In Honduras, defiance, dire fears

By New York Times  |  July 5, 2009

WASHINGTON - Manuel Zelaya, the ousted Honduran president, vowed to return this afternoon to his country, accompanied by other Latin America leaders, despite a torrent of escalating rhetoric from those who threw him out and an archbishop’s warning of an impending bloodbath.

Attempts to resolve the crisis appeared to fail at a meeting of the Organization of American States yesterday. The regional group received a bleak report from Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, whose whirlwind visit to Honduras on Friday not only did not persuade Honduras’s de facto government to surrender power but also seemed to solidify the coup leaders’ resolve.

It was clear the post-coup government was squaring for a fight. Attempting to outflank the OAS’s plans to suspend Honduras, the interim government - which seized power last Sunday - announced it was quitting.

It was also clear some in the OAS were also prepared to push back. A handful of the region’s presidents, including from Argentina, Ecuador, and Paraguay, were scheduled to arrive here today to accompany Zelaya.

Meanwhile, others in the organization were arguing strongly against the plan, saying that Zelaya’s return would be like “throwing a match into a tinder box.’’

“Everybody needs to back off a minute,’’ said one diplomat, “and allow the OAS to build space for dialogue.’’

There was little sign of openness on the streets of Tegucigalpa. While anti-Zelaya protesters lined up to defend the post-coup government, about 10,000 people answered a videotaped call by Zelaya and turned out at the airport yesterday, vowing to guard him upon his return.

A man with a megaphone shouted at the soldiers: “Are you the armed forces of the people or the armed forces of the bourgeois?’’

In a statement on the radio, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez, said there could be a “bloodbath’’ if Zelaya returns.

With the OAS suspension all but certain, the most pressing matters facing the group were decisions over how to proceed. A senior Obama administration official said yesterday that the United States would probably impose sanctions, starting with humanitarian and military assistance.

The coup reportedly took the US government by surprise. According to the Washington Post, US officials knew for months that Honduras was on the brink of political chaos, but they underestimated how fearful the Honduran elite and the military were of Zelaya and his ally, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

US diplomats had been trying to broker a compromise and were speaking to both sides hours before the coup, the Post reported. For decades Washington has trained the Honduran military, and senior administration officials said they did not believe that the Honduran military would carry out a coup.