Honduras Leader's Homecoming Bid Blocked

Soldiers Stop Ousted President's Plane from Landing; At Least 1 Killed

(CBS/AP)  Ousted President Manuel Zelaya was kept from landing at the main Honduras airport Sunday because the runway was blocked by military vehicles and groups of soldiers, some of them clashing with a crowd of thousands outside.

His Venezuelan pilots circled around the airport and decided not to risk a crash.

Zelaya instead landed in Nicaragua on his way to El Salvador, and vowed to try again Monday or Tuesday in his high-stakes effort to return to power in a country where all branches of government have lined up against him.

"I am the commander of the armed forces, elected by the people, and I ask the armed forces to comply with the order to open the airport so that there is no problem in landing and embracing my people," Zelaya said from the plane. "Today I feel like I have sufficient spiritual strength, blessed with the blood of Christ, to be able to arrive there and raise the crucifix."

But interim President Roberto Micheletti insisted on keeping him out, and said he won't negotiate until "things return to normal."

"We will be here until the country calms down," Micheletti said. "We are the authentic representatives of the people."

Micheletti also accused Nicaragua of moving troops in an attempt at psychological intimidation, and warned them not to cross into Honduras, "because we're ready to defend our border." Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called the allegation "totally false."

Violence broke out among the huge crowd surrounding the airport, with at least one man killed - shot in the head from inside the airport as people tried to break through a security fence, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. At least 30 people were treated for injuries, the Red Cross said, after security forces fired warning shots and tear gas.

When Zelaya's plane was turned away, his supporters began chanting "We want blue helmets!" - a reference to U.N. peacekeepers.

Karin Antunez, 27, was in tears.

"We're scared. We feel sad because these coup soldiers won't let Mel return, but we're not going to back down," she said. "We're the people and we're going to keep marching so that our president comes home."

Zelaya called on the United Nations, the OAS, the United States and European countries to "do something with this repressive regime."

"We should look for an immediate solution," Zelaya told Venezuela's Telesur network. He then met with Ortega before leaving for consultations in El Salvador with the presidents of Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador and the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who flew there from Washington.

After a day of drama, Zelaya says he will now look for other ways to return to Honduras, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. He told one TV network he may try to fly home again Monday or Tuesday; he's banking on the confrontation keeping the pressure on the new Honduran government.

Zelaya won wide international support after his military ouster, but the presidents decided it was too dangerous to fly on Zelaya's plane, which carried only his close advisers and staff, two journalists from the Venezuela-based network Telesur and U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a leftist Nicaraguan priest and former foreign minister.

Honduras' new government has vowed to arrest Zelaya for 18 alleged criminal acts including treason and failing to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since taking office in 2006. Zelaya also refused to comply with a Supreme Court ruling against his planned referendum on whether to hold an assembly to consider changing the constitution.

Critics feared Zelaya might try to extend his rule and cement presidential power in ways similar to what his ally Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela.

But instead of prosecuting him or trying to defeat him at the ballot box, his political opponents sent masked soldiers to fly Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint, and Congress installed Micheletti in his place.

The military solution drew condemnation at the United Nations, and Honduras was suspended by the OAS. Many called it a huge step backward for democracy, and no nation has recognized the new government. President Barack Obama has united with Chavez and conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in insisting on Zelaya's return.

Without OAS membership, the isolated interim government faces trade sanctions and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidized oil, aid and loans for the impoverished nation.

Zelaya, a wealthy rancher who has shifted to left during his presidency, has drawn most of his support from the working and middle classes, while his opponents are based in the ranks of the well-to-do.

Micheletti's vice foreign minister, Martha Lorena Alvarado, said the interim government sent the OAS a letter expressing "willingness to conduct conversations in good faith." In Washington, senior Obama administration officials took that as a positive sign.

Speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the State Department, the officials said the United States and other OAS member countries are coordinating contacts and outreach to facilitate a resolution, despite their insistence on having no formal relations with the interim government.

The immediate concern, however, was avoiding more bloodshed. Both critics and supporters of Zelaya have staged large demonstrations. The country's Roman Catholic archbishop and its human rights commissioner urged Zelaya to stay away to avoid provoking them.

Moments after Zelaya's plane was turned away, about a dozen trucks filled with police ordered everyone off the streets, imposing a sunrise-to-sunset curfew.

"This is a war," said Matias Sauceda, 65, a human rights activist. "Imagine - things are so bad, that the president is in the air and they don't let him land."

[abbe91]

On 26 May 1973, Chile's Supreme Court unanimously denounced the Allende régime's disruption of the legality of the nation in its failure to uphold judicial decisions, because of its continual refusal to permit police execution of judicial resolutions contradicting the Government's measures.
On 22 August 1973 the Christian Democrats and the National Party members of the Chamber of Deputies voted 81 to 47, the resolution titled Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile's Democracy that asked the military to put an immediate end to breach[es of] the Constitution . . . with the goal of redirecting government activity toward the path of Law and ensuring the Constitutional order of our Nation, and the essential underpinnings of democratic co-existence among Chileans.

