Zelaya's jet could not land in TegucigalpaHonduras was in turmoil last night as President Manuel Zelaya attempted to return and topple coup leaders who ousted him, prompting deadly clashes between his supporters and security forces.
The president flew from Washington towards home in a high-stakes effort to reclaim power, sparking dramatic scenes at the airport in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, where soldiers and police squared off against thousands of demonstrators.
After the interim government refused Zelaya permission to land and parked military vehicles on the runway, he was forced to divert the plane to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, where it later landed.
The ousted president had appealed to the army to return its allegiance to him "in the name of God, in the name of the people, and in the name of justice", and made an emotional plea to be allowed to "embrace" his people. "Today I feel like I have sufficient spiritual strength, blessed with the blood of Christ, to be able to arrive there and raise the crucifix," he had said as the plane flew to Honduras.
Thousands of supporters had answered Zelaya's call to peacefully march on the airport, but as the flight neared tension soared. Clashes broke out and soldiers opened fire, killing at least one person, the first death in the week-old crisis. At least 30 people were treated for injuries, the Red Cross said, after security forces fired warning shots and tear gas.
When Zelaya's plane was turned away, his supporters began chanting "We want blue helmets!" in a reference to UN peacekeepers.
Karin Antunez, 27, was in tears. "We're scared. We feel sad because these coup soldiers won't let Mel return, but we're not going to back down," she said. "We're the people and we're going to keep marching so that our president comes home."
Moments after Zelaya's plane was turned away, about a dozen trucks filled with police ordered everyone off the streets, imposing a sunrise-to-sunset curfew.
"We should look for an immediate solution," Zelaya told Venezuela's Telesur network. He added that he would try to enter Honduras again today or Tuesday. The interim government said he would immediately be arrested if he crossed the border. Zelaya flew from Washington on a jet provided by his ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, and was accompanied by the UN general assembly president, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a leftwing Nicaraguan.
Separately, several Latin American allies, including Presidents Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay flew to neighbouring El Salvador to monitor Zelaya's attempted return.
Diplomatic pressure was piling on the isolated interim government which took power last week after soldiers seized the president in his pyjamas and bundled him into exile, evoking an era of military overthrows which most thought had passed.
On Saturday the Organisation of American States (OAS) suspended Honduras from the 34-member body, the first such punishment since Cuba's expulsion in 1962. EU countries have withdrawn ambassadors and the World Bank has frozen lending.
The US and Canada had urged Zelaya to delay his return, warning that violence could flare in the deeply polarised central American country. His leftwing allies in Venezuela and Nicaragua said the sooner he was restored to power the better.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy, which has made little secret of its distate for Zelaya, appealed him to stay away to avoid a bloodbath.
The cattle baron-turned-president's supporters, who are mostly poor and working class, said they would demonstrate daily until he was reinstated.
The interim government said if he returned he would be arrested on 18 charges, including corruption and treason. It said the takeover was not a coup but a legal transfer of power and defence of the constitution.
The supreme court, congress and his own Liberal party accuse Zelaya of subverting the constitution and trying to abolish presidential term limits. Zelaya, who alarmed Honduras's institutions by veering left after his election in 2006, said right-wing oligarchs had turned the clock back to an era of military overthrows.
The interim government's attempts to persuade the world that Zelaya's ousting was legal were punctured when the army's top lawyer, Colonel Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, told reporters the overthrow was criminal. It was still justified, he said, because the army could not tolerate a leftwing leader who broke with the country's traditional pro-US stance.
Source: The Guardian
