Honduran Military Ousts President Ahead Of Vote

[Ryan Ruck]

Honduran Military Ousts President Ahead Of Vote

Honduran troops ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday and flew him out of the country, ending a bitter power struggle with the military as parliament swiftly voted in a new leader.

Zelaya insisted as he arrived in regional neighbour Costa Rica that he remained the president of his Central American nation, but just hours later the Congress voted in the parliamentary speaker as the country's new leader.

The first such major upheaval in several decades in the impoverished country was triggered by a tense political stand-off between Zelaya and the country's military and legal institutions over his bid to secure a second term.

"I will never give up since I was elected the president by the people,'' Zelaya said from San Jose, accusing Honduran troops of kidnapping, and denouncing what he called a "political conspiracy'' against him.

But Congress said it voted unanimously to remove him from office for his "apparent misconduct'' and for "repeated violations of the constitution and the law and disregard of orders and judgements of the institutions''.

In his place they appointed speaker Roberto Micheletti as the new leader to serve out the rest of the term of office, which ends in January.

New general elections are planned for November 29.

Zelaya, elected to a non-renewal four-year term in 2005, had planned a vote on Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a future referendum to allow him to run for re-election in the November polls.

The planned referendum had been ruled illegal by the country's top court and was opposed by the military, but the president said he planned to press ahead with it anyway and ballot boxes had already been distributed.

The Supreme Court said on Sunday it had ordered the president's ouster to protect law and order in the nation of about seven million people.

"Today's events originate from a court order by a competent judge,'' the country's highest court said in a statement read by spokesman Danilo Izaguirre.

The drama unfolded around dawn on Sunday when about 200 troops swooped on Zelaya's home. He was bundled away and flown out of the country.

A leading government official, Armando Sarmiento, said that at least eight cabinet members were also detained, including Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas.

As planes and helicopters flew over the capital, several hundred Zelaya supporters ignored warnings to stay home and flooded onto the streets of Tegucigalpa shouting, "We want Mel'', the president's nickname.

But the demonstration was halted in front of the presidential palace when the way was barred by a cordon of troops and armoured vehicles.

US President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned about the events in Honduras, as the European Union also called for Zelaya's release.

"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,'' Obama said in a statement.

"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.''

The apparent coup is the latest dramatic event in a tense political stand-off over the past few days.

Last week Zelaya sacked the country's top military chief, General Romeo Vasquez, and also accepted the resignation of Defence Minister Edmundo Orellana, after military commanders refused to distribute ballot boxes for Sunday's vote.

The heads of the army, marines and air force also resigned.

The Honduran Supreme Court then unanimously voted on Thursday to reinstate Vasquez and hundreds of troops massed late last week in the capital Tegucigalpa.

Zelaya, who was elected as a conservative, has shifted dramatically to the left during his presidency.

He is the latest in a long list of Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to seek constitutional changes to expand presidential powers and also ease term limits.

Chavez also denounced Sunday's arrest as a "coup d'etat'' and alleged that the United States had a hand in Zelaya's overthrow.

And he warned that if Venezuela's envoys to Honduras were harmed he would be prepared to intervene militarily.

Good to see one nation's military standing up for their nation's Constitution when a hard left leader attempts to shred it.

[Ryan Ruck]

Chavez Threatens Military Action Over Honduras Coup

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.

Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against his leftist ally, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya (HA! HA!).

The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election (more like trying to shred their Constitution).

Chavez said on state television if his ambassador to Venezuela was killed, or if troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy, "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily ... I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, part of a coalition of leftist governments headed by Chavez that includes Honduras, said he would support military action if Ecuador's diplomats or those of its allies were threatened.

The socialist Chavez has in the past threatened to use his armed forces in the region but never followed through. He said that if a new government is sworn in after the coup it would be defeated.

"We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said, while hundreds of red-shirted supporters gathered outside Venezuela's presidential palace in solidarity with Zelaya.

History Of Coups

The United States has long accused the Venezuelan former soldier of being a destabilizing force in Latin America. Chavez himself tried to take power in a coup in 1992 and was briefly ousted in a 2002 putsch but was reinstated after protests.

Chavez, who accused the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush of backing his removal, said there should be an investigation into whether Washington had a hand in Zelaya's ouster.

"They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this," he said.

The White House denied any U.S. participation in the coup. "There was no U.S. involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official told Reuters.

President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned by the events in Honduras and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton condemned the action taken against Zelaya (Can't have a Fellow Traveler suffering at the hands of those evil right wingers!) . A senior U.S. official said Washington recognizes only Zelaya as president.

The United States supported a number of military coups in Central America during the Cold War and used Honduras as a base for its counter-insurgency operations in the region in the 1980s.

Washington still has several hundred troops stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, a Honduran military installation that is also the headquarters for a regional U.S. joint task force that conducts humanitarian, drug and disaster relief operations.

Chavez and other Latin American leaders from his ALBA coalition, including Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Bolivia's President Evo Morales, were headed to Nicaragua on Sunday to discuss what action to take over Honduras.

ALBA's nine members also include Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua. Ecuador said Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.

[Ryan Ruck]

Replacement Duel Ensues in Honduras After President Ousted

Honduras' new leaders defied growing global pressure on Monday to reverse a military coup, arguing that they had followed their constitution in removing a leftist president who attacked it.

Presidents from around Latin America were gathering in Nicaragua for meetings Monday on how to reverse the first coup in Central America in at least 16 years.

