Latin American governments and the United Nations have demanded Zelaya be reinstated as President of Honduras, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized him as "reckless" when he took a few steps onto Honduran soil on Friday in a symbolic gesture in front of international media as cameras flashed hoping for that Nobel Prize winning fatal shot and announced blood bath.
Zelaya hit back at Clinton for the second time in two days, complaining she had stopped using the term "coup" to describe his removal. "The position of the Secretary Clinton at the beginning was firm. Now I feel that she's not really denouncing (it) and she's not acting firmly against the repression that Honduras is suffering," he told reporters.
Honduran troops manning checkpoints have prevented several thousand demonstrators from staging a show of support for the leftist leader who has been accompanied by Venezuelan officials at the border since Friday. The Honduran Armed Forces demonstrated professionalism has insured peace and order between the opposition factions, while at the same time preventing the much announced blood bath that Hugo Chavez and Zelaya had encourage through their called for a generalized uprising and insurrection.
Reality of Zelayas support became more obvious at his encampment only Six miles from the border, 100 weary protesters milled around the coffee town of El Paraiso, a far cry from the massive outpouring of public backing Zelaya had called and hoped for.
"We're going to head back to Tegucigalpa where most of the people are," said teacher Lilian Ordonez, wiping away tears. "We have to change our strategy. ... People are angry but we don't have weapons and against a rifle, we can't do anything." This was the same cry heard from the foreign instigators sent from Nicaragua and El Salvador trying to spart the so-called insurrection. Hugo Chavez and Manuel Zelaya realize that only casualties and civilian martyrs will draw world attention to them, once again and the international press will come flocking back.
A couple of hundred Hondurans who managed to reach the border were camped out in Nicaragua with Zelaya, holed up in the town of Ocotal planning his next move. Meanwhile the Nicaragua people were demanding that these foreign insurrectionists leave their country and stop using Nicaragua as their staging ground.
In comments carried live on pro-Zelaya Radio Globo, Zelaya showing his frustration urged mid-level military officers to mutiny against their generals, who he said had betrayed Honduras for money. He encourages the same army who he accuses of staging a coup d'etat, to now help him regain the presidency through mutiny. This only further demonstrates his disregard and the low esteem Zelaya has for the Honduran professional soldier.
Among Zelaya'a other crimes against the Honduran nation, the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court have accused Zelaya of trying to extend presidential term limits in the same way that Hugo Chavez and Manuel Ortega have made themselves president for life. The Honduran constitution prohibits reelection and/or the intent of reelection, and calls for the immediate dismissal of any official attempting that ploy, and excluding that person from holding any public office for ten years.
Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed interim president by Congress, and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Vazquez Velazquez, say Zelaya's removal was legal since he was acting against the Constitution. The Supreme Court ordered his arrest and Congress backed his removal. The case against Zelaya is clear and he needs to step forward and face the judicial system of the country.
"As commander in chief of the armed forces, I ask patriotic soldiers to think of their children, think of their families and to rebel against Romeo Vazquez," Zelaya said as his calls for insurrection fell on deaf ears.
The Honduran military issued a statement expressing support for the negotiating process and affirming respect for civil institutions and the Constitution -- a move seen as partly a response to reports in pro-Zelaya media of unease in the middle ranks of the military. With Hugo Chavez's oil money, Zelaya is shooting his last wad, trying to subvert young officers to mutiny and go into open insurrection against the interim Honduran government.
U.S. President Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras but has yet to take harsher measures, and there are growing tensions with Zelaya, a close ally of Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.
Obama was caught off guard and duped, and now finds himself in a difficult position of supporting Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Daniel Ortega. Apparently Obama is caught between a rock and a hard place, as He does not want to appear to show U.S. support for rightist coups (which never existed), but many Republicans now realize that Obama has already done too much in supporting the ousted leftist and the Hugo Chavez ALBA Alliance who is the power behind it.
The U.S. State Department has said Zelaya is expected to visit Washington for a bath and a hot meal on Tuesday but he said he had not been invited and had no plans to go this week. He also said at an evening news conference he had heard about a plot to kill him. Zelaya would shot himself in the foot to draw world attention to his faltering campaign.
Honduran interim president, Roberto Micheletti seems to believe he can resist international pressure until elections in November and the world will accept the new order when a new president takes office in January. Which is the only legal outcome of this crisis and it is obvious that Zelaya should be in jail rather than in the presidential mansion. And Honduras demands their nation’s right to self determination and non interference from outside interventionists.
One possible alternative to the Honduran crisis is a negotiated solution under pressure from Washington, likely modeled on a proposal by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. In an interview with El Pais published on Sunday, Arias said his plan remained the only option.
While he said the coup must be reversed, he added that it was unrealistic for Zelaya to demand an unconditional return. And since there was no "coup" but rather a legal action taken by the judicial branch of government, Honduras demand that the criminal Manuel Zelaya be arrested and given a fair trial for his crimes.
The Micheletti government says it is open to some parts of the Arias plan, but not the return of Zelaya as president, and will allow Zelaya to return to Honduras and stand trial.
The chiefs of staff have much to lose if Zelaya does return as president, since their position would be weakened if there is an admission that they acted illegally in removing him, yet the constitution clearly states and clarifies that the removal of Manuel Zelaya was completely legal as defined and demanded by the national constitution.
Zelaya's relations with the military were tense before the coup. Just days before he was removed from power, he fired the military chief of staff after the army refused to help him run an unofficial referendum on extending his mandate. Actions and intentions clearly penalized the by constitution.
In the capital, Tegucigalpa, tensions bubbled up at the funeral of a man found dead in El Paraiso in unclear circumstances. It was unclear how he died but Zelaya supporters blame police. Mourners burned a police car and beat two police officers, a Reuters photographer on the scene said. It's common practice that leftists such as the Zelaya backers take the law into there own hands in order to attempt to destabilize authority rule.
Leaders of the pro-Zelaya movement said a small explosive device went off outside a building where they were meeting, breaking windows but causing no injuries. And it will be no surprise to anyone that they themselves create their own martyrs because obviously the government and the military authorities are aware of these ploys.
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