Update on Honduran Coup

For those reading this blog for clues about the current situation in Honduras, I will share with you what I know to date about a situation still unfolding. While a military coup is certainly undemocratic, and while some segments of the Honduran population strongly support Zelaya, my people on the ground there seem to think that most do not support his efforts to serve a second term and they are unhappy about the way he tried to circumvent the constitution and the established political process, with a lot of advice and support from Chavez and the Castro government—reportedly Chavez even supplied the referendum ballots when local authorities refused to do so.

Mostly, there has been calm since the coup, except for the burning of tires at certain city intersections, a common form of protest in Honduras and other Latin American countries. And the folks I have heard from are not elite oligarchs, as Chavez contends, but ordinary people, not really poor, but middle-class; otherwise, they would not be writing me e-mails. They describe a general state of surprise and confusion, with some fear, by those old enough to remember, of return to the bad old days of military rule back in the early 1980s.

The way out of this dilemma, as I see it so far, would be to insist that Zelaya come back as president, to finish out his term, which ends in January, but provided he agrees not to run again or try to mount a referendum outside of established norms.

At least this situation has placed Honduras on the world map. I'll let you know if I hear anything more. Barbara