Infidels Paradise

WSJ:

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya Returns to Honduras

By DARCY CROWE

CARACAS — Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya made a surprise return to his country’s capital, moving closer to a showdown with the interim leadership that replaced him after he was ousted at gunpoint almost three months ago.

Mr. Zelaya announced his presence on Monday during an interview with Telesur, a Venezuelan-owned regional news network. Mr. Zelaya had spoken on the phone with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“He traveled for two days, through rivers and mountains and risking his life,” Mr. Chavez said.

Initial news reports placed Mr. Zelaya and his wife in a U.N. building in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, although Mr. Zelaya later confirmed reports he was at the Brazilian embassy.

“I’m here in the Honduran capital,” Mr. Zelaya told Telesur. “I’m here to initiate dialogue,” he added. Television images showed hundreds of Zelaya supporters gathering in front of a U.N. building in Tegucigalpa to celebrate his return, while riot police tried to control the crowd.

Roberto Micheletti, acting Honduran president, meanwhile, denied that Mr. Zelaya had returned to the capital.

Mr. Zelaya was exiled on June 28 after military officers arrested him at his home and flew him out of the country amid a bitter struggle with the national assembly and the judicial branch over his plans to hold a non-binding referendum on eliminating presidential term limits.

“I call on the armed forces of my country to keep their sanity, to make sure there’s no violence,” Mr. Zelaya told a local news network Monday. “I’ve come unarmed,” he said.

Mr. Zelaya’s detractors contend he was following in Chavez’s footsteps, seeking to scrap presidential term limits and remain in power. Honduras’ Supreme Court, legislature, and even members of Mr. Zelaya’s own party came out against his efforts to hold a referendum on changing the country’s constitution.

His ouster provoked widespread international condemnation, including from the White House, which suspended military aid to Honduras.

After being expelled, Mr. Zelaya engaged in a diplomatic campaign, pressing regional leaders to withdraw support for the new government. He later attempted to go to Tegucigalpa aboard a Venezuelan-owned jet, which was blocked from landing when authorities closed the airport.

He followed that with an attempt to enter across the border with Nicaragua, but that failed after the Micheletti administration warned he would be arrested and brought to trial if he entered the country.

The Micheletti administration, however, was facing increased pressure from the White House, which suspended some $30 million in aid and denied visas to officials of the new government.

The U.S. has also threatened to deny support for the outcome of presidential elections slated for November, dashing the interim government’s hopes that the inauguration of a new president would end the country’s diplomatic isolation.

HotAir (and I) want to know: Is the US hiding Zelaya in Honduras?

Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press Writer

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya defied threats of arrest and returned home to Honduras Monday, three months after he was forced into exile at gunpoint.

Seeking safety at the Brazilian Embassy, Zelaya called on his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protest.

“It is the moment of reconciliation,” he said Monday during a televised speech that featured Zelaya’s voice but not his image.

His surprise arrival sparked demonstrations in the streets outside the embassy as supporters, who have protested for months since his ouster, cheered his return.

“We are all happy, because he is the constitutional president of Honduras,” teacher Alfredo Rodriguez Escobar told The Associated Press. Overhead a police helicopter hovered over the growing crowd.

The return sharply and suddenly escalates the country’s political crisis — challenging the government installed by the coup to make good on its promise to arrest Zelaya and making him a polarizing figure for demonstrations — for and against _directly in the country’s capital.

The country’s Congress and Supreme Court, alarmed by Zelaya’s political shift into a close alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, backed Zelaya’s removal, arguing that he violated the constitution, even if many officials say he should have been arrested rather than sent abroad.

Crowds gathered outside the United Nations compound early Monday after Zelaya initially went on television saying he had arrived there, apparently trying to mislead local officials. He later appeared at the Brazilian Embassy.

Zelaya said he had “evaded a thousand obstacles” to return. And 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.”

Zelaya was forced out of the country at gunpoint on June 28. Interim leader Roberto Micheletti has repeatedly said a jail cell awaits Zelaya if he comes back.

Most international leaders — including the United States and the Organization of American States — say they still recognize Zelaya as president and demand he be reinstated.

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

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.”

But Juan Carlos Hidalgo, project coordinator for Latin America at the libertarian Cato Institute, said Zelaya should expect to be jailed.

“If he is back, his options are quite limited, because the moment that his location is discovered or that he publicly comes out of the trees where he’s hiding, he’s going to be arrested for sure,” he said.

More: Hillary’s Honduras Obsession The U.S. is trying to force the country to violate its constitution.

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