The BBC has some video of Zelaya at the Brazlian embassy and a map of Tegucigalpa showing the the relative locations of the embassy, the congress, and the presidential palace: Honduras urged to avoid violence.
The NYT has a little bit about his journey and activities (Ousted Leader Returns to Honduras):
After what he described as a 15-hour trek through the mountains, taking back roads to avoid checkpoints, Mr. Zelaya and his wife took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. He did not say which country he crossed into Honduras from.
At the embassy, he gave a series of interviews with the international news media, saying that he hoped to begin meeting with “prominent Hondurans” and members of the de facto government that ousted him to find an end to the crisis that has engulfed the country since he was exiled on June 28.
It is an interesting move that the Brazilians decided to insert themselves into this situation:
Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, also in New York, denied that Brazil had helped plan the return of Mr. Zelaya and his wife, Xiomara Castro, to Honduras. He said they had arrived at the embassy through “their own peaceful methods.”
Mr. Amorim did not say whether there was a time limit on Mr. Zelaya’s stay in the embassy, but he stressed that the Organization of American States should renew efforts to negotiate a solution. “If the O.A.S. doesn’t work to give guarantees to a democratically elected government, in the case of a coup like this, then what is the O.A.S. for?” he said.
It is an interesting sign that Lula (Brazil’s president) was willing to make this move. Had, say, the Venezuelans (or Nicaraguans, Ecuadorans, Bolivians, or, really, almost anyone else) done it, it would have been seen as a provocation that would have unleashed a torrent of rhetoric from Micheletti (and many in US). However, Brazil is a regional power and Lula is one of the grown-ups.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. How long can Zelaya stay in the embassy? Will his proximity result in negotiations? Will there be demonstrations/riots?
My initial reaction is that this substantially derails the Micheletti government’s strategy, which was to simply kick the can down the road until the elections and then pretend like that would wash the slate clean. Now the can is in the middle of town for everyone to see, and yet is untouchable.
And, in a sign of the times, the interim president drops the T-word:
His return appeared to have caught the de facto government by surprise. Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed president by Congress, at first denied that Mr. Zelaya had returned, calling the reports “media terrorism.”
There are times I wonder if there is anything that isn’t terrorism these days.
Beyond that, the fact that Zelaya snuck into town and the press knew before Micheletti simply made Michelettit (and coup governemnt) look bad.
Sphere: Related Content
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Micheletti wrote an op-ed in the WaPo today. He’s arguing that a constitutional succession has taken place, and telling us to just wait until those upcoming elections they keep trying to kick the can towards.