The Obama administration and European governments denounced the coup. U.S. officials said they were working for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and European officials offered to mediate talks between the two sides.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took center stage in the region as he defended his ally Zelaya by casting the dispute as a rebellion by the region's poor.

"If the oligarchies break the rules of the game as they have done, the people have the right to resistance and combat, and we are with them," Chavez said in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.

He threatened to "overthrow" the new leader sworn in by lawmakers, Congressional President Roberto Micheletti — who replied in an interview with HRN radio on Monday: "Nobody scares us."

Zelaya was seized by soldiers and hustled aboard a plane to Costa Rica early Sunday, just hours before a rogue referendum he had called in defiance of the courts and Congress, and which his opponents said was an attempt to remain in power after his term ends Jan. 27.

Micheletti said he would only serve out the end of Zelaya's term, which ends in January following presidential elections set for November.

"We respect everybody and we only ask that they respect us and leave us in peace because the country is headed toward free and transparent general elections in November," Micheletti said.

His designated foreign minister, Enrique Ortez Colindres told HRN on Monday that no coup had occurred. He said the military had merely upheld the constitution "that the earlier government wanted to reform without any basis and in an illegal way."

Troops with riot shields surrounded the presidential palace on Monday and armored military vehicles were parked in front.

But soldiers made no attempt to clear away about 200 pro-Zelaya protesters who were burning tires and other debris, as well as blocking streets with downed trees and billboards.

"We want out elected and democratic president, not this other one that the world doesn't recognize," said Marco Gallo, a 50-year-old retired teacher, who said he was on his way to join the protests in front of the palace.

The Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single 4-year term and forbids any modification of that limit. Zelaya's opponents feared he would use the referendum results to try to run again, just as Chavez reformed his country's constitution to be able to seek re-election repeatedly.

Micheletti said Sunday that the army acted on orders from the courts, and the ouster was carried out "to defend respect for the law and the principles of democracy." But he threatened to jail Zelaya and put him on trial if he returned.

Micheletti also hit back at Chavez, saying "nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."

Earlier, Obama said in a statement he was "deeply concerned" about the events, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned.

"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama's statement read.

For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, U.S. officials said.

Two senior Obama administration officials told reporters that U.S. diplomats were working to ensure Zelaya's safe return.

The officials said the Obama administration in recent days had warned Honduran power players, including the armed forces, that the U.S. would not support a coup, but Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls.

The president of Latin America's largest nation, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said on his weekly radio program Monday that his nation will not recognize any Honduran government that doesn't have Zelaya as president "because he was directly elected by the vote, complying with the rules of democracy."

He also said Honduras risks isolation from the rest of the hemisphere.

"We in Latin America can no longer accept someone trying to resolve his problem through the means of a coup," Silva said.

In Brussels, the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner urged "all parties involved to resolve their differences peacefully." She said the EU's executive Commission "stands ready" to help start the talks.

Officials said EU envoys were meeting their Central American counterparts in Brussels Monday to discuss the coup and what implications it could have on free trade negotiations between the EU and Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Zelaya said soldiers seized him in his pajamas at gunpoint in what he called a "coup" and a "kidnapping."

"I want to return to my country. I am president of Honduras," Zelaya said Sunday before traveling to Managua on one of Chavez's planes for regional meetings of Central American leaders and Chavez's leftist alliance of nations, known as ALBA.

Some of Zelaya's Cabinet members were detained by soldiers or police following his ouster. And the rights group Freedom of Expression said leftist legislator Cesar Ham had died in a shootout with soldiers trying to detain him. A Honduran Security Department spokesman said he had no information on Ham.

Sunday afternoon, Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even the president's former allies turning against him. Micheletti, who as leader of Congress is in line to fill any vacancy in the presidency, was sworn in to serve until Zelaya's term ends.

Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president in the referendum.

Micheletti acknowledged that he had not spoken to any Latin American heads of state, but said, "I'm sure that 80 to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened today."

The Organization of American States approved a resolution Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional return of the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the coup and "urges the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country," said his spokeswoman, Michele Montas.

The Rio Group, which comprises 23 nations from the hemisphere, issued a statement condemning "the coup d'etat" and calling for Zelaya's "immediate and unconditional restoration to his duties."

And Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou canceled a planned visit to Honduras, one of just 23 countries that still recognize the self-governing island.

Coups were common in Central America until the 1980s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez.

It was the first military ouster of a Central American president since 1993, when Guatemalan military officials refused to accept President Jorge Serrano's attempt to seize absolute power and removed him.

[Ryan Ruck]

This is definitely a situation that bears keeping a close eye on. I've said for quite a while that before any direct confrontation between Russia/China and us, we'd likely start seeing brush fires pop up in the Middle East (Iran, Pakistan, etc.), Southeast Asia (Korea, Taiwan, etc.), and South America that would require our attention.

[American Patriot]

Oh, hell.

I ain't going back there. I utterly refuse.

Let them murder each other then we can nuke the place when the Russians take over.

[vector7]

OBAMA LASHES OUT AT HONDURAS; SIDES WITH CHAVEZ, CASTRO…Si Senor, ees the three amigo’s



Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:29pm EDT

By Arshad Mohammed and David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

The European Union and a string of other foreign governments have voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica.

Obama said he would work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to restore Zelaya to power and "see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way."

