Honduras's Ousted Leader Tries to Return Home
Zelaya Backers Clash With Troops at Airport; Provisional Government Pledges to Divert Ex-President's Plane to El Salvador
JOSE DE CORDOBA
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to fly to this Central American nation on Sunday to reclaim his post, accompanied by a small flotilla of other Latin leaders and journalists, in a move filled with political theater but also certain to raise tensions in Honduras's political crisis.
Honduran police guard the airport in Tegucigalpa on Sunday. Flights were canceled at the airport, where ousted President Zelaya intended to arrive.
The country's provisional government pledged to bar the planes from landing and divert them to nearby El Salvador, even as Honduras's interim leaders signaled a new willingness to negotiate a solution to the region's biggest political crisis in years.
The attempted return by Mr. Zelaya sparked the first wave of real violence since shortly after the president was deposed last Sunday. Thousands of pro-Zelaya protesters clashed with army troops guarding the Tegucigalpa airport shortly before the former leader's plane was scheduled to arrive.
Protesters, some wearing bandanas to cover their face, threw rocks at soldiers and tried to break through one of the fences surrounding the runway, TV images showed. Troops responded by firing tear gas into the rowdy crowd. Ambulances turned up soon after, although it was initially unclear if anyone was injured.
Mr. Zelaya, who was forced by soldiers at gunpoint to leave the country last Sunday, flew from Washington to Tegucigalpa along with U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto. Traveling in another plane was Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, followed by yet another plane carrying journalists.
While the drama unfolded in the air, another kind of drama was unfolding on the ground, as Honduras's interim leaders accused neighboring Nicaragua of deploying troops along the border. Acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said the troop movements were "small." But he asked Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as well as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has threatened to depose Mr. Micheletti if Mr. Zelaya isn't restored to power, to stop from any more threatening actions or words.
Supporters of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya stand in front of riot police and soldiers outside Toncontin international airport in Tegucigalpa.
U.S. officials said they didn't detect any major movements by Nicaragua's army. Nicaragua and Honduras were Cold War enemies in the 1980s, when Honduras was used as a staging ground for U.S.-backed Contra rebels fighting Mr. Ortega's Sandinista government. Mr. Ortega, who is one of Mr. Zelaya's strongest backers, reportedly said there had been no troop movement.
Even as regional tensions flared, Honduras' provisional government signaled it would be open to talks on the crisis, but it underlined that any solution couldn't include a return of Mr. Zelaya to his post. Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado de Casco told a news conference that Honduras would welcome a delegation from the Organization of the American States, which on Saturday voted to suspend Honduras from the body, which has 35 active members.
"We are waiting with open arms for any commission that wants to come," said Ms. Alvarado. But she added that the next delegation would have to come without preconditions, denigrating OAS Secretary General Jose Manuel Insulza's attempt to reach a solution on Saturday.
U.S. officials said they expected Mr. Zelaya to land in El Salvador and then return to Washington on Monday for more meetings with OAS foreign ministers. The Obama administration said it's unclear what Honduras's new government is willing to negotiate, but officials said dialogue is an important first step. Indications are "that the de facto government is offering some sort of dialogue," said a U.S. official. "We think this is positive, and this will be our immediate focus."
Mr. Zelaya, the son of a wealthy farmer who ran for office as a centrist, polarized the country when his politics took a left turn and he aligned his government closely with Mr. Chávez. Honduras joined Mr. Chávez's trade pact, received cut-rate oil from Venezuela, and embarked on an attempt to use referendums to rewrite the constitution that critics say would have let Mr. Zelaya extend his term.
The vote was declared illegal by Honduras' Supreme Court, but the president vowed to press on. Last Sunday soldiers stormed the presidential residence and seized the leader. Congress later swore in Mr. Micheletti, the president of Congress. Honduras's acting leaders have said repeatedly they would arrest Mr. Zelaya if he managed to return, and have accused him of multiple crimes, from treason to drug trafficking.
The ousted president was flying to Honduras on an aircraft owned by Venezuela's government, Honduran officials said. "The blood of Christ sustains me," Mr. Zelaya said in a brief interview aboard the plane with Venezuela's state-run TV network Telesur.
Responding to Mr. Zelaya's call, thousands of his supporters turned up at the Tegucigalpa airport to show their support. But large numbers of Hondurans also are adamant they don't want the president to return.
Honduras's influential Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez, the highest ranking Catholic Church official in the country, urged the exiled president not to come back. "We think that a return to the country at this time could unleash a bloodbath in the country," Cardinal Rodriguez said. "To this day, no Honduran has died. Please meditate because afterwards it would be too late."
The prelate also criticized Mr. Zelaya, suggesting the Church was taking sides. "The day of your swearing in, you clearly quoted the three commandments of the sacred law of God: Not to lie, not to steal, and not to kill," said the Cardinal.
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