Zelaya still wants to return to Honduras

July 5, 1:58 PMOrlando Republican ExaminerBlas Padrino

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Honduras news flash:

BREAKING NEWS: Zelaya's plane, provided courtesy of Hugo Chavez, unable to land in Honduras. Honduran military vehicles are blocking the runways. Now he's asking U.S. President Obama to put him back in power. Zelaya's plane lands in Managua, Nicaragua. Honduras' Director of Civil Aviation, Alfredo San Martin, told a radio broadcast that the plane carrying ex-President Manuel Zelaya is headed to El Salvador and will not land in Honduras. The deposed President's decision is a victory for the new government headed by President Roberto Micheletti. Zelaya is flying in a small Venezuelan jet owned by Hugo Chavez's run CITGO oil company. Two persons believed dead and 30 injured in confrontations between pro-Zelaya demonstrators who tried to break through into the airport, and law enforcement personnel.

The situation in Honduras continues to develop at a rapid pace, as the new government resigns from membership in the Organization of American States and the OAS, in turn, rejects the resignation and suspends the country from membership. Here are the latest developments in the Honduran crisis:

• 1- Ex-President Manuel Zelaya insists that he will return to Honduras around noon today. He asks his supporters to go to the airport at Honduras’ capital of Tegucigalpa to receive him.
• 2- Several countries, however, have asked Mr. Zelaya not to attempt to go back to Honduras at this time. The governments of Costa Rica, Paraguay, Jamaica, Canada and the United States expressed opposition to Zelaya’s trip because of the danger of bloodshed.
• 3- By the same token, the OAS declared that no Latin American president will accompany Zelaya back to Honduras. Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez, who had expressed her willingness to accompany Zelaya earlier in the week, stated yesterday that she would not be part of any international escorting party. Given his own misgivings, it is unlikely that OAS head Jose Miguel Insulza will form part of Zelaya’s party. Last minute flash: Zelaya said about an hour ago that he will fly to Honduras accompanied by United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto. The current U.N. General Assembly President is a former Foreign Relations Minister under the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Another plane carrying the Argentinean, Ecuadorean and Paraguayan presidents will fly to El Salvador and wait there for the outcome of Mr. Zelaya’s attempted entry.
• 4- For its part, President Roberto Micheletti has ordered the Honduran military to prevent any airplane carrying Mr. Zelaya, or any other unidentified plane from landing in Honduras. Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez said that the determination to prevent the plane from landing was a prudent measure. “We don’t want to run the risk of having a bloodbath, that the blood of one Honduran citizen be spilled, especially that of a former President.” All commercial flights to Honduras are suspended and the police has installed checkpoints on the roads leading to the airport. Military units are present at the terminal.
• 5- Honduras’ Catholic Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Madariaga and Honduras’ Human Rights Commission have also asked Zelaya to desist from his attempt to return.

(Above right: Honduran President Roberto Micheletti)
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