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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Mel Zelaya is back...

Greetings again from Honduras. So here we are back into heightened unrest. The political solution rears its ugly head again.

After 3 months out of the country ex-president Mel Zelaya snuck back into the country and planted himself in the Brazilian embassy. The news on Tuesday was circling around of his retrn. People thought it was false, then they said it was true, then it was confirmed.

Later in the day he stepped out, addressed the people and returned insie the embassy. Of course being in an embassy the authorities here in Honduras are not allowed to go after him. Honduran police and soldiers dispersed the crowd on Monday, injuring some people. Then, a national curfew was put in place from 4pm on Monday the 21st and was just lifted today, September 23 at 10am. The curfew will go back into place tonight at 5pm.

The current government said it may be willing to have negotiations with Zelaya (BBC). But no one is sure what would exactly happen if there were talks or if Zelaya stepped out of the embassy. Honduras said they would still honor the arrest warrant for him.

In the meantime Brazil is asking for meetings with the UN (CNN). Naturally they are a little worried about the center of attention being on their embassy with unrest brewing in the streets from citizens. Honduras sent a letter to the Brazilian embassy asking them either to give Zelaya asylum in their country or to turn him over to Honduran authorities.

Most of the unrest centers in the capitol of Tegucigalpa and again here in Santa Rosa and most parts of the country all is calm, except for people blabbing their opinion and theories of the outcome.

As I had mentioned before a big group of us have a dive trip planned for next week leaving Saturday to the bay islands. Honestly and obviously this is of great concern right now. Will I be able to be on the beach and scuba diving next week? I sure hope so. Let's hope Honduras figures this out. Really, for the sake of the country.

…until next time

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