"TERRIBLE PRECEDENT"

"It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections," Obama said, noting the region's progress in establishing democratic traditions in the past 20 years.
Despite Obama's comments, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration was not formally designating the ouster as a military coup for now.

Such a designation could force the U.S. leader to cut off most aid to Honduras. Under U.S. legislation, no aid -- other than for the promotion of democracy -- may be provided to a country whose elected head of government has been toppled in a military coup.

"We do think that this has evolved into a coup," Clinton told reporters, adding the administration was "withholding" that determination for now.

Asked if the United States was currently considering cutting off aid, Clinton shook her head no. The State Department said that it was unable to immediately say how much assistance the United States gives Honduras.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he did not believe Obama had spoken to Zelaya since the ouster.

He said the administration had worked in recent days to try to prevent the coup from happening, and "our goal now is on restoring democratic order in Honduras."

OBAMA CRITICISM

Analysts said quick criticism of the coup by Obama and Clinton on Sunday pleased Latin American countries bitter about the long history of U.S. intervention in the region.

The Obama administration's stance contrasted with the equivocal position taken in 2002 by former President George W. Bush's administration, which was seen as tacitly accepting a coup against Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Clinton stressed the United States was working with other nations in the hemisphere to restore full democratic and constitutional order in Honduras.

A senior U.S. official who spoke on condition he not be named said that by holding off on a legal determination that a coup has taken place, Washington was trying to provide space for a negotiated settlement.

"Much of our assistance is conditioned on the integrity of the democratic system. But if we were able to get to a ... status quo that returned to the rule of law and constitutional order within a relatively short period of time, I think that would be a good outcome," Clinton said.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by David Storey)

[Ryan Ruck]

Funny how we must "bear witness" to Iran yet he feels free to meddle in Honduras' internal issues, of which this "coup" is simply the military upholding the Constitution.

[Malsua]

I know Hondurans. As some of you know, I've spent quite a lot of time in Honduras since DEC 06. I talk to Hondurans on the phone or by email daily.

They think the president who was just outed is a clown. They don't like him. They wanted him gone.

0Bozo is so wrong on this issue it is pathetic. He's siding with a hated leftist just because the guy is a leftist. It's sickening.

[vector7]

Comradeship: Obama Adopts the Communist Party’s Position on Honduras

By Joy Tiz Tuesday, June 30, 2009 The Communist Party USA’s position on the recent non-coup in Honduras is markedly congruous with Barack Obama’s:

“The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’état this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.

• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law. 

The CPUSA further: 


• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.
• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press. 


• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.
• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’état.”

This should confound no one, since the Communist Party USA was publicly exhiliarated about Barack Obama as a candidate. On January 31, 2009, Sam Webb of CPUSA gave a speech extolling the blessings of the Obama presidency and denouncing capitalism, which, according to Webb, exists to oppress blacks. Leftists have no sense of irony.

There was no coup in Honduras. The government of Honduras functioned as it was constitutionally mandated to do. Former president Manuel Zelaya attempted cling to ascendancy by circumventing the constitution. Venezuelan tyrant, Hugo Chavez, operating as the Latin American David Axelrod, has been abetting Zelaya. In a proceeding that could no longer happen in the United States, the Honduran Supreme Court issued an order to stop Zelaya’s efforts to go forward with his re-election referendum. Concomitantly, the Honduran congress, unencumbered by a doltish speaker, proclaimed Zelaya’s efforts to become dictator for life unconstitutional. The Honduran Army, acting on orders from the Supreme Court, dispatched the unharmed Zelaya to the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. Presumably, he wasn’t eligible for Uighur Island.

Obama, predictably, rebuked the constitutionally required ouster of the incipient oppressor for life.

“Nevertheless, Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quickly issued statements saying that his removal was somehow a violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This was a clever ruse designed to disguise the fact that all of the major elements of constitutional power in Honduras, except for the increasingly unpopular and power-hungry president, acted on behalf of the people.” (Source)


Last January, envisioning a future need to safeguard Obama’s diadem, the prescient Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY) introduced H.J. Res. 5:
111TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. J. RES. 5

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 6, 2009

Mr. SERRANO introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
govtrack.us
Passage of Res. 5 would assure that Obama won’t have to go through a similarly tumultuous crucible.

The President of the United States has disdain for democracy. He has taken an anti-Israel mien, hectoring the lone democracy in the Middle East about capitulating to demands from terrorists. Never mind that Israel has time and again succumbed to barbarians. Obama sat passively while the people of Iran made a desperate entreaty for the president’s support in grasping their freedom .

The leader of the free world has no problem cavalierly discounting the extermination of inculpable citizens, most of them young people. Obama has broadcast that he is breathlessly awaiting a tete-a-tete with the depraved hellions.

Other rapacious tyrants on Obama’s Face Book Friends List include Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Historically, Obama’s comrades have all been communists, including his Chicago mentor, Alice Palmer, a woman whom the perpetually duplicitous narcissist in chief ultimately hoodwinked for his own political gain.

Young Obamanutz are not aghast over Obama’s favorable sentiments toward communism. They don’t recall the Soviet Union or Mao’s bloodbaths. Socialism, communism, Marxism; none of these dogmas daunt them, due to years of being marinated in Ayers- based education
Jeffrey Folks writes about his time in Yugoslavia in the 1980s:

“Anyone who has lived inside the demoralized, unproductive, gray prison of a communist state, as I did in the mid-1980s knows to what depths of impoverishment the egalitarian fantasies of socialism inevitably lead. They lead to decades of frustrated poverty and lifetimes of untreated illness culminating in early death. I remember the columns of death notices for men and women in their forties and fifties that appeared in the local newspaper. Gradually I learned to associate those death notices with the lack of fresh foodstuffs, the travesty of state health care, and the pervasive demoralization of an enslaved population drowning itself in cheap alcohol and cigarettes.”

