Good Summary on Honduras.

This is a surprisingly good video clip from Honduras:

Update 1: UN mobile? Zelaya spoke to the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone, whilst still in the Brazilian Embassy, as the Times reports:

The ousted Honduran president has become the first world leader ever to address the United Nations General Assembly by mobile phone, appealing to the world body to help return hm to power.

Manuel Zelaya made the long-distance speech to the 192-nation body from his refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, where he is surrounded by soldiers and riot police.

Patricia Rodas Baca, his Foreign Minister, surprised delegates by pulling out her mobile phone at the start of her UN address last night.

Flourishing the phone, she gave Mr Zelaya a dramatic introduction. “Our President is under siege by military forces…” she said. “He is being threatened and constanly, every minute, every second, that passes, could be the one that brings the tragic resolution.” “

Update 2: Spanish language sites on the crisis in Honduras, resistencia morazan and honduras resistencia.

Update 3: I forget if I published this link before, but el libertador is a good newspaper in Honduras covering events.

Honduras Goes From Bad To Worse.

Reporters Without Borders has released a statement on the dire situation developing in Honduras:

“Reporters Without Borders said today that the last vestiges of independent news were under threat after the de facto government signed a decree yesterday banning “unauthorised” public meetings and giving itself the power to close media “damaging public order”

“Three months to the day after the 28 June 2009 coup, basic rights and public freedoms are just empty words in Honduras”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

The coup government was trying to justify these steps in response to “calls to insurrection” from ousted leader Manuel Zelaya, who has called on his supporters to “march on the capital”.

“There is nothing now missing from the dictatorial arsenal of a government that took power by force and is deaf to the appeals of the international community”, the organisation said. “What little news there was outside of the control of the Micheletti administration is in danger of disappearing from one moment to the next, after three months of suspensions and constant intimidation of all media critical of the coup.”

The emergency decree, which should theoretically be approved by the Congress, is supposed to last for 45 days, but the organisation fears that the situation will degenerate into further repression and even greater threats to the safety of journalists. The director of Radio Progreso, the priest Ismael Moreno, said yesterday he had received death threats through texts sent to the mobile phones of radio staff, suggesting that a price had been put on his head.”

Update 1: AP has more:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras’ coup-installed government silenced two key dissident broadcasters on Monday just hours after it suspended civil liberties to prevent an uprising by backers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Dozens of soldiers raided the offices of Radio Globo. Officials also shut down Channel 36 television station, leaving it broadcasting only a test pattern.”

Update 2: The Field details the restrictions on basic civil liberties in Honduras and the audacity of the coup leaders as they obstruct the OAS:

“…the Honduran coup regime detained six foreign diplomats from the Organization of American States (OAS) – two US officials, two Canadian, one Colombian and Chilean OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza – for six hours in the Toncontin International Airport, barring their entrance into Honduras, it has made public the following decree, which bans freedom of assembly, transit, the press and orders National Police and the Armed Forces to arrest and detain any person suspected of exercising those rights.”

Update 3: “…before a settlement had been reached.” Apparently some naive US diplomats believed that you could actually negotiate with the coup regime in Honduras, and by doing so reinstate the President, as anything else would be unacceptable.

Yet surely the coup plotter’s actions in attacking the Brazilian Embassy, suspending civil liberties and closing down much of the media gives lie to that notion?

Any negotiations by them were merely a delaying tactic and not genuine. Zelaya was perfectly within his rights to return to his own country and draw out the devious plotters.

US diplomats would be better spending their time criticising those who overthrew Zelaya, not the other way around.

Update 4: Understandably the Brazilian government will not be complying with an ultimatum, according to Reuters:

“PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday his nation would not comply with a demand from Honduras’ de facto government to decide the status of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in 10 days.

Lula, speaking to reporters during a summit in Venezuela, said international law protects Brazil’s embassy, where Zelaya has been staying since returning to Honduras earlier this month. He demanded an apology from Honduras’ de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti.”

Coup Plotters Still Attack Embassy.

Over at the Field there is plenty of evidence that the regime in Honduras is still attacking/has attacked the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Honduras And The Curfew.

A piece on Bloomberg suggests that the cost of keeping up a curfew in Honduras is high:

” Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — Honduras’s nationwide curfew is costing the Central American nation’s economy $50 million a day, said Jesus Canahuati, vice president of the nation’s chapter of the Business Council of Latin America.

The country’s $14.1 billion economy has lost up to $200 million in investment since the military ousted Manuel Zelaya from office on June 28, Canahuati said in a telephone interview today.

“Those are numbers that aren’t sustainable in Honduras,” Canahuati said from San Pedro Sula. “We’re a poor country, and many people won’t eat if there’s no work.” ”

Another article on Reuters looks at Brazil’s role.

Zelaya Made It In.

Manuel Zelaya, the ousted President, has made it back into Honduras and good luck to him.

At the moment he’s stuck in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa surrounded by military forces, which supported the coup d’etat, and they making very hostile noises.

Whether or not the coup plotters will have the courage, or foolhardiness, to storm the Brazilian Embassy remains to be seen, but this twist in events certainly ramps up the tension with clashes between Zelaya’s supporters and the forces of the State.

The Obama regime has come out against the coup d’etat, however, it seems powerless to influence events on the ground, now it is all in the hands of the Honduran people.

Update 1: BBC has more coverage, including a video of police brutality.

Update 2: The Field has a lot more and some real time blogging as events unfold.

Update 3: According to the Field, Brazil has requested an emergency session of the UN Security Council, tomorrow.

Update 4: The Honduran Campesino has some startling pictures.

Update 5: Another blog, Honduras Oye, is providing plenty of coverage, here’s a snippet:

“The more important items from this batch are: A great deal of repression taking place in San Pedro Sula and the house of National Front leader, Israel Salinas, has been heavily damaged; the Supreme Court of Honduras is preparing the legal means to order the invasion of the Brazilian embassy; hundreds of people are being detained at the Futbol Estadio – Chochi Sosa, some with injuries for which they are not receiving medical care; and the offices of the committee of detained and disappeared have been attacked by police with tear gas.”

Update 6: A few more sites and related blog, the National Front against the coup d’etat, El Libertador, Vos El Soberano and Honduras Laboral.

Update 7: The Beeb has another report with a video clip.

Over In Honduras.

Reuters is reporting:

EL PARAISO, Honduras, July 24 (Reuters) – Honduran troops and police tightened the border with Nicaragua on Friday against an attempt by deposed President Manuel Zelaya to enter the country after he was removed in a military coup and sent into exile.

Security forces fired tear gas at dozens of pro-Zelaya supporters trying to reach the border to greet the president near the coffee town of El Paraiso, said Reuters reporter Esteban Israel, who witnessed the scene.

The leftist president, toppled on June 28, has sworn to return to Honduras from northern Nicaragua this weekend but the de facto government that replaced him says he will be arrested if he steps on Honduran soil.

Troops killed a Zelaya supporter at the Tegucigalpa airport in a previous attempt by the president to return to the country earlier this month.