What I'm able to decipher is that Zelaya will return to Honduras this afternoon.  The Archbishop of Honduras urged him not to return, because there would be a bloodbath.  Some officials in the OAS are also urging him not to return for the same reason.  Personally, I would  urge him not to return.  But Mel says he's going to return, and thousands of his supporters are trying to get to the airport in Tegucigalpa to protect him.  Kirschner of Argentinia and Correa of Ecuador allegedly will accompany him, and perhaps other Latin American presidents as well.  Are they safe?  I don't think so.

I'm not going to speculate, it just looks very ominous to me.  Troops have been deployed all day Saturday to block the Zelaya supporter from reaching the airport. 

Surely Kirschner and Correa will travel with security personnel.  What happens when it appears that these Presidents are threatened?  Damn.

¡Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada!  Probably the best translation is "That black boy who knows nothing about anything."  But you can decide for yourselves in the "Update" at this link.

Insults slung to El Salvador and Spanish Premier Zapatero also.  Sheesh, it's psudo-Honduras againis the world.  What the hell are they planning?

Yep, at last night at 10:00 pm, at a pro-coup rally in Tegucigalpa, Coup leader Micheletti beat OAS to the punch...he quit OAS.  Miami Herald:

TEGUCIGALPA -- The newly installed Honduran government withdrew from the Organization of American States Friday night, after a tense visit from the hemisphere's top diplomat who urged the return of the nation's deposed leader.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza visited Honduras Friday on a mission to convince members of the Supreme Court and other civic leaders to allow the return of President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a pre-dawn raid Sunday.

Rebuffed at every turn, Insulza announced that "conditions did not exist'' for Zelaya's return and that his toppling was a coup d'etat.

Hours later, acting President Roberto Micheletti and vice chancellor Martha Lorena de Casco announced Honduras planned to withdraw from the region's key diplomatic organization. The move preempts an OAS General Assembly meeting scheduled for Saturday, where Honduras was widely expected to be suspended from the group for overthrowing a democratically elected leader.

The Herald article goes on with some very fresh hard information about the coup.  Honduran Army attorney Col. Inestroza fesses up that the Army made the call to kidnap and deport Zelaya, and broke the law when they did it.  

''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.''

The 'justification' is:

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, Inestroza said.

''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.''

There's been a lot of debate on the Internet about whether or not the Honduras Constitution provided impeachment or other forms of legal prosecution for presidential crimes, so this pretty much points in the direction that there were legal options short or deportation.

Since Honduras had no Vice President at the time of the coup, Speaker of the House Roberto Micheletti became the interim President.  Vice President Elvin Ernesto Santos had resigned in December of 2008 because he had won the Liberal Party's nomination to run for President in the November 2009 general election.  Roberto Micheletti also ran for the Liberal Party nomination, but was defeated by Santos.  President Zelaya is also a memer of the Liberal Party of Honduras.

A wrinkle.  Last November Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri was elected Mayor of Honduras' second largest city, San Pedro Sula, with 63% of the vote.  One opponent, William Hall Micheletti, lost with 16% of the vote.  William Hall Micheletti is Roberto Micheletti's nephew.

On July 2 the military moved against anti-coup demonstrators near San Pedro Sula's City Hall.  50 people were reportedly arrested.  No one has seen Mayor Padilla since.  Apparently on order of "President" Micheletti, William Hall Micheletti is now Mayor of San Pedro Sula.  Other rumors say that Sula has been detained, and still others say he was "removed from office."

There does seem to be a purge going on in Honduras.  Arrests, detainments, resignations, expatriations.  Probably it's time to start making a shopping list.

This is classic, right out of the eighties.  Edgardo Dumas, Honduran publisher and member of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), was interviewed by W Radio in Bogota.  Here is the transcript, translated into English.

Dumas: Right now, today, July 2, I don't see any limit on freedom of the press. The four newspapers are putting out the impartial and true news... No TV or radio station has been interfered with."

Q. Are you sure that the press is functioning normally today in Honduras?

Dumas: I am absolutely certain... I have no doubt about it.

Q. So the rumors that are coming about censorship aren't true.

Dumas: They are totally and absolutely false.

Q. You are a representative of the IAPA, no?

Dumas: Yes

Q. And as representative of IAPA you support the coup?

Dumas: I don't support a coup because there has been no coup...

Q. The cutting of CNN was a coincidence?

Dumas: There were no cuts... right now the press is working independently without any restriction... That CNN is badly informing, I have no doubt... CNN is broadcasting on the payroll of the dictator of Venezuela Hugo Chavez.

