HONDURAS: People Flood Stores during Break
in Curfew
By Juan Ramón
Durán
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) - Thousands of Hondurans
flocked to businesses in the capital
Wednesday to stock up on food and gas after
the de facto government temporarily lifted
the curfew in place since ousted President
Manuel Zelaya surreptitiously returned to
the country on Monday.
In a message broadcast on TV and radio, the
regime's minister of industry and commerce,
Benjamín Bográn, called for calm as
thousands of people lined up outside gas
stations and supermarkets in this city of
one million people.
"There are enough stocks of basic grains to
cover demand for six months," said the
official. "Companies that supply chicken,
beef and vegetables report that they have
enough to cover needs. People should not
worry, and should stock up on supplies in an
orderly, calm manner."
Local residents, shut up in their homes
since Monday afternoon, flooded out into the
streets in Tegucigalpa when the curfew was
suspended at 10:00 AM. It was to go back
into effect at 5:00 PM. Hundreds of people
also formed lines outside of banks around
the city, to withdraw money.
Retired law professor Francisco Martínez
told IPS that the curfew had caught him
off-guard. "I had very little food, and was
a bit desperate," he said as he left the
Delikatesen supermarket in a central
Tegucigalpa neighbourhood, carrying two bags
full of food.
But as he headed to his car, the 67-year-old
Martínez found himself trapped between
around 100 heavily armed riot police and
water cannons and some 5,000 members of the
National Resistance Front Against the Coup
d'Etat (FNR), who were trying to march to
the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya has been
holed up since slipping back into the
country on Monday.
After Martínez pleaded with them for over
half an hour, the demonstrators finally let
him drive his car through the crowd, which
was pushing against the police, chanting "We
want Mel! We want Mel!" – as Zelaya is
affectionately known.
Dozens of photographers and journalists were
snapping pictures and filming the standoff
between the police and the protesters.
All of a sudden, an FNR demonstrator wearing
a red scarf on his head shouted "son of a
b****, you're Romeo Vásquez's driver!"
The man who he was shouting at turned pale,
and a security guard let him into the
Delikatesen supermarket and pulled down the
metal curtain. "Thanks, friend, you saved my
life," said the man, who declined to give
his name, but admitted that he is the driver
of one of the cars of the personal
bodyguards of General Romeo Vásquez, head of
the joint chiefs of staff and one of the
leaders of the Jun. 28 coup that overthrew
Zelaya.
In the supermarket, hundreds of people urged
the employees to check them out quickly,
because they were afraid of being caught in
the midst of a clash between the police and
protesters.
"We are really tired of this situation.
These politicians, Zelaya and (de facto
president Roberto) Micheletti, should talk
and resolve this situation that has us all
stressed out," said a visibly annoyed
doctor, Lorena López, who complained that
she missed a medical congress in Lima, Peru
because the de facto authorities closed the
airports on Monday afternoon.
After more than two hours under the blazing
sun, most of the demonstrators decided to go
back home and the few who stayed were
scattered by the police.
"This march, which is trying to reach the
Brazilian embassy, is the only demonstration
in Tegucigalpa," said a police officer
wearing a gas mask and holding a riot
shield.
FNR spokesman Rafael Alegría told IPS that
the "repressive measures" taken by the de
facto government are only making people
angry and prompting them to take to the
streets to demand that Zelaya be reinstated.
"Look at the spontaneous protests held last
night in many neighbourhoods and slums of
Tegucigalpa, where people blocked streets
with barricades made of stones, garbage cans
and burning tires," he said.
On Tuesday night, after thousands of Zelaya
supporters were violently dispersed by the
police and army outside of the Brazilian
embassy, a number of groups of local
residents mounted roadblocks around the
city, which were broken up by the police in
clashes that landed dozens of injured
demonstrators in the teaching hospital and
other health centres in the capital. At
least one person was reported killed in the
disturbances.
Supermarkets were also looted by crowds who
broke through the metal curtains and glass
windows and doors to seize food and home
appliances.
Police chief Orlín Cerrato said the police
were overwhelmed by calls from businesses
and individuals asking for protection.
Warning that looters would be punished, he
said that over 100 people were arrested in
such incidents Tuesday, but were released in
the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Micheletti announced Tuesday night that he
was willing to engage in dialogue with
Zelaya, "but within the framework of the
constitution" – interpreted by political
observers as a reiteration of his refusal to
accept Zelaya's return to the presidency and
the ousted leader's proposal for the
election of a constituent assembly to
redraft the constitution.
"The solution to the crisis are the
elections" scheduled for Nov. 29, said the
regime's foreign minister, Carlos López, in
a nationally televised address.
On Jun. 28, hooded soldiers broke down
Zelaya's door, pulled him out of his home at
gunpoint, and put him on a plane to Costa
Rica, still in his pyjamas. Shortly
afterwards, Congress and the Supreme Court
approved the army's action, on the argument
that the president was planning a referendum
that had been ruled illegal and
unconstitutional.
The question to be asked in the non-binding
popular vote, scheduled to take place the
day of the coup, was whether or not
Hondurans wanted to elect – during the
general elections - a constituent assembly
to rewrite the constitution.
The constitution does not allow for such a
process, and any amendments adopted since it
was approved in 1982 were passed by
parliament.
Since the coup, the de facto regime has
faced near total isolation from the
international community.
Addressing the United Nations General
Assembly in New York Tuesday, Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged
the U.N. Security Council to hold an
emergency meeting on the situation in
Honduras.
Lula also demanded that the Micheletti
government respect the integrity of all of
the people in the Brazilian embassy.
Just a few days after Zelaya was ousted, the
U.N. General Assembly condemned the coup and
demanded "the immediate and unconditional
restoration of the legitimate and
constitutional government."
Catholic priest Andrés Tamayo, who is with
Zelaya in the embassy, called on the
authorities to stop lobbing tear gas
canisters, and to stop emitting a shrill
noise from a sonar outside the building and
playing the national anthem over and over
again on a powerful sound system.
"This is aggression, as is the military and
police occupation of the houses next to the
embassy," Tamayo told IPS.
The embassy has been surrounded by troops
and the police since Monday. Only U.N. and
U.S. embassy staff have been allowed in to
the building to provide supplies to the
roughly 30 Hondurans and Brazilians in the
compound.
On Wednesday, Zelaya called once again for
dialogue to solve the crisis.
In the meantime, the once-solid wall of
support for the de facto regime from the
traditional parties – the centre-right
governing Liberal Party and the right-wing
National Party –, the business community and
conservative civil society organisations has
begun to crack.
The first to distance himself was the
National Party presidential candidate
Porfirio Lobo, who urged Micheletti to meet
with Zelaya to hold talks. A dozen Liberal
Party lawmakers, who publicly admitted on
Wednesday that what happened on Jun. 28 was
a coup – something denied up to now by the
de facto government and its supporters -
also called for talks, and acknowledged the
high level of popular discontent over the
curfew. |
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