Z-day - President Zalaya returns to Honduras

The United Nations declared today an international day of prayer for peace. I wonder if some of those prayers made their way to the Almighty and then back to Honduras here on earth. For it was Z-day here!

In the middle of our staff meeting at Caritas people got text messages – President Mel Zelaya had returned to Honduras. It was a surprise to us – and to the de facto coup government which denied his presence for several hours.

We found out later that he was in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa after a two day journey through Honduras to arrive there.

Large numbers of people are gathered around the embassy to support President Zelaya. He greeted his supporters and gave a number of interviews. In a BBC interview he mentioned that Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations would be coming and he hoped they’d help “begin a dialogue to rebuild Honduran democracy.” The OAS is sending its secretary general José Miguel Insulza tomorrow to be followed by another team. But he may not be able to get here since the government has cancelled all international flights until further notice.

Yet thousands of people are trying to reach Tegucigalpa to support President Zelaya, some getting through and others being stopped by the military.

The de facto coup government responded by calling a curfew from 4 pm today until 7 am tomorrow. It wasn’t announced until about 3:30 pm and so many of us didn’t get home until after the curfew started. Here in Santa Rosa they gave us until 5 to get home. But many of the people around the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa are staying there. I read a report of a old woman who said she wasn’t going to observe the curfew because the de facto government has no authority to order a curfew.

Later in the afternoon de facto president Roberto Micheletti went on all the national tv and radio stations and reiterated his intransigence. The return of Zelaya has not changed the situation at all, he said. He claimed that Zelaya had come to stop the “celebration” of the November elections. I know the Spanish word “celebración” doesn’t always mean celebration, but with Micheletti’s cheers “¡Viva Honduras!” at the end of his speech, followed by cheers of the crowd with him I think it’s the appropriate, though perhaps ironic, translation.

In the meatime, the coup government is trying to silence the opposition

Electricity was cut in Tegucigalpa where the Brazilian Embassy is as well as the areas where two opposition media, Radio Globo and TV channel 36, are located. A bit later they got electricity – half an hour Radio Globo asked for generators and the head of the electrical workers union promised to send technicians to set them up.

Earlier today a military convoy sent to shut down the Jesuit-run Radio Progreso in Yoro but people came and defended the station nonviolently.

There are some other nonviolent efforts. I heard on Radio Globo (operating for a while on generators) that a few legislators opposed to the coup may be initiating a hunger strike on the grounds of the Congress building.

I pray and hope that this continues to be nonviolent. I believe that the Resistance is now committed to nonviolence but what about the military and police?

Pray for us – that what comes from this will help bring the people a sense of their dignity and power so that there may be a real democracy with justice for the poor in Honduras.

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Update: There are reports that the coup government has extended the curfew until 6:00 pm tomorrow. That's 26 hours preventing people from walking or driving or leaving their houses. Isn't that a violation of human rights?