheletti told Colombia's Caracol Radio Tuesday that Zelaya had violated the constitution and that his court-ordered removal was legal. Tensions in Honduras had been building for weeks as Zelaya, whose four-year term expires in January, sought to hold a non-binding referendum on lifting presidential term limits.

"We have not committed a coup d'etat, but a constitutional succession," he said.

Whatever the outcome, the episode has created a political opportunity for leaders throughout the hemisphere to burnish their democratic credentials, while providing a fresh sense of mission for the region’s leading multinational bodies, the U.S.-based Organization of American States and the Venezuelan-led alternative pact, ALBA.

That organization was first conceived by Chávez as a rival to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and has expanded to incorporate nine member states including Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras.

For Chávez and other leaders of ALBA, the coup has provided a chance to show that the organization is capable of more than grand speeches and anti-capitalist rhetoric. Within one day of the coup, its member nations convened with Zelaya in an emergency session in Nicaragua, as Chávez, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and others took turns blasting the coup leaders and vowing to restore Zelaya. Often accused by critics of eroding democratic institutions at home, the Honduran coup has allowed those leaders to act as staunch guarantors of democracy in the Americas.

But the coordinated regional response to the crisis is also likely to strengthen the U.S.-based Organization of American States, which leftist leaders in the regional had recently denounced as an outdated instrument of U.S. policy. In the wake of the crisis in Honduras, the OAS also has also played a lead role in supporting Zelaya, who is expected to attend an OAS meeting Wednesday in Washington and convene with U.S. officials.

Whether or not Obama meets with Zelaya on Wednesday, the new U.S. administration is also likely to benefit from the coup episode, providing Obama with an opportunity to show a clean break from the U.S.’s sordid legacy of support for military coups in Latin America.

Though Chavez initially tried to link the Honduran coup plotters to the U.S., the firm support for Zelaya by top U.S. officials was widely noted in Latin America, not least by Zelaya himself, who praised the Obama administration Tuesday, telling reporters “the United States has changed a great deal.” Even Fidel Castro noted in a written statement Monday that the U.S. had backed the ousted Honduran president.

What remains unclear is how far leaders in the hemisphere are willing to go to restore Zelaya to power.

If Zelaya’s opponents succeed in keeping him out of office, they are likely to face near-total diplomatic isolation, in addition to trade sanctions from neighboring countries that have already closed off their borders to trade with Honduras.

If Zelaya returns to office, he will likely enjoy an energized base, as thousands of supporters have taken to the streets in Honduras to protest his removal. Zelaya on Tuesday told reporters that he plans to go back to civilian life when his term expires.

Deposed Honduran leader prepares risky return

In "Deposed Honduran leader prepares risky return," Associated Press writer Morgan Lee reports:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Honduras' deposed president headed toward his nation's border Thursday to prepare a risky return home, an attempt to reverse an ouster that is testing the vitality of democracy in Latin America.

The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras. Zelaya said he would make a second attempt to return home Saturday, saying U.S.-backed attempts at mediation had broken down.
Accompanied by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Zelaya drove a white jeep out of the Honduran Embassy in Nicaragua, heading toward the northern town of Esteli, where he said he would spend Friday preparing for his return.

Honduran Embassy officials broke into applause and chants of "Long live Mel!" using his nickname.

Zelaya said he hoped soldiers at the border would stand down when they see him. He called on supporters to meet him at the border, although he has not yet said exactly where he plan to cross into Honduras.

"I think the guns will be lowered when they see their people and their president," Zelaya said at a news conference shortly before leaving.

All governments in the Western Hemisphere have condemned the coup, in which soldiers acting on orders from Congress and the Supreme Court arrested Zelaya and flew him into exile. Nations on both sides of the political spectrum say Zelaya's return to power is crucial to the region's stability.

Latin America expert Vicki Gass said that if Zelaya's opponents succeed in driving him from power, it could have a ripple effect in a region where left-leaning elected governments are challenging small classes of elites that have ruled many countries for decades.

