Micheletti regime arresting people without warrants and closing down opposition media

[ck4829]

Honduras' interim leaders late Sunday suspended key civil liberties in response to "calls for insurrection" by ousted President Manuel Zelaya, empowering police and soldiers to break up "unauthorized" public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media.

The announcement came just hours after Zelaya called on supporters to stage mass marches Monday marking the three-month anniversary of the June 28 coup that ousted him. Zelaya described the marches as "the final offensive" against the interim government.

Zelaya, who surprised the world when he sneaked back into the country last Monday and holed up in the Brazilian Embassy, is demanding he be reinstated to office, and has said that the government of interim President Roberto Micheletti "has to fall."

The government announced the decree in a nationwide broadcast, saying it was "to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the calls for insurrection that Mr. Zelaya has publicly made."

The measure empowers police and soldiers to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others," although unlike martial law, it requires that anyone arrested be turned over to civilian prosecutors. The Honduran Constitution forbids arrest without warrants except where a criminal is caught in the act.

The measure also permits authorities to temporarily close news media outlets that "attack peace and public order."

The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations that — while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup — had been allowed to operate freely, openly criticizing the government and broadcasting Zelaya's statements.

But under Sunday's order, authorities may now "prevent the transmission by any spoken, written or televised means, of statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_honduras_coup

[Odin2005]

1. Ugh. disgusting fascists.

:puke:

[Ghost Dog]

8. You know who supports them,

of course.

Hint: Appears to include AP.

[atreides1]

2. Republican Democracy in action

I wonder if the asshats that spoke in support of this coup, like Newt and some others who "write" for the Washington Examiner are going to say anything about this?

Don't answer, it was rhetorical question!

[vadawg]

3. im willin gto take bets that if he does get back into power that the elections in November

will be cancelled and he will end up doing what he was accused of wanting to do in the first place, seems to me the best thing he would have done was to have stepped aside and called for new elections early, then we could have seen if the new government was really trying to uphold their constitution or not..

[atreides1]

5. Like elections were going to really take place under the coup.

The "new government" used the military to oust a democratically elected president, and put in his place a man with connections to the well to do, or rich, if you will.

Especially when the referendum that Prseident Zelaya introduced wasn't even binding, sort of like when they pass a resolution in Congress, but it has no real meaning.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Alas this is the fork

the next 36 hours will tell us where this will end I believe.

My thought still goes into not in the usual way most of these things do in LatAm...

[xchrom]

6. colour me not surprised. nt

[bridgit]

7. This will be a dangerous world for the foreseeable future no doubt