The government of Honduras performed as it should, which is more than we can anticipate from ours during Obama’s hegemony. Barack Obama is, once again, taking a stand against liberty and democracy.

[vector7]

The Organization of the American States (OAS) gives Honduras three days to restore Manuel Zelaya to presidency


Soldiers wear tear gas masks before a protest by supporters of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa
Picture: REUTERS

The Organisation of American States (OAS) gave Honduras three days to restore Manuel Zelaya to the presidency or face expulsion from the region's major group, as Washington added to the pressure on coup leaders by formally suspending military contact.

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 6:04PM BST 01 Jul 2009

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the 34-member OAS, said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere," he said.

The ultimatum issued by the OAS to the new government prompted the ousted leader to delay plans to return home on Thursday.

Related Articles

• Obama: Honduras Coup "Not Legal"

"We will wait 72 hours in order to continue with this process," Mr Zelaya told reporters in Washington, where he held meetings with state department officials.

Mr Zelaya, a Left-winger, was overthrown on Sunday by a military-led coup over proposed constitutional changes critics said were designed to extend his time in office. He has won the strong support of President Barack Obama, who has condemned the coup as "illegal".

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it was suspending military ties with Honduras, its strongest ally in Central America. Since the early 1980s, US personnel have served at the joint Soto Cano air base near the capital, which is now used principally for drug interdiction and humanitarian missions.

Mr Zelaya's meetings in the American capital came as Spain became the latest country to withdraw its ambassador from Honduras.

EU nations also said they had agreed to have no contact with the post-coup leaders in Honduras, "to avoid making gestures which could give the impression that the EU recognises" the new government.

Protests erupted late on Tuesday for the second day in the Honduran capital, when unidentified attackers hurled a grenade, which failed to explode, at the Supreme Court.

[vector7]

Hondurans angered by international media silence on Obama-Chavez alliance

Monday, July 6, 2009



Hondurans angered by international media silence on Obama-Chavez alliance

By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media

I continue to receive messages from Honduran citizens upset at the international media for their distorted coverage of the situation in the Central American country. The people support the ouster of Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, who is considered a puppet of Venezuelan Communist ruler Hugo Chavez. They are mystified that an American president would want to return this Chavez puppet to power in Honduras

One Honduran wrote: “The recent action taken by our Congress is highly supported by several organizations in support of peace and democracy: the State General Attorney, the Supreme Court, the Armed Forces, the private organizations and especially many young people. Mr. Zelaya broke the law on several occasions even after the Supreme Court stated that it was illegal. He had no respect for our laws and our Constitution.

"It’s not a new fact to the international media what are Chavez intentions over Central and South America. And we in Honduras don’t want that. We don’t want to go back to socialism or communism. We still believe very strongly in our democracy and very strongly in our freedom…We should be an example to Central American countries as well as South American countries who have not yet been influenced by Chavez.

“May God bless our small but courageous country. And I hope the international media investigate very deeply. Send your people here and interview people from Congress and Supreme Court. Thank you again for reading our side of the story. We want a democracy, peace, freedom, and a president who doesn’t believe he is above the law.

“Many people don’t know where Honduras is, but after this, they shall remember that Honduras said no to socialism and communism.

"I’d also like to say that I am shocked by Mr. Obama’s comments. Doesn’t he know Mr. Zelaya is allied with Chavez? Doesn’t he know that Mr. Zelaya wants to do in Honduras what Chavez did in Venezuela, Morales has done in Bolivia, Correa has done in Ecuador, Ortega in Nicaragua, as well as what Castro has done in Cuba ?"

Another wrote:
“As you already know we are living in a horrible situation in our country and feel very disappointed and frustrated because we don’t have the support of the international community.

“How is it possible that other governments support a liar, a corrupt man, a ‘Chavez wannabe,’ as he is called in some articles, who also has strong links to the drug dealing business?

“It’s amazing. They have made him a martyr. We keep writing and writing and thankfully some people have responded. We now see articles in the Washington Post, Miami Herald, New York Post, Wall Street Journal to name a few, in favor or our actions and understanding it wasn’t a coup. And to tell you the truth, they should have done this before! He was out of control.

“I’m asking you, what more can we do? How can we get more people to believe that what we did was the right thing? Have you seen his speeches? Do you notice how incoherent he is? Do you see how he lies? For us it is so obvious, and that is what I wonder... how is it possible that people so well-prepared, so educated like the people in the U.N. and the U.S. government believe him? How come they are now on the same side of Hugo Chavez? Hugo Chavez talking about democracy? It’s unbelievable. And it hurts.

“I love Honduras and it hurts to see that we are alone. It hurts because we have witnessed how he has stolen, abused his power and how he has created a huge war between the Hondurans. By paying poor people and promising them false things, he does have their support. He speaks to them about God. It’s amazing and sad. And now we see how this people who are badly influenced are vandalizing, destroying businesses when they protest. We had gone to marches, and they are all peaceful.