"Coups could then happen in Peru, where President (Alan) Garcia has a very low approval rating, or in Argentina or in Guatemala," said Gass, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America which promotes human rights and democracy. "Constitutional order and rule of law have to be restored."

Zelaya said the mediation efforts, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, had failed after representatives of the interim government flatly rejected the possibility that he might return to the presidency. They say they cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding Zelaya's reinstatement.

But Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, held out hope that the two sides might still reach a settlement — and called Zelaya's attempt to return without an agreement "hasty."

"He has always wanted to return to his country, but it's important to make an effort to avoid a likely confrontation," Insulza said.

He said that neither delegation had officially responded to Arias proposal, which calls for Zelaya's reinstatement, amnesty for the coup leaders and early elections.

The United States warned of tough sanctions against Honduras if Zelaya is not reinstated, but also said Thursday it does not support Zelaya's plan to return on his own.

"Any step that would add to the risk of violence in Honduras or in the area, we think would be unwise," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

Zelaya dismissed the concerns of Insulza and the U.S., saying "defending our rights is not an act of violence ... we are going to seek dialogue."

In Honduras, Zelaya supporters turned up the pressure, blocking roads throughout the country Thursday and occupying several government buildings in peaceful protests.

It was unclear exactly when or how Zelaya planned to enter the country. Zelaya has set and let pass a series of deadlines for his return, and spokesman Allan Fajardo said Thursday that Zelaya could travel by air, sea, or land from any of Honduras' three neighboring countries.

Fajardo told The Associated Press that Zelaya would set up base Thursday in the Nicaraguan city of Esteli, near the Honduran border, and then figure out his next move. He said Zelaya would be accompanied by family, supporters and journalists.

The Honduran military thwarted Zelaya's first attempt to return home July 5 by blocking the runway at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The flight sparked clashes between Zelaya's supporters and security forces in which at least one protester was killed.

Lorena Calix, a spokeswoman for Honduras' national police, said Thursday that officers were ready to detain Zelaya if he makes another attempt to come home.

"When he comes to Honduras, we have to execute the arrest warrant," she said.

Honduras' Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's arrest before the June 28 coup, ruling his effort to hold a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly was illegal. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile instead — a move that military lawyers themselves have called illegal but necessary.

Zelaya's opponents, who objected to his populist and socialist policies, have argued the president was trying to change the constitution to extend his term. Zelaya denies that.

If he is arrested, Zelaya faces four charges of violating governmental order, treason and abusing and usurping power that could bring 43 years behind bars. Prosecutors say they are investigating a raft of other allegations ranging from misappropriation of public funds to drug smuggling — accusations Zelaya says are purely political.

