Return of the King: President Mel is in Honduras
Naw, I don't really think Mel is like Aragorn - maybe a teenie weenie bit.
But he came over the mountains and is not at the United Nations offices. His Foreign Minister, Patricia Rhodas, has confirmed his return. It's a developing story. The US State Department has confirmed, and Brazil reports that Mel in in their embassy.
Bloomberg confirms.
Looks like the golpistas are mounting a major attack on media to muffle any news about the return.
Al Giordano at NarcoNews has a chronological play by play blog going on. You might want to check the TeleSur broadcast for video with Spanish language audio. Right now they are running a FAQ on Honduras.
Stay tuned, and keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't go all violent.
But he came over the mountains and is not at the United Nations offices. His Foreign Minister, Patricia Rhodas, has confirmed his return. It's a developing story. The US State Department has confirmed, and Brazil reports that Mel in in their embassy.
Bloomberg confirms.
"I'm here in the Honduran capital, in the first place carrying out the people's will, which has insisted on my restoration," Zelaya said in a broadcast on Venezuela's government-owned Telesur network. "I'm here to initiate a dialogue."Apparently Bloomberg has edited an earlier version of thier story that quotes Michelleti as saying that Zeleya was still in a hotel room in Nicaruaga and the return story was "media propaganda; terrorism."
Looks like the golpistas are mounting a major attack on media to muffle any news about the return.
Is the de facto regime worried? you be the judge. Cholusat reports being menaced with a takedown. Radio Globo is running on backup power, and Adrienne Pine reports that Radio Progreso cited a military convey sent against them was repelled by citizens mobilizing outside their station. Meanwhile, their website seems to have been hijacked and redirects you to other media, such as HRN, the national (pro-coup) radio network.Thousands of anti-coup activists are converging on the Brazillian embassy in Tegucigalpa. General Romeo Vasquez has said he will not call the military into the streets. La Jornada in Mexico has published the first interview with Zelaya - in Spanish. The golpistas have declared a curfew effective at 4:00 pm, which of course will be ignored. For some strange reason I may have missed, there is no water in Tegucigalpa. I don't know what that is all about. The golpistas are shutting down cell phone service.
And now (2:06 PDT) with Radio Globo streaming over the internet, their website carries a notice that says their "account has been suspended". Oh, how clever the sabotage can be... but we are still listening!
Meanwhile, La Prensa has advised that it cannot update its website, and advises readers to follow its Twitter feed.
El Heraldo is directing readers to Facebook, for its part.
Al Giordano at NarcoNews has a chronological play by play blog going on. You might want to check the TeleSur broadcast for video with Spanish language audio. Right now they are running a FAQ on Honduras.
Stay tuned, and keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't go all violent.
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RUMOR MILL: Roberto Michelleti, coup president, was trying to flee Honduras, but was detained by the military. Alleged source: Radio Globo, Honduras. You can't get on to the Radio Globo web site now to confirm. Wait...you can:
http://radioglobohonduras.com/
Live audio stream in Spanish.
September 21, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michelleti was a fool not to execute Zelaya when he had the chance. The same mistake was made with Chavez in Venezuela. When you depose a commie you kill him, kill his family, and kill all his lieutenants. You don't leave them around to come back after you. Hopefully he will get smart and get rid of this red menace before it's too late.
September 21, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go whine and grovel at Lanny Davis' feet, my friend.
September 21, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jesus! You wingers really are fucking psycho.
September 21, 2009 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, you have a future in the Mafia.
And why would you have to kill them pray tell? Simple, because if you don't they will regain power because they have popular support. The unwashed masses with their pitchforks can't have their way, right?
And you wonder why wingers are taunted by being called fascists? This comment by CB is example #13,579.
September 22, 2009 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like a quote from Stalin.
September 22, 2009 8:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
And I thought vengeance was the Lord's? Oh well, I never thought CB was any kind of a Christian anyway. But maybe he is? If he is, then he's got some 'splaining to do.
September 22, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I am not up much for killing families. But this is one hell of a story. A lot more drama than Law & Order.
NOTHING. I hear nothing about this in MSM or the MSM Web.
Amazing. And I am amazed at how many countries are affected by this.
Again Neo, thank you for covering a rather complicated international story.
September 21, 2009 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Srsly? There's nothing about this on the Teevees?
Our "journalism" sucks ... what, are they doing another hot interview with Orly Taitz? Obama's dog learns to sit? I don't miss TV one bit.