“We are a poor and small country, but we love our country and we support the Armed Forces as well as the new president.

“We don’t want a corrupt puppet of Chavez. What more can we do?”

[Ryan Ruck]

Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan Enemies Already Inside Honduras Waiting For Zelaya's Return

7/16/2009

Tegucigalpa, Honduras could become another Tehran by tomorrow night.

Hondurans are trying to get word out by Twitter that they are receiving threatening text messages on their cell phones tonight, telling them to stay inside and not leave their homes tomorrow night.

"Now more than ever I will be the first one out the door," Honduran Pedro Martinez told Canada Free Press tonight. Pedro Martinez is the pseudonym we gave to the young Honduran professional that Canada Free Press (CFP) walked through Twitter hookup last week.

"Tomorrow might be a bad day," Pedro tipped off CFP on twitter. "People are infiltrating Honduras thru (sic) Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua with the intention to create chaos."

Looks like deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, who has called for a popular insurrection in his own country so that he can be returned to power after soldiers removed him at gunpoint on June 28, is on the way back.

With the verbal cunning of good Marxists the world over and the backing of tyrant Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, this is Zelaya's message today from the safety of Guatemala: "The Honduran people have the right to insurrection."

"I want to tell you to not leave the streets, that is the only space that they have not taken from us," he told a news conference alongside Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom," (Yahoo News.com. July 15, 2009).

Meanwhile, no one in Honduras is running from Zelaya's threats. "We are not issuing threats," acting foreign minister Carlos Lopez said in response to Zelaya's call for an insurrection, reminding the exiled Honduran leader that Roberto Micheletti's government was in control and the country was at peace.

"We removed the curfew and the government has complete control of the territory."

Problem is Pedro and tens of thousands like him, who backed Zelaya's ouster on June 28, believe the streets and democracy belong to them.

Zelaya's ultimatum to the interim government ordering it to relinquish power within the week and the demands for his immediate restitution has only raised the peoples' dander.

People like Pedro expect only the worst from Zelaya.

This is a sturdy resistance that predates the July 28 bum's rush, and one that sees Zelaya as a dictator who is giving their country and all it stands for over to "socialist rule under Chavez."

"Long before the so-called coup d'etat, we watched as Chavez's shiny new tractors were given like carnival candy to Honduran farmers," Pedro told CFP in an earlier telephone call. "The tactics are the same ones used by Communists everywhere."

"While his own people, whose children go hungry were out of work, Zelaya was swaggering under his 10-gallon cowboy hats and 100% tooled leather cowboy boots.

"We were told that big-spending Zelaya had been whooping it up in Costa Rica, where he blew his way through $80,000 in his first few days in exile.

"I was there at Tegucigalpa airport on July 6 when our interim government refused to let his plane touch down from Costa Rica. Zelaya and supporters, whose bullets killed my two countrymen, lied when they said the bullets came from the Interim Government side. Our side used rubber bullets. Zalaya supporters used real bullets on real people."

Pedro, who speaks perfect English, says Zalaya "thugs" and "militants" have been threatening Honduran journalists. "We know what supermarket your wife uses. We know which school your little boy attends. That's what they have been telling journalists," Pedro says.

"God bless Honduras. God bless Canada and the Free World. Nobody is going to take our Freedom and Democracy away. Nobody."

Tonight there's a flurry of text messages going between Hondurans who want to keep their country a democracy "even if it means a bloodbath".

The coming bloodbath of which they speak is more than an exaggeration.

General Romeo Vasquez, head of the Honduran Army, told AFP that Zelaya was exiled to avoid "deaths and injuries".

Meanwhile, Pedro and his many countrymen are in defending Honduras mode: "God bless Honduras. God bless Canada and the Free World. Nobody is going to take our Freedom and Democracy away. Nobody."

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Apparently Honduras isn't Tehran yet, but the lefty rags are lamenting it.

Honduras crisis talks break down

Coup leaders reject Costa Rica-brokered compromise plan to reinstate ousted president Manuel Zelaya


A supporter of the exiled Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, protesting against the coup in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images

Talks to resolve the political crisis in Honduras broke down today when coup leaders rejected a compromise plan to reinstate the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya.
The interim government in Tegucigalpa, which took power last month after soldiers bundled the president into exile, ruled out his return even at the helm of a proposed unity administration.
The decision revived the possibility that Zelaya, who is in neighbouring Nicaragua, will try to storm back into Honduras to rally supporters and topple his usurpers. Minutes after the talks collapsed he told Reuters. "Absolutely no one can stop me [from returning]. I'm a Honduran. It is my right."
The US and most Latin American leaders had prodded both sides into four days of on-off mediation talks in Costa Rica brokered by that country's president, Oscar Arias.
Arias proposed that Zelaya return this week to head a coalition government and serve the end of his term before presidential elections in October, a month earlier than planned.
Envoys for the interim president, Roberto Micheletti, accepted parts of the plan but balked at allowing their rival back into power. "I'm very sorry, but the proposals that you have presented are unacceptable to the constitutional government of Honduras," said Micheletti's envoy, Carlos López.
The de facto government claims legitimacy on the grounds that the supreme court and congress authorised Micheletti because of his alleged desire to extend term limits. It has promised to arrest Zelaya on charges of corruption and treason if he enters Honduras.
Zelaya had alarmed conservative institutions, including the army, the church and his own party, by embracing Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chávez. He won popularity among the poor, however, for social programmes and boosting the minimum wage.
No other country has recognised the de facto regime, which remains diplomatically isolated, economically fragile and buffetted by small but vociferous daily demonstrations demanding Zelaya's return.
When the logging tycoon-turned-president tried to fly back, on 5 July, troops prevented his plane from landing and opened fire on supporters gathered at the airport, killing at least one and wounding dozens more. The interim authorities have relied on a nightly curfew and media censorship to keep control.
The US and most regional governments have urged Zelaya to be patient and await a negotiated settlement. But Chávez, and Cuba's Fidel Castro, have warned him the talks are a Washington-sponsored trap, and that he should return immediately.
Zelaya left open the possibility of further talks. "You must never close the door on actions of good faith," he said. But he hinted he would soon try to cross the border. His supporters are due to step up protests later this week.
Arias, who won a Nobel prize for brokering an end to central American conflicts in the 1980s, said he would try to renew negotiations until at least Wednesday. "My conscience tells me that I cannot give up and must continue working for at least three more days. And that is what I propose to do," he said.
He warned of violence if diplomacy failed. "What is the alternative to dialogue? There could be a civil war or bloodshed that the Honduran people do not deserve."