Q. It pains me to ask this question. Should a representative of IAPA, who represents journalists like us, take sides in a situation like this?

Dumas: I'm not taking sides. I'm trying to be the most objective and impartial I can be...

Q. Pardon me. You say CNN is at the service of Chavez, isn't that taking sides?

Dumas: ...It is not informing the world of what is happening in this country

Q. Mr. Dumas. Are you saying that as a representative of the IAPA?

Dumas: I am vice president of the committee of Press Freedom of the IAPA in Honduras.

Q. Is what you are saying, has it been consulted with the IAPA or is it your personal opinion?

Dumas: It's my personal opinion.

Q. A vice president...

Dumas: For three years I've been informing with the IAPA... about freedom of expression in our country...

Q. It's clear. For you there is no repression, there has not been a coup, there is no disinformation, what is happening is of total normality, and it is CNN and the international press that is disinforming?

Dumas: Exactly.

Q. Thank you very much, Mr. Dumas.

What follows on the link are some videos of the army shutting down a radio station moments after the coup.

"Do you think that the November 2009 general elections should include a fourth ballot box in order to make a decision about the creation of a National Constitutional Assembly that would approve a new Constitution?"  Yes or No.

At last we have a comprehensive account of the events in Honduras.  Alberto Vallente Thorensen's Why Zelaya's Action Were Legal,  published today in Counterpunch, provides a step by step analysis of the coup d' etat and its standing viz a viz the Honduran constitution.

The Honduran Supreme Court of Justice, Attorney General, National Congress, Armed Forces and Supreme Electoral Tribunal have all falsely accused Manuel Zelaya of attempting a referendum to extend his term in office.

According to Honduran law, this attempt would be illegal. Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution clearly states that persons, who have served as presidents, cannot be presidential candidates again. The same article also states that public officials who breach this article, as well as those that help them, directly or indirectly, will automatically lose their immunity and are subject to persecution by law. Additionally, articles 374 and 5 of the Honduran Constitution of 1982 (with amendments of 2005), clearly state that: "it is not possible to reform the Constitution regarding matters about the form of government, presidential periods, re-election and Honduran territory", and that "reforms to article 374 of this Constitution are not subject to referendum."

Nevertheless, this is far from what President Zelaya attempted to do in Honduras the past Sunday and which the Honduran political/military elites disliked so much. President Zelaya intended to perform a non-binding public consultation, about the conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly. To do this, he invoked article 5 of the Honduran "Civil Participation Act" of 2006. According to this act, all public functionaries can perform non-binding public consultations to inquire what the population thinks about policy measures. This act was approved by the National Congress and it was not contested by the Supreme Court of Justice, when it was published in the Official Paper of 2006. That is, until the president of the republic employed it in a manner that was not amicable to the interests of the members of these institutions.

Thorensen goes on to note that the constitution is silent on the subject of "conformation of a Constituent Assembly" so there's no illegality there applicable to the president.

Recalling these observations, we can once again take a look at the widespread assumption that Zelaya was ousted as president after he tried to carry out a non-binding referendum to extend his term in office.

The poll was certainly non-binding, and therefore also not subject to prohibition. However it was not a referendum, as such public consultations are generally understood. Even if it had been, the objective was not to extend Zelaya's term in office. In this sense, it is important to point out that Zelaya's term concludes in January 2010. In line with article 239 of the Honduran Constitution of 1982, Zelaya is not participating in the presidential elections of November 2009, meaning that he could have not been reelected. Moreover, it is completely uncertain what the probable National Constituent Assembly would have suggested concerning matters of presidential periods and re-elections. These suggestions would have to be approved by all Hondurans and this would have happened at a time when Zelaya would have concluded his term. Likewise, even if the Honduran public had decided that earlier presidents could become presidential candidates again, this disposition would form a part of a completely new constitution. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as an amendment to the 1982 Constitution and it would not be in violation of articles 5, 239 and 374. The National Constituent Assembly, with a mandate from the people, would derogate the previous constitution before approving the new one. The people, not president Zelaya, who by that time would be ex-president Zelaya, would decide.

There you go...President Mel couldn't have been trying to extend his terms, as so many seem to believe.  No Chavesque conspiraciy here.

Thorensen also has the kicker: If the charges against Zelaya had any merit, 

they could have followed a legal procedure sheltered in article 205 nr. 22 of the 1982 Constitution, which states that public officials that are suspected to violate the law are subject to impeachment by the National Congress.

Isn't it obvious that because there were existing legal remedies other than kidnapping a president in his pajamas and sending him into exile that the coup is not on the up and up?  And why the news blackout?  The "everything was proper and legal" agument makes no sense whatsoever.