September 21, 2009 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
well figure this--
roy blount who wants to be senator or governor of Missouri was making a joke that everyone has to play the golf ball where ever the monkey throws it. Now which monkey was old roy referring to?
The Prez says the exact same thing on all press shows yesterday.
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
But there has been stuff on Afghanistan.
September 21, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, man, it's incredible. I'm listening to a live broadcast from the gathering in front of the Brazilian embassy right now on KPFA radio. The crowd is going wild. Tegucigalpa is jamed with the anti-coup folks - standing room only. Street dances, celebrations.
http://www.kpfa.org/home
Al Giordano is on now...
September 21, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I figured this was in the works. Almost posted on it over the weekend.
They started laying the PR for it last week. La Tribuna started referring to the establishment as "the coup government", and Tiempo started calling violent protesters "Militistas" ... a major stand-down by both sides. All four presidential candidates met with Arias and endorsed his plan last Thursday (I think). There were only a couple of possible end games. I am sort of surprised they didn't do the agreement first.
I think the event that created this possibility was the establishment of the national budget. The constitution calls for it to be produced by Sept 15 which was last Tuesday. Zelaya's refusal to do this for 2009 kept the government from being funded until July 22nd. this year - an interesting part of the puzzle I didn't realize until last week. They also finalized the election ballots (which technically has nothing to do with the President, but after the whole referendum thing I'll bet there is some correlation). Now there really isn't much to be gained by keeping him out. I was guessing they'd wait until an agreement was signed though.
Hondura's network is totally strained ... can't hardly get pages to come up. I will be surprised if your dreams of the interim government being arrested actually comes true though. Michaletti certainly is not under arrest at the moment and seemingly still has the backing of the military and the police (who appeared with him at a press conference). I'm guessing we'll find this is a face-saving-for-all compromise. Zeleaya get's a meaningless 4 months and his heroes welcome, Honduras gets it's election, Arias keeps his rep, and Obama gets out of political nightmare.
We'll see. I could be wrong. Ortega's saying Zelaya never agreed to the Costa Rican settlement and Michiletti is calling on the Brazilian embassy to present Zelaya to the court - so there is still some shit talking going on. IMO it's all a show at this point. I think both sides know what the final outcome is going to look like.
But I'm happy you are happy!
September 21, 2009 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Happy? That seems to be a strange feeling to have about this. I think it's very exciting - history in the making, and I also think the whole thing is unique and unprecedented.
It's the big "wild card" that holds me back from making predictions such are you make, KGB. My sense is that no one in early July expected the mass mobilization that has subsequently risen. I don't think that the political organizers who crafted the coup resistance movement expected it, and I don't think the golpistas expected it. What we have is a tremendous political inertia set loose in the streets, and even Zelaya, in the final analysis, may be unable to contain it. The trajectory of that inertia is a new constitution and a new government. So I'll hold my bets until that become clearer.
Back to "happy" - I'm sure you can see there also grounds to be terrified at some of the possible scenarios that could rise out of this situation.
September 22, 2009 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have sort of a different view point of this. I've always found Narcosphere et al to be projecting their desires on the situation. If you just look at what the activists highlight, it appears the opposition has overrun the nation, filling every street and byway. That's their function - to use their platform to advance the leftist agenda which means create hype for the movement. But while the leftists rarely (if ever) mentioned the "pro-coup" rallies, there certainly seem to be thousands of average Hondurans who are every bit as fired up to go head to head with Zelaya supporters if it becomes a struggle for control of the country.
I think the government likely planned on the protests and rallies - Hondurans seem to strike and block roads in protest with some regularity under normal circumstances. I think their point of miscalculation is that they did not expect the international community to reduce the analysis of the legal situation to only the 4 hour period of Zelaya's removal.
But to the current situation, I don't know. If there is violence it could well be viewed as Zelaya's fault. It's kind of sketchy, but it seems many pieces were in place to bring this to a close and this week was going to be an action week. But it also seems that the script called for an agreement and return under calm conditions. It is starting to look like Zelaya flipped the script. Brazil is denying they had anything to do with it - that Zelaya showed up at their embassy reportedly via El Salvador in disguise.
Bernard Martinez(PINU-SD presidential candidate) was apparently selected by the other candidates to coordinate getting the final agreement signed. He seems to indicate this shattered all the deal making. Or at least that's how I'm reading this article. If the case turns out to be that Zelaya rewrote a delicate diplomatic balancing act unilaterally, this could turn very, very ugly. It would also seem to indicate that he's specifically killing any deals pretty much on the eve of their signing - I can't imagine much trust would remain that Zelaya will ever accept a peaceful solution. Right now, everyone's making lemonade and saying this will lead to a rapid agreement (hoping that Zelaya actually signs the accord???)