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Zelaya returns to Honduras

Story Highlights

* Jose Manuel Zelaya was removed from office in June
* U.S. said it's terminating certain aid to Honduras to pressure interim government
* Zelaya was at the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa

(CNN) -- Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya returned Monday to the capital city of Honduras, where he said he is planning to meet with his critics to arrange for his return to power.

"I have never seen the sky so blue and beautiful," he told CNN en Español in a telephone call from the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

It was Zelaya's first view of the city since June 28, when he was awakened by soldiers who then put him, still in his pajamas, on a plane out of the country.

"I have returned so that dialogue can carry on in my own land and in my own city," he said. "I hope that in the next few hours we'll be able to communicate with the coup plotters."

"For the moment, thanks to [Brazilian] President [Luiz Inacio] Lula, ... we have protection here."

Zelaya called on the armed forces to allow the matter to be resolved through dialogue. "They're members of the pueblo," he said. "We look for immediate dialogue. ... Our position is peaceful, it always has been."

He said thousands of people had taken to the streets of the city in support of his return.

Zelaya said he spent Sunday night in Guatemala, and that his trip to Tegucigalpa took more than 15 hours. "There was a lot of security and roadblocks," he said. "There is a lot of persecution, a lot of fear in our country."

In a written statement, the secretary general of the Organization for American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, confirmed Zelaya's presence in the embassy and called on "the actors involved in this process" to be calm.

He said the de facto government "should make themselves responsible for the security of President Zelaya and of the Brazilian Embassy."

Zelaya's return comes as the United States has stepped up its call for the current Honduran government run by de facto leader Roberto Micheletti to restore Zelaya to power.

Earlier this month, the United States revoked the visas of Micheletti, 14 supreme court judges and others.

The United States also said it was terminating all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras in a bid to pressure the interim government to end the political turmoil and accept the terms of the San Jose Accord, which was brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The accord calls for Zelaya's return to power.

The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's plan to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution and allowed longer term limits. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal.

Micheletti and his supporters say that Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup. The United Nations has condemned Zelaya's ouster and does not recognize Micheletti's government. While the United States has called Zelaya's ouster a coup, it has not formally designated it a "military coup," which, under U.S. law, would have triggered a cutoff of all non-humanitarian aid. Senior State Department officials said the Obama administration was reluctant to make the formal designation in order to preserve its flexibility for a diplomatic solution.

A presidential campaign in Honduras kicked off this month. However, the United States said it would not support the outcome of the elections unless Zelaya was restored to power.

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Ousted President Zelaya Claims He Has Returned to Honduras

By VOA News
21 September 2009

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he has returned to Honduras to reclaim his presidency.

In an interview carried on the country's Channel 36 television network, Mr. Zelaya said he is in Honduras. However, the interim government has denied the claim.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- a close ally of the ousted president -- also said Mr. Zelaya is in Honduras.

However, Mr. Zelaya's exact location is not clear.

A United Nations spokesman in New York City says earlier reports that Mr. Zelaya was at the U.N. office in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, are "incorrect."

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly says U.S. officials have confirmed Mr. Zelaya has returned but do not have details about his location. Kelly added the U.S. still considers Mr. Zeyala Honduras's democratically elected and constitutional leader.

Mr. Zelaya was forced out of the country at gunpoint on June 28. Leaders of the interim government that ousted him in the military coup have said he would be arrested if he returns.

The United States has refused to recognize the caretaker Honduran government of President Roberto Micheletti despite its assertion Mr. Zelaya was legally removed. The interim leaders say Mr. Zelaya violated a Supreme Court order to drop efforts to change the constitution.

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Deposed Honduras leader makes surprise return

(AFP) – 1 day ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya on Monday made a surprise return to the country almost three months after soldiers expelled him in a coup.

Thousands of Zelaya supporters took to the streets in a tense Tegucigalpa on hearing the news, which was widely reported on local and international media, as the Central American nation's interim leaders still denied he was there.

The military sent Zelaya away in his pajamas on June 28, backed by the country's courts and parliament, at the height of a tense political standoff over his plans to change the constitution.

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) -- a pan-regional body which suspended Honduras after the coup -- confirmed in a statement that Zelaya was in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital.

The OAS held an emergency session Monday to tackle the new twist in the crisis.