Ousted Honduras leader gives talks until midnight

According to the July 18, 2009 article "Ousted Honduras leader gives talks until midnight" by Associated Press writers Freddy Cuevas and Filadelfo Aleman:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – An ultimatum from ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya left little room for compromise in U.S.-backed talks Saturday aimed at resolving a crisis that has become the latest test for democracy in Latin America.
Zelaya, who was forced into exile in a June 28 military coup, gave negotiators meeting in Costa Rica until midnight to restore him to office, threatening to return to Honduras in secret and attempt to retake power on his own if no agreement is reached. He indicated he would reject any power-sharing agreement, a proposal to be discussed at the talks.
"If at that time, there is no resolution to that end, I will consider the negotiations in Costa Rica a failure," Zelaya said at a news conference Friday night at the Honduran embassy in Nicaragua. "I am going back to Honduras, but I am not going to give you the date, hour or place, or say if I'm going to enter through land, air or sea."
He did not say what steps he would subsequently take. But earlier this week, he said Hondurans have a constitutional right to rebel against an illegitimate government. His foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, said Thursday that if the talks failed, Zelaya would return to Honduras to install a parallel government "to direct what I will call the final battle."
The interim government has vowed to arrest Zelaya if he returns. The military thwarted his attempt to fly home July 5 by using vehicles to block the runway, preventing his plane from landing in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.
Zelaya's allies said the Costa Rica talks might be the last chance to avert a clash, perhaps even civil war in the impoverished Central American country. Zelaya supporters have staged near daily protests demanding his return, including about 2,000 who blocked two highways connecting Tegucigalpa to the Caribbean and Pacific coasts for several hours Friday.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who is mediating the talks, had appeared optimistic about a resolution earlier Friday, saying both camps had "softened, and I think we are going to find more flexibility." In the first round of talks the two sides agreed only to meet again.
Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping to end Central America's wars, has presented a series of possible compromises to both camps, including a power-sharing deal in which Zelaya could return to serve out the remaining months of his term as president, but with limited power.
Zelaya suggested he would reject such a plan. "I cannot accept a reward for the coup leaders because that would be an aberration," he said.
Arias also said an amnesty deal for Zelaya was possible.
Honduras' Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya before the coup, ruling his effort to hold a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly was illegal. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile instead — a move that military lawyers themselves have called illegal but necessary.
Many Hondurans viewed the proposed referendum as an attempt by Zelaya to push for a socialist-leaning government similar to the one his ally Hugo Chavez has established in Venezuela.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called Friday for all nations to support the talks.
He also appeared to allude to remarks by Chavez, who has warned of the possibility of civil war in Honduras and said that "in the next few hours, Zelaya will enter Honduras and we'll see what the gorillas are going to do" about it.
"No country in the region should encourage any action that would potentially increase the risk of violence either in Honduras or in surrounding countries," Crowley told reporters in Washington.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti has said Zelaya might try to sneak in by crossing Nicaragua's jungle-cloaked border with Honduras, but the ousted leader was still in Nicaragua's capital late Friday.
Micheletti told Colombia's RCN Radio that his government was open to dialogue but argued that Zelaya committed crimes against "the economy, the citizenry and against the constitution" and could not be allowed to return to power.
Micheletti said he was willing to move up the presidential election scheduled for November as a way out of the crisis. Micheletti, the congressional president who was sworn in to replace Zelaya after the coup, also said he would resign "if Mr. Zelaya stops inciting a revolutionary movement in the country and stops trying to return here."
Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera, who under the constitution would be next in line for the presidency if Micheletti resigned, said an amnesty for Zelaya could be considered as part of the negotiations. But if Zelaya enters the country without amnesty, he should be immediately arrested, Rivera said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Zelaya's deadline for the coup leaders to back down falls at the start of the 30th anniversary of Nicaragua's July 19, 1979, Sandinista revolution that toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza.
___
Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas reported this story from Tegucigalpa and Filadelfo Aleman from Managua, Nicaragua. AP writers Marianela Jimenez in San Juan, Costa Rica, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Aide: Ousted Honduran president en route home

The July 16, 2009 article "Aide: Ousted Honduran president en route home" by Associated Press writer Juan Zamorano reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A top aide said exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was heading home Thursday to set up an alternative seat of government inside the country, and will use it as his headquarters in a "final battle" against the coup leaders.
Zelaya's foriegn minister, Patricia Rodas, said he is "on his way" back, but refused to say how or when he planned to enter Honduras. Zelaya's current whereabouts are unclear and the leaders who replaced him after the military sent him into exile have vowed to arrest him if he returns.
"Our president will be in Honduras at some point and some moment. He is already on his way. God protect him and the people of the Americas who are with him," Rodas told reporters in La Paz, Bolivia, where she joined a meeting of leftist presidents.
"The establishment and installation of an alternative seat of government will be to direct what I will call the final battle" against leaders of the coup that toppled Zelaya, she said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — an ally of Zelaya — said he had spoken with Zelaya and the exiled leader told him: "I don't know if I will die, but I'm going to Honduras."
Delegations representing Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti are expected to join a second round of talks Saturday under the guidance of Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts that helped resolve Central America's civil wars.
When he was last seen in public, Zelaya vowed to return if Saturday's talks don't immediately result in his reinstatement, and said Hondurans have a constitutional right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government.
Rodas reinforced that, saying that Zelaya's delegation has nothing to negotiate. It will simply demand that the "illegal regime surrender peacefully," and if it doesn't, Zelaya's side will declare the mediation to have failed, she said.
Prospects for finding common ground appeared slim.
Micheletti, the former congressional leader who was sworn in to serve out the final months of Zelaya's term, offered Wednesday to step down if there were guarantees that Zelaya would not return to power.
Arias said that proposal is unacceptable: "The restoration of constitutional order must involve the reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya," he said Thursday in an interview with radio program Nuestra Voz.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged "a peaceful, negotiated resolution" of the crisis and said all involved should "refrain from actions that could result in violence." But the State Department has tried to avoid a public role in the negotiations, saying Arias is directing the efforts.
Both sides had people lobbying on their behalf in Washington. Micheletti's supporters released a statement from his foreign affairs minister, Carlos Lopez Contreras, saying Zelaya's threats to return no matter what are an affront to Arias and Clinton.
"If he comes and presents himself to authorities, he is welcome in our country. But if he comes with the intention of starting a revolutionary movement then he will find a people disposed to do anything," Micheletti said in Honduras.
Rodas pleaded Thursday for stronger action. "The U.S. should suspend military aid and other support and freeze international reserves and personal and government bank accounts" to force an immediate resolution, she said.
If Zelaya does try to reenter Honduras, it would be his second attempt since masked soldiers shot up his house and flew him to Costa Rica in his pajamas early on June 28. His first attempt was thwarted July 5 when military vehicles on the runway blocked his Venezuelan plane from landing in Tegucigalpa.
Micheletti spoke of rumors Wednesday that Zelaya planned to enter over the Nicaraguan border Saturday, and suggested that forces he didn't identify were "were handing out some guns" to foment rebellion. He reinstated an overnight curfew that had been lifted only days earlier.
Zelaya supporters blocking a road leading out of the capital Thursday denied they were carrying weapons.
"Check it out: there is not one machete, gun or rifle here. This is a peaceful march," said peasant leader Rafael Alegria.
Thousands have staged such protests almost daily since Zelaya's ouster, while crowds of roughly equal size have demonstrated in favor of Micheletti's government.
Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera is next in line to the presidency, after Zelaya and Micheletti. The Supreme Court had issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya, ruling that his efforts to hold a vote on whether to form a constitutional assembly were illegal. The military decided to send him into exile instead — a move that military lawyers have since acknowledged also violates the constitution.
Many Hondurans viewed the proposed vote as an attempt by Zelaya to push for a socialist transformation in the model of his ally, Venezuela's Chavez.
Rivera questioned Zelaya's expulsion from the country in an interview with La Tribuna newspaper published Thursday.
"The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's capture and authorized the raid on his house so he could be captured," Rivera said. "The expulsion was not in the capture order, and in that sense, we have to analyze if (his expulsion) was the best thing given the necessities of the moment."
He said Zelaya should be arrested if he comes back to Honduras, but said the interim government should also consider granting him amnesty as part of the negotiations in Costa Rica.
"It should not be dismissed as a possibility. It could happen at the end of the tunnel, once a light is found in the path of dialogue," Rivera said.
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro blamed the coup in Honduras on the U.S. Embassy and other top regional diplomats appointed by George W. Bush.
In an essay published Thursday, the 82-year-old former leader wrote that the military ouster of Zelaya was the work of "unscrupulous characters of the extreme right who were trustworthy officials of George W. Bush."

