Tegucigalpa - At least two people were killed and two others
were injured Sunday in clashes between soldiers and hundreds of
supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya at Toncontin
airport in Tegucigalpa.
Police confirmed the deaths and said the clashes erupted when
Zelaya's supporters attempted to occupy the runway. Television
footage of the confrontation included the sounds of gunfire.
Zelaya told Venezuela-based Telesur television channel that he was
approaching Honduran airspace, despite warnings.
Earlier Sunday, the Honduran government installed after the June
28 coup said it had prevented the return to Honduras of the
democratically elected Zelaya.
Alfredo San Martin, Honduras' civil aviation chief, said the plane
was diverted to El Salvador. He said that the president of any other
country wishing to enter Honduras must have 'relevant authorization'
from Honduran authorities.
The interim Honduran government had said that it would not allow
Zelaya to return and had vowed to arrest the ousted president if he
did reach Honduran territory.
'I have ordered that his return cannot be allowed, come what may,'
Enrique Cortez, designated as foreign minister of the interim
government, said early Sunday.
Zelaya was flying on a private plane - originally bound for
Tegucigalpa - with Miguel d'Escoto, a Nicaraguan diplomat and
president of the UN General Assembly.
'As president, (I intend) to go accompany my people and ask,
logically, for calm, non-violence,' Zelaya said before his departure
from Washington.
A second delegation headed by Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-
general of the Organization of American states (OAS), with presidents
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador
and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay was due to fly directly to El Salvador
later Sunday.
'We will be in San Salvador, waiting to see if (Zelaya) can land
(in Tegucigalpa) and would like us to be there, or, otherwise, if he
cannot land, we will wait for him in San Salvador,' Correa said in a
press conference.
All roads leading to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa were being
blocked by police, and most flights had reportedly been suspended.
Still, thousands of supporters of Zelaya gathered around the airport.
Hours earlier in Washington, the OAS voted unanimously to suspend
Honduras' membership over last week's coup. The vote by 33 member
countries made Honduras the second country to be suspended from the
hemispheric bloc, after Cuba in 1962, which may subject Honduras to
cuts in economic aid as well as political isolation.
Not all countries in the Americas thought that travelling now was
the best decision. The US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and
Caribbean nations expressed reservations over the lack of sufficient
security guarantees, and said it could worsen the unrest in the
Central American country.
Insulza, who visited Tegucigalpa himself Friday, said that Zelaya
would face serious risks and should try to obtain 'guarantees' for
his safety before travelling.
'There are risks. It is risky, the risk of being arrested and the
risk of clashes,' Insulza said. 'It is not a safe return.'
Insulza stressed that Zelaya's return would be purely his own
decision, as the OAS took no official position.
Zelaya was ousted in a coup by soldiers acting on orders from the
country's Supreme Court, ostensibly to prevent him from attempting to
change the constitution to seek a second presidential term.
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