Live Blog: President Zelaya Has Returned to Honduras By Al Giordano

[Joanne98]

The first to break the news in English was the Honduran Campesino blog:

Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is in Tegucigalpa…

The United Nations is protecting Mel…

TeleSur confirms the report, as does Reuters:

"I am here in Tegucigalpa. I am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue." he told Honduras' Canal 36 television network.

As occurred during the first hours of the June 28 coup d'etat, the Internet signals of Channel 36 and Radio Globo are blocked, as is cell phone service in the capital (I've yet to confirm that there is any Internet or cell phone access in Tegucigalpa at all right now - it all appears to be jammed - but we do have reporter Belén Fernández reporting right this moment from that city and the information blockade will be broken soon enough.) We can take that extreme of censorship as additional confirmation that the President has indeed returned and the illegitimate coup regime is panicking.

Developing... We'll update here as we're able to report and confirm more...

Update: 12:08 p.m. Tegucigalpa (2:08 p.m. ET): TeleSur confirms that the President is in Tegucigalpa but adds that it cannot confirm reports that he is in the United Nations building there. It anticipates a press conference from Zelaya this afternoon...

12:24 p.m. Tegucigalpa (2:24 p.m. ET): One of our correspondents just got an email message from Tegucigalpa which reports that not all cell phone service is blocked.

12:28 p.m.: Via TeleSur: The Spaniard news agency EFE reports that the President is in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

12:29 p.m.: The US State Department confirms that Zelaya is in Honduras (via AP).

12:39 p.m.: The web page of the coup regime's "president" leads with a loud denial: "Micheletti denies the presence of 'Mel' in the country." Meanwhile AFP reports that the Brazilian government has confirmed Zelaya's presence in its Embassy in Tegucigalpa, according to TeleSur.

12:47 p.m.: TeleSur is showing images of uniformed National Police members, with billy clubs, shields, helmets and guns, su rrounding the zone near the Brazilian Embassy, apparently to close access to the area, blocking anti-coup demonstrators from entering or leaving. The network is also broadcasting live images, from Channel 36, of two helicopters circling over the Embassy.

12:51 p.m.: TeleSur reporter Adriana Sívori is now inside the Brazilian Embassy and confirms President Zelaya's physical presence there.

1:57 p.m.: We now have phone contact with Narco News correspondent Belén Fernández, who in Tegucigalpa this morning walked into the Radio Globo headquarters just as the news broke that Zelaya had returned. She's going to have one hell of a story for us later today.

2:04 p.m.: Connecting the dots... The return of Zelaya has all the markings of a very well coordinated operation by the Honduran civil resistance and the member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS). The choice of Brazil's embassy - the Latin American country with the largest Air Force - pretty much guarantees that the coup regime can't possibly think it can violate the sovereignty of that space. That the US State Department confirmed, this morning, that Zelaya is in Honduras while the coup regime denied it strongly suggests it had advance knowledge that this would happen today (if not active participation).

This is a textbook example of what we've referred to before as "dilemma actions." It puts the coup regime on the horns of a dilemma, in which it has no good options. It can leave Zelaya to put together his government again from the Brazilian embassy with the active support of so many sectors of Honduran civil society, or it can try to arrest the President, provoking a nonviolent insurrection from the people of the kind that has toppled many a regime throughout history. Minute by minute, hour by hour, and, soon, day by day, the coup regime is losing its grip. At some point it will have to choose either to unleash a terrible violent wave of state terrorism upon the country's own people - which will provoke all out insurrection in response (guaranteed by Article 3 of the Honduran Constitution) - or Micheletti and his Simian Council can start packing their bags and seeking asylum someplace like Panama. Meanwhile, the people are coming down from the hills to meet their elected president. This, kind readers, is immediate history.

2:24 p.m.: Some other consequences of today's breaking development: President Zelaya today erases any of the talk or speculation that he did not have the courage to put himself at risk in this struggle, which will also have an emboldening effect on every single individual among the hundreds of thousands in the civil resistance. The effect is causing all to think: If he's willing to risk all, then so am I.

This move also makes a laughing stock out of Micheletti and his security forces. Remember our reports about how airfields throughout the country were blocked by buses and other vehicles, so paranoid was the regime about Zelaya's potential return? That Zelaya slipped through the security net demonstrates that the coup regime does not have the control it claims to have. Micheletti - the usurper dictator - has also helped elevate his status as a national buffoon with his early claims today that Zelaya hadn't really returned. He accused the media that reported his return of lying and of "media terrorism." Well, now the same pro-coup newspapers that reported his tantrum have this photo, taken today, of President Zelaya and his cabinet members inside the Brazilian Embassy:



There you have it. Countdown to complete mental breakdown by Micheletti and his dwindling core of supporters (and, yes, that includes a grouplet of US expats that have been blogging constant disinformation from Honduras - their self-delusion and dishonesty to all is now crashing on the rocks of reality, too).

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3439/live-blog-president-zelaya-has-returned-honduras

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. "Yo Manuel I'm real happy for you and Imma let you finish but Hugo Chavez had one of the

best comebacks of all time."

[EFerrari]

3. He either has or will shortly have a brand new first grandson.

You couldn't keep me away, either! :)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

4. I didn't know that. Let's hope my boy Kanye is nowhere near that hospital.

:silly:

[Joanne98]

2. ZELAYA IS BACK IN HONDURAS - JUST ANNOUNCED!!

President Zelaya is back in Honduras - this just confirmed after a live telephone conversation took place between President Chávez and President Zelaya. The ousted Honduran president has apparently returned to Honduras and made it to the capital city of Tegucigalpa after 2 days of traveling through the mountains and countryside. He is now at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, waiting to complete his return to power. The coup regime has yet to respond. Zelaya was ousted in a military coup and forced into exiled on June 28, 2009 and has been struggling to return ever since. The people of Honduras have remained in the streets resisting the brutal repressive coup regime, led by Roberto Micheletti, now for almost 3 months. The world community has condemned the coup regime yet has failed to force it to cease its illegal occupation of the Honduran government and allow Zelaya's return to power. Despite Washington's minimal efforts to publicly portray its pressure of the coup regime, it has continued to fund the political parties and NGOs backing the coup, and the Pentagon has continued to fund, train, arm and engage the Honduran military, largely responsible for the coup and the subsequent state of repression. The US occupies a large military base outside of Tegucigalpa, in Palmerola, Soto Cano, which it considers one of its most important operational bases in the region. The airplane carrying President Zelaya illegally took off from this military base on the morning of the coup, with the full knowledge and approval of the Pentagon's forces stationed at Soto Cano.

Zelaya's return to Honduras has been long awaited and fought for by the international community, but particularly by the Honduran people. President Chávez announced that he will activate a plan with other regional governments to ensure Zelaya's safety and full transition back to power. This action comes just as the 64th General Assembly meeting of the United Nations is taking place in New York City, where the majority of Latin American presidents are expected to attend. The Honduran coup was one of the main issues to be addressed at the United Nations meeting.
Posted by Eva Golinger at 12:32 PM

http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/09/zelaya-is-back-in-honduras-just.html