Nixon did more than support the coup in Chile, ordering the CIA to depose President Allende ... as early as 1970.
See for example
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm
Of course we know what happened next. A perfect democracy under Pinochet. For those who disapprove of Zelaya, are you suggesting
that Obama should follow Nixon's example ?

[wdh3007]

Marxists stick together and sometinmes flock together who does Zelaya fly to first when he can't land another marxist dictator like Ortega or Chavez. Obama looks ignorgant and foolish when he supports criminals like these but what would you expect from our marxist fraud in chief.

[Atheism_Wins]

Obama is an elitist snob liberal. He thinks his mouth is all that matters.

Sorry, but no. It is laws and democracy that matter.

[rbstrcklnd]

Sorry brianwb-2009, but you are a fool.

[ffoulkes-2009]

You noticed?

[WayAround]

WayAround is repeating himself.

As I've been saying for a ***long*** time, Chavez, Ahmadinejad (the President and current troublemaker in Iran), and Sarkozy are the Interntional Mafia's favorite puppets on the world stage.

[WayAround]

Take the "Iran Protests" script, make a few changes, and...Voila!...we have the "Honduras Protests" script.

[abbe91]

I quite agree. Iranians protesting against Ahmadinejad and the
"Clerics constitution council" on one side. People in Honduras protesting against the "Supreme court" and Pinochetti on the other side.

[ffoulkes-2009]

So...what happens when Chavez and his goons start a military campaign to put this jerk back in office?

[vietnamwar]

This is an Opportunity for us to support Hondura and take out Commi Chavez that live next door to us, one of this day it will be a dangerous like CUBA.

[pepperwood2]

While BO staggers around while N Korea & Iran are killing off their Political Opposition, Obama, Chavez, & the Liberal OAS have United to put a dagger in the back of Our Little, Weak, Neighbor Honduras.

BO, Our Brilliant SOS & OAS feel stronger & inspired aligning themselves up with Bully Hugo.

Mr Zelaya, a wealthy businessman, is a left-wing politician and supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

His opponents, which includes the Supreme Court and a majority in Parliament, accuse him of seeking to prolong his rule.

He had wanted to hold a popular vote on convening a constitutional convention - a move that could have removed the current one-term limit for presidents. Its enough to make you puke.

[Atheism_Wins]

Obama is very liberal, and has no integrity.

The liberal media won't embarrass him.

Too bad! We have the internet and conservative media. And the power of the deceptive liberal media dwindles...

[Atheism_Wins]

by Reality_Chk July 5, 2009 2:10 PM PDT
Impeached ??? Does the Honduran Constitution even use the word Impeached anywhere in it ??? If so, please quote the Honduran constitution on that...
----------
According to Article 239: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years."

Their Supreme Court ordered that he be removed from office. Their Congress put a successor in place in accordance with their Constitution. If that isn't an impeachment, I don't know what is.

[prometheus21]

Calling for a referendum to have the people vote on a non-binding constitutional assembly to consider changes to the Honduras constitution is not in ANY PROSECUTABLE WAY a proposal for reform to specifically change election terms. This proposal for reform when executed by a President would have to be in some recognizable context, as in "proposed legislation" or some document outside of willing the people to vote on a constitutional assembly to consider it. There has to be some execution and some support directly or indirectly of executing a direct proposal. The thought that you can accuse someone of doing something by asking for a referendum to vote (that's a popular vote OUTSIDE of the government) on the existence of a constutional assembly to further consider this is not a proposal of reform within any Constitutional limits. This would be like thought police outlawing free speech or the right to assemble.

The very ridiculous part is that he even used the language "non-binding" in proposing a referendum to consider a constitutional assembly to consider this. And of course he didn't even get that far. Having the Supreme Court make a decision on something that wasn't even assembled to decide doesn't even sound like due process, kidnapping and dragging a person out of office without convening a trial to prosecute definitely lacks due process, and is not like any impeachment hearing I can imagine.

The EXTREMELY ridiculous part, is that you would be attempting to outlaw ANY AND ALL REFERENDUMs by the people of Honduras -- the right to petition your government and assemble -- based on a presumption of what could possibly be the result of that referendum. You are also suggesting that there is NO WAY for the people of Honduras to change their Constitution accept through the legislative process -- no matter how corrupt and non-representative that may legally evolve. No healthy democracy would ever grant that much immunity to its government. Certainly not the U.S., until we let it happen.

[prometheus21]

What I still can't get over, are the outrageous hypocrisies exhibited by people here in the U.S. It's like they don't even acknowledge a living archive of offenses to the U.S. Constitution and American people committed by George W. Bush not too long ago. And none of them any where near to an appeal to the American people to vote for consensus on ANY OF IT. To listen to these people pander on these issues is like stomach churning to say the least.

[Atheism_Wins]

Zelaya was impeached and wouldn't leave.

Obama is incompetent. Will he leave office when HE is voted out?

[Reality_Chk]

Impeached ??? Does the Honduran Constitution even use the word Impeached anywhere in it ??? If so, please quote the Honduran constitution on that...