Gallup Poll: Ousted leader with 46 pct approval

According to a July 15, 2009 Associate Press article

Wed Jul 15, 6:39 pm ET
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – More results from a Gallup survey in Honduras were published Wednesday, showing ousted President Manuel Zelaya remains more popular than his interim replacement Roberto Micheletti.
The nationwide survey — which was done after Zelaya was sent into forced exile in a military coup — shows Zelaya with 46 percent favorable opinion and 44 unfavorable, compared to 30 favorable and 49 unfavorable for Micheletti.
Earlier findings from the same poll were released to The Associated Press by Gallup after La Prensa, a leading Honduran newspaper, published some of the results on Thursday. They showed that 46 percent of Hondurans opposed Zelaya's removal, 41 percent approved of it and 13 percent were unsure or declined to answer.
Feelings toward both leaders have changed dramatically since February, when a clear majority favored Zelaya over Micheletti, then the head of Congress. A Gallup survey conducted from February 3 to February 8 showed Zelaya with 53 percent favorable and 36 unfavorable, compared to 23 favorable and 58 unfavorable for Micheletti.
The more recent survey also asked Hondurans whether they felt Zelaya's removal was justified because he had pushed to add a question on a national ballot about whether to have a constitutional assembly, which the nation's highest court had ruled to be unconstitutional. Forty-one percent of respondents said this did justify his removal, while 28 percent said it didn't and 31 percent were unsure or declined to answer.
The second survey was done from June 30 to July 4. Both surveys had error margins of 2.8 percentage points, according to CID-Gallup, which is based in Costa Rica.

End Honduran coup drama

According to End Honduran coup drama in the Miami Herald:

OUR OPINION: Changing stories, rights repression discredits Honduran authorities

The cadre of civilians and military officers in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica is having a hard time keeping its story straight. First, the plotters said the removal was carried out in response to a lawful order from the Supreme Court, but now they say that President Zelaya actually chose exile rather than going to jail -- his only other choice.

Even members of the government are straying from the script. Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho revealed on Wednesday that his office had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Zelaya on charges of treason and abuse of power. And, by golly, he can't figure out why the president was sent to Costa Rica instead of an Honduran court. That, apparently, is news to Roberto Micheletti, the newly installed president, who insists that the soldiers were complying with Supreme Court orders.

Trying to sort this out, Mr. Utrecho could only come up with this face-saving explanation: ``There were events that don't comply with the law.''

You don't say.

That's the most striking understatement to emerge from the turmoil in Honduras, but it fails to explain anything. The most pressing question is why Honduran leaders chose to turn a lameduck president with little popular or political support from any quarter, including his own party, into a figure hailed as a ''victim'' of anti-democratic forces by the U.N. General Assembly, the Organization of American States and even, reluctantly, the U.S. State Department.

Asking for trouble

Mr. Urtecho had the right idea. If the president did wrong, investigate him and file charges. Arrest him if necessary and hold a trial. Snatching him out of bed, putting a gun to his head and tossing him on a plane turns what might have been a conventional political process into a bizarre melodrama that discredits his adversaries, regardless of what Mr. Zelaya was accused of doing.

Mr. Zelaya was clearly asking for trouble by pressing for a plebiscite or referendum that might have served as a springboard for trying to extend his term of office. But it's not about Mr. Zelaya -- it's about the institutional integrity of Honduras, where democracy remains a fragile seed and needs to be nurtured rather than trampled on.

The military overthrow of the democratically-elected president Ramón Villeda Morales in 1963 started a series of unelected military governments that lasted more or less without interruption until Roberto Suazo Córdova was elected president in 1981.

Today's events in Honduras do not compare precisely with earlier upheavals because the anti-Zelaya faction acted in the name of the purported civilian authority, not in the name of a military junta. Still, that misses the point. As history shows, forcing elected presidents from office at the point of a gun can become a habit, a convenient way to circumvent constitutional authority any time it becomes expedient or a president loses political support.

`Excessive use of force'

That's why it's best not to go there. Mr. Zelaya's opponents have brought further discredit on themselves and their cause by their heavy-handed efforts to silence opposition and insulate themselves from criticism.

In a letter to the OAS, Human Rights Watch complained of ''excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and acts of censhorship'' by the Honduran authorities. The emergency decree that suspends fundamental rights remains in effect and could become a cover for further abuses.

Honduras police and security forces need to maintain order. But if, as the authorities claim, Mr. Zelaya has no significant political support, they have nothing to fear from peaceful political demonstrations. Nor should the Honduran public be kept in the dark about events in Honduras nor denied the right to be informed by their preferred media outlets.

The first job of the OAS mission headed to Honduras on Friday, led by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, is to press for a restoration of civil liberties and the release of anyone detained for political reasons in connection with the ouster of Mr. Zelaya.

