HONDURAS UPDATE SEPTEMBER 26 2009

By Emile Schepers

The situation in Honduras is still extremely tense and volatile, though there is nothing dramatically new to report. Here are the main trends:

1. IN THE BRAZILIAN EMBASSY: Red Cross and others have been able to get through. People in the Embassy are holding out and recovering from symptoms reported earlier this week. President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, who appeared at the embassy suddenly on Monday September 21, is in good health. The Narco News Bulletin has a special report on the equipment utilized to bombard the Brazilian embassy with high decibel sound and also toxic gas. There are interesting photos; read it here: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3460/honduran-coup-regime-mocks-un-security-council-embassy-attacks
Zelaya has had meetings with all the pro-coup presidential candidates including Elvin Santos of his own Liberal Party and Pepe Lobo of the National Party, but there are no breakthroughs.

2. IN THE STREETS: Once again today (Saturday) there were massive pro-Zelaya, anti-coup demonstrations involving thousand of people. So the coup regime slapped another curfew on the country, from 6 Saturday evening until 6 Sunday morning.

3. AT THE UNITED NATIONS: On Monday, Zelaya's foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, will speak on the situation in her country to the entire United Nations General Assembly. Originally, President Zelaya was to have spoken today. Today Zelaya spoke long-distance to a large crowd of supporters in neighboring El Salvador, urging El Salvador to speak up for democracy in Honduras at the General Assembly and not to let democracy collapse in the Central American region. (There have been civil wars and dictatorships in all of the Central American countries except Belize and Costa Rica in recent decades, and many observers fear that for the coup in Honduras to be successful will constitute a threat of more coups in the region and in South America. Many think that Guatemala, where within the last 50 years military dictatorships have massacred up to 200,000 civilians, could be the next country where a coup might take place).

More tomorrow

Texans Stand Up for Freedom

Growing opposition to banned books, banned ideas, and banned marches in San Antonio

San Antonio, TX. - by John Stanford

The San Antonio Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the San Antonio Public Library will sponsor a Banned Books event on October 1 that will have a special importance for all of Texas and for folks in other states as well. This free event will take place at the downtown Central Public Library at 7 p.m. and will feature remarks by local authors Jay Brandon and Bárbara Renaud González and by San Antonio ACLU Chapter President Patrick Filyk. Brandon and González will speak about how censorship affects them as writers. Filyk, an attorney, will discuss the ACLU's support of the First Amendment, why it is so important, and how banning books in high schools is a threat to our freedoms.

The ACLU will distribute its 13th annual report, Free People Read Freely: A Report on Banned and Challenged Books in Texas Public Schools (during the previous school year). Attendees will get a chance to read passages from their favorite books that have been banned, challenged or censored in Texas public schools.

In recent years the majority population of Texas -- including workers, young people, African-Americans, the indigenous Chicano or Mexican American population -- have been a special target of ultra-conservatives that seek to censor and restrict their freedom of knowledge and speech. These forces have sought to use Texas as a testing ground for ideas and policies they want to impose nationally.

Struggles around the contents of school textbooks are an example. In Texas the contents of school textbooks are determined by a 15-member State Board of Education (SBOE). Half the Board is elected every two years. The contents of textbooks for different grade levels and different subjects are adopted on a staggered schedule, and the textbooks adopted are usually used for several years. Because Texas uses so many textbooks, the economics of the publishers means that textbooks adopted in Texas will be used in many other states.

A big struggle around the contents of science textbooks in Texas just ended. The forces of darkness -- is this not an accurate description? -- wanted "creation science" put on the same level as evolution. The teaching of evolution won by a single vote, though the victory was not complete and there are still some loopholes in the SBOE adopted standards. The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Texas Freedom Network (TFN) are among the organizations most responsible for this victory.

The SBOE is now in the process of adopting standards for social science and history textbooks. Should Cesar E.Chavez and Thurgood Marshall be included in the texts as role models? Some "experts" hired by the SBOE have said they are not role models and that there is an "over representation of minorities" in current standards.

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, spoke here Sept. 14 at Temple Beth-El to a community meeting sponsored by Planned Parenthood and Texas Freedom Network. She held up a health textbook now used in the schools and read some of its instructions about how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases: "Respect yourself. Choose friends who are a positive influence. Go out in a group. Get plenty of rest.” It's a big book, she said, but has not one word about the use of condoms.

The SBOE that will result from next year's election, it was pointed out at this meeting, will decide on the standards for health textbooks that will be used for the next ten years. Some candidates for SBOE positions have already declared their intentions to run.

The struggle against the banning of books from school libraries is closely related to the struggle against the substitution of religious dogma for science in school texts; to the suppression of the role of African Americans, indigenous Chicanos and Mexican-Americans and other minorities in the struggle for freedom throughout our history; and to the suppression of information about sexual and reproductive health care.

On Sept. 8 President Barack Obama spoke to the schoolchildren of our country about the importance of putting in the hard work necessary to succeed in school. He spoke truth to the students, but textbooks also need to tell the truth. Young people know when they're being lied to, or will soon find out, and lies do not motivate them to succeed.

The First Amendment in addition to guaranteeing freedom of speech prohibits abridging "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." In spite of this provision of the U.S.Constitution, on November 29, 2007, the San Antonio City Council adopted an ordinance that charges thousands of dollars for the right to march on the city streets. Of the ten largest U.S. cities, only San Antonio charges people to march. If the City of San Antonio decides to "sponsor" the message of a march applicant, fees are waived. Otherwise, even after a discount the ordinance gives for First Amendment marches, the cost to march will range from about $2000 to upward of $30,000.

As soon as the vote on his ordnance was announced, community activists and free speech advocates marched from City Hall to the Federal Court House, where Attorney Amy Kastely filed a suit against the City of San Antonio, the Mayor, City Manager, and Chief of Police on behalf of the International Women's Day March Planning Committee and the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition as plaintiffs. The suit asked for a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the ordinance and summary judgment against the City.

There have been many twists and turns in the legal proceedings in the two years since the suit was filed. The ACLU filed an Amicus brief. Judge Xavier Rodriguez granted a temporary injunction against the City and declared part of the ordinance unconstitutional. The City amended the ordinance but left the exorbitant fees. Judge Rodriguez recused himself shortly before the case was to come to trial. The new judge in the case, Fred Biery, granted the City summary judgment without dealing with any of the arguments raised by the plaintiffs. The International Women's Day March Planning Committtee and the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition (FSC) have filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit.

Community opposition to the ordinance has continued growing. Yard signs and bumper stickers read: "Our Streets Will Not Be Silenced! ¡Las Calles No Se Callan!" The San Antonio Free Speech Coalition usually meets twice a month, has active committees, consists of hundreds of individuals and more than seventeen organizations, including Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, Esperanza Peace and Justice Committee, Food Not Bombs - San Antonio, Fuerza Unida, Martinez Street Women's Center, National Association of Public Employees, Neighborhoods First Alliance, Pax Christi, peaceCENTER, San Antonio Health Care Now, Southwest Workers Union, Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio, Texas Indigenous Council, Texans for Peace, Texas Media Empowerment Project, and World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!

On August 8 of this year the Free Speech Coalition held a rally on Main Plaza in front of City Council Chambers. There were plenty of signs and banners, beating on plastic buckets, and a program of street theater. Enthusiasm in the crowd increased. Someone yelled, "Let's take it to the streets!" and 400 people disregarded police instructions to stay on the sidewalks and spontaneously took over Commerce Street, one of the city's main downtown streets. Critical Mass cyclists corked the cross streets to give the marchers protection without the need for expensive wooden barriers. Many union tee shirts were visible in the march, especially the red tee shirts of UNITE-HERE.

The marchers walked from Main Plaza to the middle of Market Square, where they held a rally. The many speakers at the rally included former City Councilwoman Maria Antonietta Berriozábal, Professor Antonia Castañeda, national AFL-CIO Executive Vice-President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson, San Antonio Central Labor Council President Rachel Hernandez, and Gabriel Morales, Grand Hyatt worker and UNITE-HERE member who has since been fired because of his union activities. The Grand Hyatt hotel is built on choice lots owned by the City, received tax abatements and other financial help from the City of San Antonio, promised neutrality towards union organizing but has renigged on this promise and has become one of the most active anti-union employers in the city.

From Market Square the marchers went to historic Plaza del Zacate (Milam Park), where they held another rally before dispersing.

Freedoms to read, think, speak and march continue to be under attack, but the fightback is growing.


John Stanford is a member of the ACLU in San Antonio and can be reached at juanchostanford@yahoo.com

HONDURAS UPDATE SEPTEMBER 25 2009

By Emile Schepers

1. BRAZILIAN EMBASSY UNDER SIEGE. In flagrant violation of international law, the de-facto government of Roberto Micheletti is continuing to besiege the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya and about 70 other people, including Zelaya's relatives and allies plus press and Brazilian embassy staff (the ambassador is currently in Brazil) are holding out. The methods of siege are to sharply restrict the arrival of food, to interfere with water and electrical supplies, and to bombard the people in the embassy with sophisticated sound equipment and sickness-inducing gases. The electronic bombardment is said to be nerve wracking, and the combination of the two methods of attack is causing nosebleeds, bloody urine and other health problems for the people in the embassy. Dr. Mauricio Castellano, Zelaya's minister of public health, says an analysis of the gases collected at some distance from the embassy shows concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. Meanwhile the Honduran (pro-Zelaya) foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, announced in a press conference in New York today that the toxic gases being used against the embassy have been provided to the coup regime by two Israeli companies, Alfacom and Intercom. At least one death outside the embassy, that of an 8 year old girl, is being attributed to these toxic gases.

The accusation about the gases was backed up by the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights. (CIDH)

The noise making operation is blamed by the online magazine Machetera on Long Range Acoustic Devices, which create noise so intense that it can cause permanent hearing loss and other health problems, up to 150 decibels. Reportedly, witnesses have seen these contraptions being deployed against the embassy (they are said to have been used against protesters at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, also).

There are accusations that the coup regime has not allowed an ambulance from the Red Cross or a team from the French-based NGO Medicins sans Frontiers access to the Embassy.

2. SECURITY COUNCIL DENOUNCES ATTACKS ON EMBASSY. Meanwhile in New York, where one head of state after another has denounced the coup regime and demanded the restoration of Zelaya to the presidence, the Security Council today issued a statement demanding that the harrassment of the Brazilian embassy stop immediately. The special closed-door Security Council meeting was requested by Brazil. The statement condemning the attacks on the embassy did not go into the general issue of the coup and the restoration of Zelaya.

3. ON THE STREETS OF HONDURAS, there seems to have been a temporary lull in activity. But basically all week there have been massive pro-Zelaya demonstrations, with numbers that some sources put as high as 150,000 people participating. There has also been violent repression of these demonstrations by military and police. Since Zelaya appeared at the Brazilian embassy on Monday morning, at least 4 more people have been killed, including the 8 year old girl mentioned in #1 above, a 65 year old man and a labor union activist who was shot dead. This means the number killed by the coup regime since it took power on June 28 stands at about 15. If it is not more, it is because, thanks to the tactics of the Honduran resistance, the world has been watching.

4. MICHELETTI JABBERS INCOHERENTLY. Nothing more was heard today about the suggestion of US ex president Jimmy Carter that a new mediation effort be tried, using the president of Costa Rica and the Vice President of Panama as mediators. President Arias of Costa Rica is still saying that his "San Jose Accords" plan, whereby Zelaya would return under amnesty but with reduced powers, is the best way to go. However, in an interview with the BBC Arias had to admit that the coup regime really is not interested in dialog. Once again, he is putting off a visit by regional foreign ministers. Meanwhile, Micheletti claims that his siege of the Brazilian embassy was in response to the Brazilian government's request that the embassy be given protection against violence. In response to this and to accusations that Brazil is interfering in Honduras' internal affairs, Brazilian President Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva (in Pittsburgh for the G-20 meeting) is quoted as saying "I am not going to respond to the stupidities of a coup monger (golpista)". Lula added, as quoted in the Mexican online magazine Cronica.com.mx, "What is abnormal is not that Zelaya has returned, but that Micheletti has remained". He added that Zelaya is welcome to stay in the embassy as long as necessary.

5. MR. CANAHUATI LOOKS AT THE ECONOMIC SIDE. Honduras is basically run by a handful of very wealthy families, one of which is the Canahuati clan. On Wednesday Bloomberg online quoted Jesus Canahuati, Vice President of the Honduran chapter of the business council of Latin America (the gang that hired Lanny Davis to lobby on Capitol Hill in favor of the coup) as saying that the curfews that have been imposed since Zelaya's return are costing Honduran private enterprise $50 million per day, in the country's "$14.1 billion economy" by which I guess they mean Gross Domestic Product. Canahuati told Bloomberg that since the coup, Honduras has lost $200 million in foreign investments. Canahuati said these numbers "aren't sustainable". Some speculate that the business elites who were basically behind the coup will now try to get Micheletti to moderate his stance, because of these big losses. We shall see.

More tomorrow.

CT rallies for health care before profits

At a rally in front of the insurance giant Aetna, demonstrators demanded a public option to be part of the national health care legislation. The rally was one of 150 rallies throughout the United States that took place on September 22.

