On Sunday, June 28, 2009, the (now ex) president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya (Mel) was awaken by the Honduran military and forced to leave the country. He was flown to Costa Rica. From that moment, the protests and a whirlwind of media chaos started. To prevent chaos from the spreading news, the power and water was shut off from 8-11AM. At 12PM, and unfortunately during the Confederation Cup Final between Brazil and the U.S. (Go Brazil!!!), a national broadcast of the House's gathering, the news officially gave word of what had happened that morning, although most people had already heard or figured it out during their trips to the pulperia to get as much food and water as they could. After a 30 minute break, it was stated by then-speaker of the house Roberto Micheletti that they had received a resignation letter from Mel that was dated back to June 25th. As the meeting went on, it was decided that following the law and it's guideline, through the order of succession, Micheletti, as the Speaker of the House, was to take Zelaya's place. After a unanimous vote to accept Zelaya's resignation letter and have Micheletti take his place as president, Micheletti was sworn in.
Ok, now rewind.
Reminder: I am reporting from what I have read from other news sources, have heard from friends and family here in Hondurans and have heard in the congressional meeting yesterday.
The actions that have been done to Zelaya were in response to actions that were deemed illegal by the government, the Supreme Court, congress, and the militia. Like his leftist friends in other countries of Latin America (Hugo Chavez [Venezuela], Daniel Ortega [Nicaragua] and others), Zelaya tried to change the constitution, which states that the president can only serve one term as president, so that he could run again. However, the constitution was created with that law so that there would be no continuism and have one man/woman "rule" for too long. With Latinamerica's history with "continuing" leaders, the Honduran government and many of it's citizens did not want to be part of the popular trend being set by several others. Zelaya created a referendum to make the change, but it was turned down by the Supreme Court and pretty much everyone else on the terms that it was illegal. He had a couple of supporters, but not enough to really make a stand. He had asked his friend, the General of the military, to join alongside him, as the commander-in-chief, in order to have the military back up his referendum as well. However, the general refused to be part of the illegal act and did not want anything to do with Zelaya's plans, therefore Zelaya fired him. However, the Court deemed that illegal as well. Zelaya's referendum was to be put up to a vote for Sunday June 28, but history had other plans.
As of now, there have been public displays of disapproval, but only near the Presidential House. The only changes are that there is a street curfew from 9PM-6AM, which means that no one can be out on the streets on that hour, or they'll have to deal with the police. Other than that, things have been okay and slowly heading back to normal. We'll just have to sit and wait it out.