Many feared further violence following clashes between the army and Zelaya supporters during his two previous attempts to return, in which several people died.

"I want to call for calm from the actors in this process, to signal to the de facto government that they have to be responsible for the security of President Zelaya and the Brazilian embassy," said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

Zelaya said Insulza would shortly travel to Honduras, in comments to CNN's Spanish-language channel.

He said he had traveled more than 15 hours to sneak back into the impoverished nation where he faces arrest from the interim leaders who had him ousted.

Zelaya said his return from exile in Nicaragua was part of a "peaceful strategy," following failed Costa Rica-led talks to resolve the crisis.

"We're hoping for international cooperation so that Honduras returns to calm," said Zelaya, who is due to speak before the United Nations general assembly in New York on Wednesday.

The United States, the European Union and Latin American countries took measures to isolate Honduras after the coup, including aid freezes, and said they still considered Zelaya to be the country's legitimate president.

"We're pleasantly surprised that Mel (Zelaya's nickname) is in Tegucigalpa and we ask the coup leaders to respect the life and dignity of Zelaya, and return him to power," Zelaya's main backer Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday.

Interim leader Roberto Micheletti appeared to be caught off-guard as he told a news conference that Zelaya had not left neighboring Nicaragua.

"It's not true. He (Zelaya) is in a hotel suite in Nicaragua," Micheletti said.

Micheletti has said he will step aside after presidential elections are held as scheduled on November 29.

The internationally-backed mediation bid failed after the interim leaders refused to accept Zelaya's return to power as part of a unity government.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

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Honduras orders curfew after ousted leader returns

(AP) – 15 Hours ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The interim government in Honduras has extended a curfew to 26 hours after the ousted president unexpectedly returned home.

The government of interim President Roberto Michelleti says in a statement that the curfew started at 4 p.m. (2200 GMT) Monday and will end at 6 p.m. (0000 GMT) Tuesday. It initially declared a 15-hour curfew, ending Tuesday morning.

The government says the army and police are ready to "guarantee the safety of people."

Defense Minister Lionel Sevilla says all flights to Tegucigalpa have been suspended indefinitely.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — 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 ordered a 15-hour curfew, but thousands of Zelaya supporters ignored the decreed 4 p.m. (2200 GMT) shutdown 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 Zelaya.

The leftist leader's homecoming creates a sharp new challenge for the interim government that has threatened repeatedly to throw him in jail if he returns.

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.

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."

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 to 7 a.m. (1300 GMT) Tuesday due to "the events of the last few hours."

The interim government was caught off guard by Zelaya's arrival. 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."

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."

Associated Press writers Catherine E. Shoichet, Martha Mendoza and Alexandra Olson in Mexico City, Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela, and Matthew Lee in New York contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Hondurans surround Brazil embassy

Honduran security forces are patrolling the area around Brazil's embassy in the capital after clashes with supporters of ousted president Manuel Zelaya.

Mr Zelaya, who has taken refuge inside, accuses the interim authorities of attempting to "asphyxiate" the embassy by cutting off supplies.
The embassy's lights, water and phones have been cut off and the only contact is by mobile phone, Brazil's media say.

Honduran authorities have demanded Mr Zelaya give himself up to face trial.

But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his complete support for the deposed Honduran leader and Brazil has warned Honduran authorities not to contemplate taking any action against the embassy.

Mr Zelaya's supporters are holed up with him in the embassy

Mr Zelaya made a surprise return from exile on Monday nearly three months after being forced out of the country at gunpoint, saying he wanted peaceful dialogue.

The US, Brazil and other governments have joined Mr Zelaya in calling for a negotiated settlement to the crisis.
A curfew has been imposed, airports shut and roadblocks set up on highways leading into Tegucigalpa.

'Asphyxiation'
Masked soldiers used truncheons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of Mr Zelaya's supporters early on Tuesday, and they are now patrolling the area around the embassy.

The demonstrators had defied the curfew imposed after Mr Zelaya made his dramatic appearance in the Brazilian embassy on Monday.
ANALYSIS

Gary Duffy, BBC News, Sao Paulo

The Brazilian authorities recognise that their staff in Honduras are caught up in a very delicate situation.

The ambassador is back in Brazil, there is only a charge d'affaires and a very small team, with not much security.

Brazil insists that Mr Zelaya's arrival at the embassy was unexpected and that by allowing him to stay they only did what any democratic government would have done.

Nonetheless it is clear where the sympathies of the Brazilian authorities lie. They regard Mr Zelaya as the legitimate president of Honduras and say there is no question of either handing him over to the military forces outside or asking him to leave.

One official told me "he is welcome to stay for as long as he wants".

A protest leader, Juan Barahona, alleged that police had used live rounds, but this was denied as "impossible" by the interim deputy foreign minister, Martha Lorena Alvarado.

Another supporter of Mr Zelaya, Guillermo Amador, said many people had been injured and detained, but there has been no official confirmation of this.

Inside the embassy, the lights, water and telephones were cut off on Monday and the only contact is by mobile phone, Brazilian media say.
Reports suggest a generator is being used to provide electricity.
Some 70 supporters of Mr Zelaya are also reported to be inside, along with embassy officials.

Mr Zelaya told Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur that interim authorities were cutting off all supplies to the embassy.

"I think they are going to employ a strategy of asphyxiating the embassy by surrounding it, cutting off the food supply, asphyxiating the people inside in order to demonstrate their force and power, and to try and humiliate the people in here who are really trying to find a solution, for dialogue at a national level," he said.