If he really tries to move forward with eliminating the constitution, unless he managed to turn the military, I don't see any outcome but war. If he goes there, that will leave Obama totally stuck with his dick in his hand. We don't need our president losing that kind of political capital right now!
We'll see tomorrow I guess. All the airports are shut down and the national curfew is extended until 6pm tomorrow. The military says they've got a plan to deal with unrest, but they haven't made any statements since the curfew was announced that I've seen. It will be interesting.
September 22, 2009 3:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the link and the analysis, kgb.
Boho, I'm pretty sure all sides realize it's essential to avoid violence.
Certainly the army does. Despite all the rhetoric about this having been a military coup, the armed forces seem to be on the verge of emerging with their role as arbiter of civilian power actually enhanced. No point in jeopardizing that.
Everyone's basic goal right now should be to relegitimize and recognize the coming elections and get Honduras back in U.S. and OAS good graces.
But feeling the wind in his sails, I really don't trust Zelaya not to overplay his hand.
Next few days should be interesting.
September 22, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just a quick update from what I've found in the Honduran MSM (mostly via: Tiempo, El Harldo, La Perinsa, La Tribuna):
-At about 5am police/military clashed with Zelaya supporters and cleared out the area around the Brazilian embassy. There were a few reports of businesses set on fire and looted during the night - and photos showed the military recovering Molotovs from the debris. The police used tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets. Many vehicles were damaged or destroyed (most vehicles parked in front of the embassy, but at least one police vehicle was burned).
-The Brazilian embassy is estimating the Pro-Zelaya crowd to have been around 5000 people.
-There were 200 reported arrests for curfew violations. Individuals are being held temporarily at sports arenas and local jails. Pasadena-based CDHR has issued claims of torture and characterized the detentions as equivalent to Nazi concentration camps.(Note: IMO, it is unlikely at best that (a) any US organization would be able to assert with certainty the actual events that are occurring in the detention facilities within an hour of the arrested arriving, and (b) that a systemic infrastructure for torture has been set up in a local sports complex so quickly. I consider this to be uninformed propaganda geared to be inflammatory that tends to discredit the reporting agency)
-Honduras has cut the phone, water, and electricity to the Brazilian embassy and were bombarding the compound with the Honduran national anthem using what appeared to be a military-grade directed speaker system (like the ones they are trying to use on ships to thwart pirate attacks). It is unclear if this is ongoing.
-Brazil has recalled Francisco Resende, the head of their delegation to Brazil and advised officials not to come in to work. They have requested "if necessary" that the US embassy provide them with diesel for their generator and security.
-Honduras' data networks are strained and access to all sites is spotty.
-There are two emerging (contradictory) stories about Zelaya's return. His speech and some reports imply that he navigated the border from El Salvidor. Other reports indicate that he came in by plane late Sunday night.
-The airport closure has prevented OAS secretary Insulza from entering the country for scheduled negotiations to finalize agreement to the Costa Rican accord(my term) .
-Michaletti has given assurances to Brazil that the sovereignty of their embassy will not be violated. The Honduran government has also made clear statements that if Zelaya steps outside the embassy he will be arrested. Michaletti has also formally requested that Brazil either hand Zelaya over to officers of the court to face charges or to officially grant him asylum.
-Roadblocks have been set up throughout the country and access to the capitol is severely restricted. There is also a security cordon manned by police and military in the area around the Brazilian embassy.
-103 individuals have been admitted to the Emergency Medical Teaching Hospital with injuries, none reported as serious. The hospital reports no gunshot wounds. Zelaya supporters are asserting one, possibly two deaths, the victims have not been named and no medical facility has yet confirmed treating shooting injuries or deaths.
-A coolition of candidates for president has called for dialog and an agreement under the Costa Rican framework. They have offered to initiate discussions with both sides of the conflict with a mind to peaceful resolution. At least one (Lobo) has threatened to withdraw support from Michaletti if dialog is refused.
-Zelaya has issued calls for his supporters to come to the Brazillian embassy to offer him protection. He referred to the actions removing his supporters as "disproportionate".
Those are the highlights I've been able to discover. Since comments are limited to 2 links ... I'll just give a link to a decent index of Honduran news outlets and recommend using google to translate the sites if you want more details.
Neoboho: What's the word from the leftist sources?
September 22, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink