Honduras deal thrown into doubt

Al Jazeera - Honduras deal thrown into doubt

A deal to end the political standoff in Honduras has been thrown into doubt after a negotiator for the de facto government suggested that Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, will not be returned to power.

The comments by Arturo Corrales prompted confusion on Saturday as it had been thought Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, Honduras's de facto leader, had reached a deal.

The two sides have been at odds for four months over whether Zelaya should be reinstated before presidential elections due to be held in November.

It was thought that through the deal Zelaya could be returned to power before elections on November 29, if the measure won support from congress and the supreme court.a

But Corrales said that since congress would not be in session before the elections, Zelaya would not be confirmed in office.

"The congress is not in session, and I understand that it is programmed to return after the elections, because each one of the representatives is, at this very moment, in their respective districts campaigning around the clock," he said.

Andres Conteris, a reporter for the US-based public television and radio show Democracy Now, who has been holed up with Zelaya in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital, said the remarks by Corrales went against the agreement.

"This is absolutely a contravention of both the spirit and the word of the accord that was signed today," he told Al Jazeera by phone from the embassy in Tegucigalpa.

"For the negotiator of the coup regime to say that the legislature is not going to meet until after the election is a contravention because the accord specifically states that no later than November 5, the new constitutional authority of the unified government will be empowered as the new government of Honduras."

Great interview from Adrienne Pine on Honduras -
(It goes black for a few seconds in the beginning but the video comes back)


Honduras: Briefing with COFADEH leader Bertha Oliva, 11/5 @ 11 AM, Cannon 201
Briefing with Bertha Oliva, General Coordinator of COFADEH,
Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras

Thursday, November 5, 2009
11 AM
Cannon 201
Bertha Oliva is the General Coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras (COFADEH). Bertha's husband, professor Thomas Nativí was "disappeared" in 1981, during the period when the death squads were active under Honduras' military dictatorship. She founded COFADEH together with other women who lost their loved ones, in order to keep alive the memory of the hundreds of dissidents that were "disappeared" between 1979 and 1989 and seek justice and compensation for their families. Among other achievements, her organization succeeded in obtaining a condemnation of Honduras by the Inter American Court for Human Rights, the first such ruling against a state in the institution's history.

Bertha has since become an emblematic figure in the Central American human rights movement. In addition to the issue of the disappearances, her organization represents victims of severe rights violations, educates the general public on human rights issues, and investigates and helps prepare legal documentation for cases. COFADEH has been keeping careful track of the massive rights violations that have taken place under the coup regime that took power in Honduras on June 28, 2009 and has just finished a detailed report on the current human rights situation.

HondurasResists: The negotiation is in the streets: A day of resistance and repression

Running away from tear gas clouds behind them several people carry a woman in shock around a corner to a water spigot someone has found. Her bright yellow shirt is soaked in a mix of sweat, tear gas and water. People gather around her wiping her down and washing out her eyes and their own. Suddenly we hear more shots and the footsteps of the elite cobra commando unit of the Honduran police. As we flee to the top of a hill we run into another human rights observer who reports that several people have been badly beaten and are in the hospital. We find our way to where the resistance has re-grouped in front of the Marriott hotel. A van pulls up with food for the resistance and people form lines to get some tortillas and cheese. As people begin to sit down and eat four large army trucks arrive, slowly driving through the crowd as cobras pour out the back and put on their gas masks. An older woman with an apron on is yelling at them, “why don't you just kill me now?” Without any warning the cobras and army, now several rows deep, begin advancing on the crowd. Within moments and without provocation tear gas is flying in the air and the army and police are chasing after people with batons swinging.

Moments before all this started we were marching under the sun to colorful rhythms of a high school marching band. Not far away, a mother and her small child walked hand-in-hand with smiles so big the sun reflected off their teeth. A couple of people had stopped to buy ice cream from a vendor. An older woman with her whole family were waiting in the shade for the march to continue forward.

The march started with thousands of people gathering early in the morning at the national pedagogical university, preparing to openly defy the de facto government's prohibition of marches and take the streets to demand the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya and a constitutional assembly to re-found the country from below. When we asked the police to speak to the person in charge in order to announce the presence of human rights observers, an officer said, “here the military is in charge, talk to him, over there” and pointed out a military commander at the back of the thick line of authorities. Here in Honduras, the military is in charge.

“The true negotiation is in the streets. When they throw tear gas bombs at us, that is a negotiation. When we march, that is a negotiation. When they beat us, that is a negotiation. The fight in the streets is the real negotiation, not what happens in the talks between the official delegations. We are completely clear that only the people will save the people,” Garífuna leader Alfredo Lopez later told us, just a few hours before de facto Honduran president Roberto Micheletti would for the first time announce a willingness to allow Zelaya's return to power.

On the 124^th day in a row of resistance to the coup d'etat in Honduras, the first demand of the resistance – the restitution of the democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya – appears within reach. Since the military kidnapped him on June 28^th, at least 26 members of the non-violent resistance have been killed. Over 4,000 have been detained. Women have been assaulted and gang raped by police and army officers. Teachers have disappeared only to show up in a morgue or with their body cut all over. This repression has done little more than strengthen the will and deepen the commitment of the resistance. The demand for a new constitutional assembly and the re-founding of the country in the name of participatory democracy and human rights has become universal.

As indigenous leader Berta Cáceres told us, “Honduras used to only be known for its role as a U.S. base hosting the contra operations or as the place struck by hurricane Mitch. Now it is known for the dignity of its people. We have come too far to ever turn back and this struggle is just beginning.”

Reports of agreement deal are premature

Honduras Oye - What Deal? The Fat Lady has Many Sisters
Great analysis of the many problems with the current deal:
Here are some excerpts -

The Honduran military kidnapped the president and forcibly exiled him to Costa Rica. Then, it put a wall of armor between the golpistas and the people of Honduras. The military defended its coup through gross human rights abuses, including murders and disappearances and maintains a massive presence throughout the entire country four months after the coup. If the military, at any point, had laid down their guns, this coup would have fallen in three days.The agreement produced late Thursday nite, appears to have five basic components: formation of a “unity” government, recognition of the November 29 election, no amnesty, verification committee to make sure the agreement is implemented, and a truth commission.

The agreement calls for a “unity” government and one can expect Zelaya to be boxed in very tightly. The only unity in this government will be among the golpistas on how best to keep Zelaya’s hands tied.

As for recognizing the November 29 election, you could not put a bigger dagger in the heart of the people of Honduras. For all intents and purposes, this will be a golpista election. And, as was the case in Haiti, the people of Honduras will boycott it massively. In the agreement, the international community is being asked to guarantee that it will recognize the result of the election before it even takes place. Regardless of who wins in the election, the winner will carry the banner for the golpistas and the de facto regime’s power grab will be legitimized.

Al Giordano - Reports of deal are premature

Reuters reports that coup “president” Micheletti has agreed to step down:

”I have authorized my negotiating team to sign a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the country’s political situation,” Micheletti told reporters on Thursday night.

He said Zelaya could return to office after a vote in Congress that would be authorized by the country’s Supreme Court. The deal would also require both sides to recognize the result of a Nov. 29 presidential election and would transfer control of the army to the top electoral court.

If approved by Congress, Zelaya would be able to finish out his presidential term, which ends in January. It was not clear what would happen to other elements of the agreement if Congress votes against Zelaya’s restoration.

Micheletti’s claim that a Congressional vote to restore Zelaya would require Supreme Court authorization is a flat out lie, according to a source with Zelaya inside his Brazilian Embassy refuge in Tegucigalpa: “That is what the golpistas have put out, but that is NOT the accord… The Supreme Court gives its non-binding opinion to the Congress, but the key is that all of this takes time, time that the golpistas want to keep taking.”

This is likely a move by the golpistas to gain support from the international community to hold fraudulent elections. There is no way free and fair elections can take place in less than a month after over 100 days of oppression, censorship and intimidation. That is IF they even restore Zelaya to full power in a reasonable time frame. Its likely to be drawn out by the Supreme Court and Congress and pushed up right to the November elections.

El Libertador - Military requests names and phone numbers for anyone involved the resistance movement
Military chief of communications Carlos Roberto Rivera Cardona has requested all mayors submit the names and phone numbers of leaders involved in the resistance movement against the coup. While the armed forces are denying such requests, El Libertador published an actual copy:

Coup Updates

Honduran Embassy - Micheletti calls for an end of negotiation
With three U.S. diplomats expected to arrive in coup-torn Honduras, interim President Roberto Micheletti said Tuesday that negotiations on ending a four-month political crisis must wait until after Nov. 29 elections.

COFADEH reports increased human rights violations
21 assasinated, four of whom are teachers; 4,234 denunciations of violations of human rights, and 114 citizens accused of sedition.

Foreign Policy in Focus - Coup's Impact on Honduran Women
Salvador Zuniga, of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), believes the June coup was prompted in part by a socially conservative religious reaction to feminist organizing around reproductive rights. "What I can say is that the feminist compañeras (companions or comrades) are in greater danger than any other organization," he says.

A young mother named Irma Villanueva made her own story public in mid-August. She told Radio Progreso how she had been arrested at a recent demonstration and then raped by four policemen. One of the rapists implied they were punishing Villanueva for her political activity: "[N]ow you're going to see what happens to you for being where you shouldn't be."

Villanueva is not alone. Honduran Feminists in Resistance, a group formed immediately after the coup, reported to the Latin American Herald Tribune on September 3 that they had documented 19 cases of rape committed by Honduran police. Honduran feminists believe that this number is probably conservative.

NACLA Report on the Americas - Honduran Coup Regime and Landowning Elites Enlist the Support of Foreign Paramilitaries
A United Nations human rights panel issued a warning concerning the presence of contracted foreign paramilitary forces operating inside the troubled country. According to the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, an estimated 40 members of the infamous United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) have been hired by wealthy Honduran landowners to defend themselves "from further violence between supporters of the de facto government and those of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya."

As Zelaya's Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas notes, it is widely believed that these mercenaries are being used to "do the dirty jobs that the armed forces refuse to do." In addition, the panel established direct links between President Roberto Micheletti's coup-installed government and foreign paramilitaries, stating that an additional group of 120 hired soldiers from several countries throughout the region had been created to provide support for the coup regime. This report confirms allegations made by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo back in September.

Noting that Honduras is a signatory to the international convention against the use of mercenaries, the panel, comprised of a diverse array of security and human rights experts, expressed its deep concern and called upon the Honduran golpistas to take action against the use of paramilitaries inside Honduran territory.

The AUC, essentially an umbrella organization of various right-wing death squads, many of which also collaborate with Colombian drug traffickers, is one of the region's most notorious paramilitary organizations and is classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

The AUC has also been directly and indirectly linked to numerous powerful elites and business interests in Colombia, including many close to President Álvaro Uribe's administration, and is said to operate "parallel" to the Colombian military. Accordingly, the linkages connecting the Honduran military regime, powerful members of the country's landed elite, and right-wing Colombian paramilitaries are extremely troubling but not altogether surprising.

Back on July 4, before any evidence of direct collaboration with Colombian narco-terrorists had emerged, journalist Al Giordano noted that the Honduran regime was in the process of making itself into a "rogue narco-state," shutting itself off from the international community while allying with the most shadowy and reactionary sectors of the Latin American right. Among its prominent supporters have been Rafael Hernández Nodarse, a millionaire arms trafficker with ties to Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and Otto Reich, a Washington super-hawk who played a prominent role in Iran-Contra affair. All these parties share an agenda of preserving unjust wealth and resource distributions while waging total war against social democracy using any means necessary. Honduras merely represents the most recent arena in which this war is being waged.

The right's problem with Zelaya has never been that he tried to reform his country's deeply flawed constitution ("the worst in the world," according to Costa Rican President Óscar Arias), but because, according to Micheletti himself, he "became friends with Daniel Ortega, Chávez, Correa, Evo Morales. ... He went to the left." In other words, Micheletti is using the same tactics of "guilt by association" that his AUC allies use to justify their violence, only this time the "guilt" consists of association with other popular, democratically elected heads of state in the region. Nevertheless, the message and the effect are still the same: If you oppose us, and what we stand for, we will take you down with force.

116 Days of Resistance

OAS meeting this morning at 10:30AM to discuss Honduras. You can watch it live here.

Friday, October 23: At 10:00AM, popular candidates will gather at an auditorium at COLPROSUMAH to make a decision about participation in the upcoming fraudulent elections.

State Dept Briefing - Several people from the Honduran electoral tribunal are going to be in town this week. Most likely looking into ways to pull off an illegal/illegitimate election

Embassy of Honduras - Major Honduran political party - Unificación Democrática - has resigned from the November elections.

HablaHonduras - Police assassinate Professor EUCEBIO FERNÁNDEZ SUAREZ a local COLPROSUMAH director who was active in the resistance movement.

10/20 - Honduran Coup Updates

PressTV - OAS Probes Human Rights Abuses
The Organization of American States has sent a delegation to Honduras to investigate possible human rights violations after the recent military coup in the country. The delegation that arrived in Honduras would meet with top officials of interim leader Roberto Micheletti's administration and those opposing the coup. Officials from Micheletti's administration say two people have lost their lives during the demonstrations However, the Committee for Missing Prisoners in Honduras puts the number of those killed at 12, while Human Rights Defense Committee president Andres Pavon said that another 25 people were wounded during the protests.

Latin American leaders in a Saturday statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA) urged the international community to reject the presidential election planned by the Honduran interim government next month. "No electoral process held under the coup-installed government, or the authorities that emerge from it, can be recognized by the international community," the statement said.

Bloomberg - Zelaya Backers Vow More Protests on Acting Government
Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya vowed to step up pressure on the acting government for his restoration after burying a union leader who died from gunshot wounds sustained at a weekend protest. “We’ve lost another comrade, we feel indignant, impotent, but above all this reaffirms our struggle,” said Juan Barahona, who served as a negotiator for Zelaya in talks to end the crisis, in an interview today at a cemetery north of Tegucigalpa where union leader Jairo Sanchez was buried.

Talks to end the Honduran political crisis, triggered by the June 28 ouster of Zelaya, remain deadlocked over what government branch should decide on whether Zelaya is restored to power.

10/19 Update - Honduran Coup

Update: Pictures from the protest in front of Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates at bottom of post

Protest against paid DC backers of Honduras coup Monday Oct 19
*Meet us there, I'll post pics later today

Where?
In front of the offices of Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates
1850 M Street NW, Washington, DC
Closest Metro Station: Dupont (Dupont South Exit)

When?
Monday, October 19, 2009, 12.30 - 1.30 PM

Honduras Oye – President of Union of INFOP Workers Jairo Sanchez shot by the police at an anti-coup protest on September 23; he remained in critical condition until his death this past Saturday. (Thanks for the clarification Nell)

-detailed account from Dick Emanuelsson with photos by Mirian Huezo Emanuelsson here.

ALBA Imposes Sanctions on Coup Regime (In Spanish)

Human Rights Watch - HRW calls on coup regime to stop blocking human rights inquiries

The international community should strongly back the efforts of prosecutors in the human rights unit of the Honduras Attorney General’s office to investigate army and police abuses in Honduras and to overturn a decree by the de facto government that severely restricts freedoms of speech and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. The organization also called on the international community to oppose any amnesty for human rights violations as part of the transition back to democratic rule.

Fantastic Al-Jazeera videos on the crisis, amazingly well done. Kudos to Avi Lewis for putting together such a compelling and comprehensive piece on the coup:

FAULTLINES – AL JAZEERA: PART 1 – THE HONDURAN RESISTANCE

FAULTLINES – AL JAZERRA: PART 2 – THE HONDURAN POLITICAL ELITE

Pictures from the protest in front of Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates:

10/14 - Honduran Coup Update

Reuters - Honduran abuses rampant after coup
Suspicious deaths. Beatings. Random police shootings. Life under the de facto government of Honduras at times feels uncannily like Latin America's dark past of military rule. International and Honduran human rights groups say security forces have committed a litany of abuses. They link at least 10 deaths to de facto rule under Roberto Micheletti.

Amnesty International said in September that Honduras risks spiraling into a state of lawlessness where police and military act with no regard for rights. Honduran human rights group Cofadeh said it had numerous reports of police firing guns in poor areas of Tegucigalpa.


The Mark - Justifications for the removal of the Honduran president ignore one crucial fact: there’s no such thing as a constitutional coup.
Make no mistake: what happened was a coup. It doesn’t matter that the military acted on a court order – courts were complicit with the coup in Chile in 1973. It doesn’t matter that the architects and beneficiaries were civilians, as was the case in Ecuador in 2000, or that the coup itself was a relatively gentile affair by historical standards. It doesn’t matter that the president has occasionally behaved idiotically.

What does matter is that nothing the president did justifies his removal by force without due process. It matters that Zelaya was sent into exile rather than arrested and brought before a judge, and that the de facto regime has not proven in a court of law that the president broke the law. (What is more, he did not break the law: at no time did Zelaya propose to change the re-election rule, nor could he have done so before leaving office.) And it matters that the actions of Micheletti and his cronies violated the letter and the spirit of the law and were also inconsistent with basic principles inherent in all constitutions.

Honduras Update

Adrienne Pine - Highly armed sharpshooters installed outside the embassy
Platforms with highly armed sharpshooters installed outside the embassy, using telescopic and infrared targeting systems, just meters away from the windows of the building where the president, his family, and many others are held hostage by the regime.
Belén Fernández - Surveillance Camera Footage of Honduras Coup Invasion of Channel 36
National Police enter through the television network's underground parking lot and then up the stairs at 5:20 a.m. when the station is empty. They bring in men wearing masks and bulletproof vests stamped "Policia Nacional" to disconnect the TV station's broadcasting equipment, who then start removing it, piece by piece, from the premises. The police also bring their own videographer, so the regime presumably has its own archive of what exact equipment it stole!

Masked men of the coup regime rifle through the equipment in another studio from the same Channel 36. At points you can see the National Police video cameraman in view of the surveillance camera. And then you can see them carrying it all down the stairs and out the door, an hour and 40 minutes later, at 6:58 a.m.

There's your Honduran "civilian coup" regime's version of "democracy" and "freedom" at work.


Adrienne Pine - Presidential Decree Bans All Non-Coup Media

Executive Agreement Number 124-2009

The Constitutional President of the Republic

Considering: That the human person is the supreme end of society, the state, and all have the obligation to respect, protect, and conform to article 62 of our Constitution, the rights of every person are limited by the rights of the others, for the security of all, and for the just demands of the general good and the developing democracy.

CONSIDERING: That the President of the Republic in Council of Ministers has confirmed, through communications from defense and State security organs and other entities, the deterioration we have come to have, the effects on legally protected property, by social communications media systematically denaturing the objective of democratic rule of law and creating a regimen of social anarchy fomenting vandalism to the point that it threatens social peace and the security of the State, and incalcuably affecting the national economy.

Considering: That it is an urgent necessity to preserve the public order and peace in all the national territory, to guarantee life and the well being of all people residing in the national territory, with the ultimate end, guaranteed by our constitution of the Republic, and with the democratic system, fundamental pillar of our society.

Considering: That it corresponds to the State to guarantee liberty of though and expression, but when the communications media attempt against the national security, the public order, the health, or the public morals, it makes it imperative to execute regulations founded in the existing legislation in conformity with the INTERAMERICAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS.

Wherefore
The constitutional President of the republic, in conformance with the articles 245 points 7 and 16, 248 and 252 of the constitution of the Republic, articles 11, 17, 18, 20, 22 number 10, 24, 116, and 117 of the General Law of Public Administration and the rest that the constitution and the laws confer.

Agree
Article 1: Declare, for reasons of national security and in application of the commands in Article 28 of the case law of the Telecommunications sector, specifically that referring to the use of the radio spectrum in the national territory, apply the measures which in law correspond to those that infringe the law.

Article 2: Instruct for legal effects corresponding to the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) and other competent organs of the state, that they proceed in conformity with their laws, to protect the national security in the function of the larger interests of the country, the good, the physical and moral integrity of humans. The state, as owner of the radio spectrum can revoke or cancel the use of approved titles (licenses and permissions) authorized by CONATEL to operators of broadcast speech and television that emit messages that generate national abhorrence, pretend to be protected speech, and also call for a regimen of social anarchy against the democratic state that attempts against the social peace and human rights.

Article 3: Remit to the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL), the communications contained, the reports emitted by the defense and security forces and other parts of the government for its fulfillment.

Article 4: The present accord is executed immediately and should be published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.

Given in the city of Tegucigalpa, municipality of the Central District the 5th of October of 2009.

Communicate and Publish this.

Robert Micheletti
Constitutional President of the Republic
Oscar Raul Matute Cruz
Secretary of State

10/10/09 Honduras Update

CNN- Use of mercenaries in Honduras on the rise according to U.N.
A group of independent U.N. experts expressed concern Friday over the increased use of mercenaries in Honduras, where a de facto president has been in power since a military-led coup in June. The U.N. panel said it received reports that 40 former Colombian paramilitaries had been hired to protect properties and individuals in Honduras since the June 28 coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The experts noted that the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries is prohibited under the International Convention on the issue, which Honduras has signed.

HondurasResists - Army Raids Garifuna Hospital
On October 7th at 6am three army patrols broke down the doors and stormed the first Garifuna hospital in Honduras, located on the Atlantic Coast.

10/7/09 - Live Blog Honduran Coup

Via Al Giordano - Poll: Wide Majority of Hondurans Oppose Coup d’Etat, Want Zelaya Back
A legally certified Honduran polling company – provides a clear measurement of how the Honduran people view the June 28 coup d'etat. Some of the most interesting numbers:
Hondurans widely (by a margin of 2.3 to 1) oppose the coup, oppose coup “president” Micheletti by a margin of 3 to 1 and favor the reinstatement of their elected President Manuel Zelaya by a clear majority of 3 to 2.

Are you in favor of the June 28 coup d’etat against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales?
In favor of coup: 17.4 percent
Opposed to coup: 52.7 percent
No response: 29.9 percent

Should Micheletti stay in power or leave the current government? Micheletti should stay: 22.2 percent
Micheletti should leave: 60.1 percent
No response: 17.7 percent

Do you agree with the repression or condemn the repression that the Armed Forces and National Police have engaged in against the National Resistance?
Against repression: 65.4 percent
For repression: 8 percent
No response: 26.4 percent

Two Members of the Honduran Resistance Murdered - The Honduran resistance and human rights organizations have condemned the murder of teacher Mario Contreras, vice principal of the Abelardo Fortín Institute, and Lenca leader Antonio Leiva, two members of the resistance allegedly killed by hired assassins. According to a preliminary report from the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH), Contreras was shot twice in the face 100m from his home by two unknown men on a motorcycle. He was taken to hospital but died shortly after arriving, Telesur reports.

Another member of the resistance front, Lenca leader Antonio Leiva, was also found dead in Santa Bárbara, in the west of the country. According to sources close to the victim, he was kidnapped in the morning and his body was discovered in the afternoon in a village in the area.

Earth Times - Lula Says Micheletti Should Step Down in Return for Amnesty
Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti should step down immediately in return for an amnesty, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday. “For us the solution will be easy if those that participated in the coup leave power and allow the legitimately elected president to take power,” Lula told journalists at a summit with European Union leaders in Stockholm.

10/6/09 - More Violent Repression in Honduras

Micheletti's thugs beat a pregnant woman and her husband as they leave the hospital.


HondurasResists - 68 mayors and congresspeople gathered at the teachers’ union headquarters to declare they will boycott the elections if Zelaya is not restored to power.

Habla Honduras - Micheletti regime denounced before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Article in Spanish.

Honduran economy at a standstill

Al-Jazeera Report: Anti-coup protesters jailed

Anti-coup protesters jailed for demonstrating

10/1 Live Blog - Honduras Resists

La Prensa - Honduran Supreme Court comes out against Micheletti's decree

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Honduras today asked president Roberto Micheletti to cancel the decree that suspended constitutional rights because it harms the electoral process scheduled for November... and thus joined in similar demands made by Congress, presidential candidates and other sectors...

Micheletti said... that he would agree to analyze the request and insisted that the decree will be "cancelled in the opportune moment."

However, he said that he would continue to consult on the matter with the Supreme Court and other State organisms with the goal of making a "consensus" decision.

Al Giordano has a great analysis of this news on his blog HERE

"On Sunday, Micheletti announced the authoritarian decree without having the aforementioned "consensus" of key coup players. Some seemed as surprised as the general public to find out about it. The decree already does not have any "consensus" even among the limited power players between whom the coup was negotiated and implemented. Now he is saying he needs "consensus" to remove it. What does this tell us? It reveals that Micheletti himself isn't calling the shots here. He specifically mentions the Supreme Court, and his reference to "State organisms" most likely means the Armed Forces: the two real kingpins of the coup, for whom Micheletti is a mere marionette. In typical style, he fools gullible reporters to repeat claims that he has already backed off the decree, while this morning military and police troops continued attacks on peaceful demonstrators that have maintained government agricultural offices occupied for three months now. Clearly, the real powers behind the decree - the Supreme Court and the military - want to make sure it meets its main goals before having to call it off." -Al Giordano

El Libertador - Radio Globo continues to transmit from a clandestine location inside Honduras. Transmission available HERE


El Libertador : "We overthrew Zelaya for being a progressive." -Micheletti

Protest of Silence: University students and other members of the Frente Nacional Contra el Golpe de Estado in San Pedro Sula are calling for a “silent protest” Today in response to the closing of Radio Globo and Canal 36. The event will take place at the Froilan Turcios Plaza at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH) in San Pedro Sula.

AP - Brazilian Delegates Visit Honduran Embassy
Brazilian delegate criticized Honduras' coup-installed government for attacking his country's embassy with toxic gas and said Brazil had every right to provide refuge to ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Congressman Ivan Valente, one of six Brazilian lawmakers who planned to visit the embassy Valente said that there was evidence the Embassy building had been subjected to "toxic gas" attacks

Christian Science Monitor - Censored Radio Globo quadruples listeners by going online
Radio Globo director David Romero says the station has over 400,000 listeners online, four times its regular following. "It is frustrating the government," he says, laughing. "They can´t stop us."

Most of the Honduran poor do not have access to the Internet and relied on Radio Globos broadcasts.

Video of protests in front of Radio Globo, military violently breaks up crowd with teargas and batons.