Honduras on alert for Zelaya return

Security forces in Honduras are on full alert ahead of the anticipated return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. He has threatened to fly back today, to reclaim the presidency he lost in an army coup last week. Thousands of Zelaya supporters are at the airport to welcome him, but Honduras’ new leaders say they will not let Zelaya’s plane land. Some fellow-leftist Central American leaders said they may accompany him, and the interim government warned there was a danger someone might be hurt.

The Organisation of American States has demanded his reinstatement. Yesterday in Washington they voted unanimously to suspend Honduras from the group, only the second time such a thing has happened following Cuba’s expulsion in 1962.

Zelaya had alienated Honduras’ judiciary, the army and the wealthy elite by proposing constitutional changes give him a second term in office. The coup was the first in Central America since the Cold War.

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tags: Coup, Honduras, Military