Then he should make it clear to Mr. Micheletti and his cohorts that they are internationally isolated and must restore Mr. Zelaya to the presidency.

As to Mr. Zelaya, it should be made clear that he signed up for one term, as Honduras' constitution mandates.

Enough drama.

Top Honduran military lawyer: We broke the law

According to the story Top Honduran military lawyer: We broke the law in the Miami Herald:

BY FRANCES ROBLES
FROBLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
TEGUCIGALPA -- The military officers who rushed deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya out of the country Sunday committed a crime but will be exonerated for saving the country from mob violence, the army's top lawyer said.

In an interview with The Miami Herald and El Salvador's elfaro.net, army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza acknowledged that top military brass made the call to forcibly remove Zelaya -- and they circumvented laws when they did it.

It was the first time any participant in Sunday's overthrow admitted committing an offense and the first time a Honduran authority revealed who made the decision that has been denounced worldwide.

''We know there was a crime there,'' said Inestroza, the top legal advisor for the Honduran armed forces. ``In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there is a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us.''

Zelaya was ousted in a predawn raid at his house Sunday after he vowed to defy a court order that ruled a nonbinding referendum to be held that day illegal. The leftist wealthy rancher had clashed with the attorney general, the Supreme Court, Congress and the military he commanded.

But instead of being taken to court to stand trial for abuse of power and treason, the military swept him out of bed at gunpoint and forced him into exile.

Inestroza described weeks of mounting pressure, in which a president who was viewed as allied with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez used soldiers as ''political tools.'' The attorney general's office had ordered Zelaya's arrest, and the Supreme Court, Inestroza said, ordered the armed forces to carry it out.

So when the powers of state united in demanding his ouster, the military put a pajama-clad Zelaya on a plane and sent him to Costa Rica. The rationale: Had Zelaya been jailed, throngs of loyal followers would have erupted into chaos and demanded his release with violence.

''What was more beneficial, remove this gentleman from Honduras or present him to prosecutors and have a mob assault and burn and destroy and for us to have to shoot?'' he said. ``If we had left him here, right now we would be burying a pile of people.''

This week, Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho told reporters that he launched an investigation into why Zelaya was removed by force instead of taken to court. Article 24 of Honduras' penal code will exonerate the joint chiefs of staff who made the decision, because it allows for making tough decisions based on the good of the state, Inestroza said.

U.S. State Department lawyers are studying whether the action is legally considered a military coup, even though the person who was constitutionally next in line took power.

Inestroza acknowledged that after 34 years in the military, he and many other longtime soldiers found Zelaya's allegiance to Chávez difficult to stomach. Although he calls Zelaya a ''leftist of lies'' for his bourgeoisie upbringing, he admits he'd have a hard time taking orders from a leftist.

Memories of the 1980s fight against guerrilla insurgents are still fresh in Honduras.

''We fought the subversive movements here and we were the only country that did not have a fratricidal war like the others,'' he said. ``It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible. I personally would have retired, because my thinking, my principles, would not have allowed me to participate in that.''

And if Zelaya comes back, he'll have to retire anyway.

''I will resign and leave the country, and so would most of the military,'' Inestroza said. ``They would come after us and the other political leaders who were involved in this.''

Zelaya has said he will try to stage a brazen comeback on Sunday. The Organization of American States' secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, arrives in Tegucigalpa Friday to try to lay the groundwork for Zelaya's return. Insulza refuses to meet any member of the new administration led by the former head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.

''I am 54 years years old,'' Inestroza said. ``I left my youth, my adolescence and part of my adulthood here -- an entire lifetime. You should understand it's very difficult for someone who has dedicated his whole life to a country and an institution to see, from one day to another, a person who is not normal come and want to change the way of life in the country without following the steps the law indicates.''

Differing Perspectives in the Western Hemisphere

I returned from Central America last week and continue to be amazed by the differing perspectives of the news reported in the United States versus those of Latin America. Those in the United States seem to think the focus of the crisis in Honduras in its president, Manuel Zelaya. Latin Americans, by contrast, view this as an issue of orderly transition of power. Even if they do not like Zelaya, they do not want him removed in a military coup.

Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away

A 13 July 2009 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away by MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY argues:

Why Honduras Sent Zelaya Away
The former president threatened to use force against the Congress and other institutions.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

In a perfect world former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya would be in jail in his own country right now, awaiting trial. The Honduran attorney general has charged him with deliberately violating Honduran law and the Supreme Court ordered his arrest in Tegucigalpa on June 28.

But the Honduran military whisked him out of the country, to Costa Rica, when it executed the court's order.

His expulsion has given his supporters ammunition to allege that he was treated unlawfully. Now he is an international hero of the left. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Cuban dictator Raúl Castro, and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez are all insisting that he be restored to power. This demand is baseless. Mr. Zelaya's detention was legal, as was his official removal from office by Congress.

If there is anything debatable about the crisis it is the question of whether the government can defend the expulsion of the president. In fact it had good reasons for that move and they are worth Mrs. Clinton's attention if she is interested in defending democracy.

Besides eagerly trampling the constitution, Mr. Zelaya had demonstrated that he was ready to employ the violent tactics of chavismo to hang onto power. The decision to pack him off immediately was taken in the interest of protecting both constitutional order and human life.

Two incidents earlier this year make the case. The first occurred in January when the country was preparing to name a new 15-seat Supreme Court, as it does every seven years. An independent board made up of members of civil society had nominated 45 candidates. From that list, Congress was to choose the new judges.

Mr. Zelaya had his own nominees in mind, including the wife of a minister, and their names were not on the list. So he set about to pressure the legislature. On the day of the vote he militarized the area around the Congress and press reports say a group of the president's men, including the minister of defense, went to the Congress uninvited to turn up the heat. The head of the legislature had to call security to have the defense minister removed.

In the end Congress held its ground and Mr. Zelaya retreated. But the message had been sent: The president was willing to use force against other institutions.

In May there was an equally scary threat to peace issued by the Zelaya camp as the president illegally pushed for a plebiscite on rewriting the constitution. Since the executive branch is not permitted to call for such a vote, the attorney general had announced that he intended to enforce the law against Mr. Zelaya.

A week later some 100 agitators, wielding machetes, descended on the attorney general's office. "We have come to defend this country's second founding," the group's leader reportedly said. "If we are denied it, we will resort to national insurrection."

These experiences frightened Hondurans because they strongly suggested that Mr. Zelaya, who had already aligned himself with Mr. Chávez, was now emulating the Venezuelan's power-grab. Other Chávez protégés -- in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua -- have done the same, refusing to accept checks on their power, making use of mobs and seeking to undermine institutions.

It was this fondness for intimidation that prompted Mr. Zelaya's exile. Honduras was worried that if he stayed in the country after his arrest his supporters would foment violence to try to bring down the interim government and restore him to power.

It wouldn't be a first. Bolivia's President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was removed in 2003 using just such tactics. Antigovernment militants, trained by Peruvian terrorists and financed by Venezuela and by drug money from the Colombian rebel group FARC, had laid siege to La Paz. As the city ran short on supplies, Mr. Sánchez de Lozada issued a decree to have armed guards accompany food and fuel trucks. The rebels, who had dynamite and weapons, clashed with the guards. Sixty people died. The president was pressured to step down.

Mr. Sánchez de Lozada told me by telephone last week that he only presented a letter of resignation to the Bolivian Congress when the U.S. threatened to cut off aid if he left the country without doing so. He signed under duress but the letter was then used by the international community to endorse what was in effect a brutal Venezuelan-directed overthrow of the democracy.

The fact that the Organization of American States and the U.S. never defended the Bolivian democracy cannot be lost on the Hondurans or the chavistas. You can bet that Venezuela will try to orchestrate similar troubles in an attempt to bring condemnation to the new Honduran government. Honduran patriots have better odds against that strategy with Mr. Zelaya out of the country, even if Washington and the OAS don't approve.

Write to O'Grady@wsj.com