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Honduras' Military Seals Airports, Zelaya
Lands In Nicaragua
Tegucigalpa -
Thousands of police and soldiers on Sunday
sealed the streets leading to Toncontin
Airport, in Honduras capital Tegucigalpa,
ahead of the arrival of coup-toppled
President Manuel Zelaya.
All road traffic to the airport has been
halted since the early hours of Sunday. Army
troops fired tear gas to break up Zelaya's
supporters, and two protesters were killed
and several more were injured in the
clashes.
Zelaya said on Saturday that he planned to
return to the nation with regional
presidents and a commission from the
Organization of American States (OAS) to
reclaim the presidency.
Earlier on Sunday, Enrique Ortez Colindrez,
the foreign minister of the post-coup
government, said no airport in the country
is permitted to take Zelaya's plane.
Several of the region's major airlines --
American Airlines, Taca and Delta suspended
flights to Tegucigalpa, the nation's civil
aviation chief said.
In so doing, the interim government was
trying to prevent bloodshed as Zelaya would
be arrested if he landed in the country,
Ortez said.
Zelaya left from the U.S. capital of
Washington earlier on Sunday in an attempt
to return home. He was in a small jet plane
owned by the government of Venezuela and
followed by another aircraft carrying
delegation from the OAS and the presidents
of Argentina and Paraguay.
His plane circled above the Toncontin
Airport, unable to land as the runway was
blocked by soldiers with military vehicles.
Zelaya was forced to land in neighboring
Nicaragua and vowed to try again Monday or
Tuesday to return to the country.
"Faced with this situation, we have to go on
with what we had planned," he told the
Telesur news channel from the plane.
Zelaya's supporters took the streets around
the airport starting early morning.
Witnesses said up to 30,000 people appeared
around the airport.
On Sunday afternoon, demonstrators broke a
police cordon and entered the airport
facilities. Several witnesses told Xinhua
that soldiers threw tear gas grenades into
the crowd, and demonstrators fought back
with sticks and bottles.
"Police are firing live rounds," a
photographer with the La Tribuna newspaper
reported. Two died and several more were
injured in the violence. One young Zelaya
supporter died after being shot in the head.
Protesters said a teenage girl was also
killed.
People in Tegucigalpa are busy buying fuel
and food, as anxiety rises over the
uncertainties of the country's political
future.
Zelaya was ousted last Sunday, whenarmed and
hooded soldiers broke into the presidential
palace and seized him from the bed. They
forced the president aboard a plane and sent
him to Costa Rica.
Hours later, Congress speaker Roberto
Micheletti was appointed interim president.
Micheletti said scheduled presidential
elections will go ahead on Nov. 29 and he
will hand power to the new president on Jan.
27, 2010.
Police and soldiers block the airstrip of
the Toncontin international airport to
prevent the landing of a plane carrying
Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya in
Tegucigalpa
The Venezuelan airplane carrying ousted
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya overflies
Toncontin international airport in
Tegucigalpa. At least half a dozen military
vehicles blocked the only runway at the
airport preventing Zelaya's landing while
tens of thousands of his supporters
demonstrated outside.
Supporters of
ousted Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya,
clash with riot squad officers during a
protest against the military coup near
Toncontin international airport in
Tegucigalpa.
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