Later he told AFP news agency he had spoken to soldiers and police on Monday to try to seek a way out of the crisis.

TIMELINE: ZELAYA OUSTED
28 June: Zelaya forced out of country at gunpoint
5 July: A dramatic bid by Zelaya to return home by plane fails after the runway at Tegucigalpa airport is blocked
25-26 July: Zelaya briefly crosses into the country at the land border with Nicaragua on two consecutive days, in a symbolic move to demand he be allowed to return
21 Sept: Zelaya appears in the Brazilian embassy in Tegulcigalpa

In full: Zelaya speaks to BBC
In pictures: Zelaya's return
Readers' reaction from Honduras

In an interview, interim leader Roberto Micheletti said he had no intention of confronting Brazil or entering its embassy.

He told Reuters news agency that Mr Zelaya could stay in the embassy for "five to 10 years" if he wanted to, but urged him to turn himself in to face charges of corruption and violating the constitution.

Earlier, Ms Alvarado, the interim deputy foreign minister, said she expected Brazil either to hand Mr Zelaya over or grant him political asylum.

Despite international condemnation of the circumstances of Mr Zelaya's removal from office, she told BBC Mundo, "that does not permit any embassy to use its diplomatic territory... to urge a civil uprising".

The interim administration in Honduras insists no coup took place - but a "constitutional succession" ordered by the courts and approved by Congress.

Brazil warning
Speaking in New York, Brazilian President Lula repeated his position that a "negotiated and democratic solution" must be found.

He urged Mr Zelaya to "be very careful not to allow any pretext for the coup plotters to resort to violence" - and warned Honduran authorities against trying to enter the embassy.

Earlier, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim warned that any threat to Mr Zelaya or the Brazilian embassy would be a grave breach of international law.

Brazil has been keen to demonstrate a clear leadership role over this issue and throughout the Honduran crisis has adopted a very firm line against the coup leaders, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.

The European Union has called for calm - adding its voice to that of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Mr Zelaya's return must not lead to violence.

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Honduran rivals clinch deal to end crisis



Reuters – Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya speaks during a meeting inside the Brazilian embassy in …

By Sean Mattson Sean Mattson – 21 mins ago

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras is on the verge of ending a four-month political crisis after rival camps cut a deal that could return ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power and earn international support for a November 29 election.

Buckling under pressure from U.S. diplomats, negotiators for Zelaya, toppled in a June 28 coup, and the de facto leader Roberto Micheletti who replaced him, agreed to put an end to Central America's worst political turmoil in two decades.

The deal, a diplomatic victory for U.S. President Barack Obama, leaves it up to the Honduran Congress to decide whether Zelaya can be restored to serve the last few months of his term -- the question that caused earlier talks to stumble.

A Congress vote is expected in the next few days, after the Supreme Court gives a non-binding opinion on the matter.

"We've taken a first step," Zelaya said on Friday as negotiators put final signatures to the agreement, which will end months of isolation for the poor coffee-production nation.

The breakthrough late on Thursday came after a high-level U.S. delegation flew to Tegucigalpa for a last-ditch effort to end a crisis that created a foreign policy headache for Obama as he seeks better relations with the region.

"Both sides in regard to the issue of restitution, have committed this decision to Congress," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon said.

"Both have indicated that they will abide by it, and I believe them," he told reporters. "This is a political issue that's going to be resolved politically."
Zelaya, a leftist logging magnate, was rousted at dawn by soldiers and flown to exile on a Supreme Court order, after he irked many in Honduras by cozying up to socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and allegedly seeking support to allow presidential re-election, something he denies.

Zelaya called the accord a "triumph" for democracy and said he did not expect any new setbacks. "My reinstatement is imminent, I'm optimistic," he told Reuters late on Thursday.

A WIN FOR WASHINGTON
In Islamabad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sent the U.S. delegation this week, praised the deal, calling it "a big step forward" for democracy in the Americas.

"Diplomatically, the U.S. came out as the biggest winner of the agreement," noted Eurasia analyst Heather Berkman.

The United States, the European Union and Latin American leaders had all insisted Zelaya be allowed to finish his term and threatened not to recognize the winner of the November election unless democracy was first restored.

Under U.S. pressure, Micheletti finally softened and said Zelaya could return if Congress agrees. The deal requires both sides to recognize the result of the upcoming election and would transfer control of the army to the top electoral court.

"I have authorized my negotiating team to sign a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the country's political situation," Micheletti said on Thursday night.

Tensions flared when Zelaya snuck back into Honduras under cover last month and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy. The de facto leadership surrounded the building with troops, saying Zelaya would be arrested if he stepped outside, and resorted to bully tactics such as blaring music at the embassy overnight.

Shannon praised the two camps for softening their positions and said he hoped Zelaya would soon be allowed to move about freely. "I would like to highlight that these decisions weren't easy for either one of them to make," he said.

Thursday's accord calls for the formation of a national unity government, a committee to verify that the November 29 elections is fair and transparent and a truth commission to investigate the events of the last few months.

It asks foreign governments to reverse punitive measures like suspending aid and canceling the travel visas of prominent figures involved in the coup and the de facto government.

(Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia and Javier Lopez in Tegucigalpa, Anthony Boadle and Deborah Charles in Washington; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Kieran Murray)