Big health insurance companies like Aetna are spending $641,000 a day to oppose reform because they profit by keeping the system as it is...by denying claims, raising premiums, imposing co-pays and deductibles at will, making health care decisions instead of our doctors, and denying care because of pre-existing conditions.

Ron Williams, the Aetna CEO, made 24.3 million dollars last year and Aetna generated $31.6 billion dollars in revenue from 19 million customers. Enough!! It is time to put PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS! At the conclusion of the rally an Aetna representative was presented with a list of demands that included:

* Insuring doctors rights to determine the health care of patients.
* Aetna stop denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions
* Stop giving incentives to employees for denying care and rejecting claims and
* Stop using consumers money to block health care reform

-- Tom Connolly

HONDURAS UPDATE SEPTEMBER 24 2009

By: Emile Schepers

The situation in Honduras and New York (at the UN) remains tense and dramatic. Demonstrations continue on the streets of Tegucigalpa (with one source saying a march yesterday,which was repressed, included as many as 150,000 pro-Zelaya protesters). Here are the main happenings:

1. JIMMY CARTER TO THE RESCUE--BUT OF WHOM? Evidently ex US president Jimmy Carter called up coup leader Micheletti and offered his good offices to set up some sort of mediation. This appears to have displaced or postponed a plan for OAS representatives to go to Tegucigalpa. The nature of Carter's intervention is unclear, at least to me, but I have my suspicions. Evidently what Carter has proposed is some sort of mediatory role for the Vice President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, alongside Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. Actually, Micheletti says he proposed Varela's name as a co-mediator to Carter. Why Panama? Because Panama is the only country in Latin America which has said it will consider the November 29 elections in Honduras to be legitimate even without the return of Zelaya. The current Panamanian government is right wing, in fact except for the Honduras coup regime the only right-leaning government in Central America. (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua have left or left-center governments, while Costa Rica's could be considered center-right). So what Carter seems to be doing is extending some sort of a lifeline to Micheletti and the coup regime. Whether he is doing this at the instigation of the State Department or White House, I have no idea. Sometimes his initiatives have been useful, in the past. This one I have my grave doubts about. It also appears that the idea that the U.S.A. is the mediator and arbiter of everything has not disappeared yet, as this also has the effect of marginalizing even the OAS, hitherto seen by the Latin American left as an instrument of U.S. hegemony. Previously Micheletti had said he would not let Pres. Arias or OAS Secretary General into the country.

2. AT THE UNITED NATIONS. The government of Brazil has asked for a special Security Council Session at the UN. In the continued introductory speeches in the General Assembly, a whole range of mostly Latin American leaders has denounced the coup. In addition to Brazilian President Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva, these have included Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez, Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo and Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes. Costa Rican president Oscar Arias was to speak today, but I have not seen any reports on what he said, if he indeed spoke on this topic. ALBA and the Rio group have also issued statements denouncing the state of affairs and particularly the harrassment of the Brazilian embassy.

3. AT THE BRAZILIAN EMBASSY, President Zelaya and a group of about 70 relatives, allies, press and embassy staff are still cut off from the outside world with very little in the way of supplies, with interrupted telephone and electrical service etc. Apologists for the coup government have been spreading the word that Zelaya has lost his mind because he made the accusation that the coup regime has been bombarding the embassy with ultrasound and sometimes with loud noise; but this is in fact a technique developed by the United States and used in 1989 by the George H.W. Bush administration to unnerve Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, when the U.S. invaded that country. Zelaya says he is in communication with representatives of the de facto government, but reports no progress.

4. IN THE STREETS of Tegucigalpa and other Honduran cities and towns, there have been wild confrontations between pro-Zelaya demonstrators on the one side, and army and police on the other. There was a large (don't know how many) pro Micheletti demonstration also today. This will be presented as proof that more Hondurans are against Zelaya than are for him. But I did not hear any reports that the cops and solidiers opened fire on the pro-Micheletti demonstrators with tear gas and live ammunition, as they are doing to the pro-Zelaya people. We now have reports of at four people killed by the military action, including an 8 year child, and also of many, many injured and captive. The fight is taking various forms, including barricades.

5. STATE DEPARTMENT ATTITUDE. In a press conference jointly with President Arias of Costa Rica on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she has warned both sides to keep calm and avoid provocations. She suggested support for the curfew imposed by the Micheletti regime, but repeated that Zelaya should serve out the rest of his term and the elections go forward peacefully. The tone was of an effort to be "evenhanded" which will not please anybody, especially the pro-Zelaya forces and the worldwide left. This shows why it is essential to keep contacting the White House, the State Department and Congress to demand firm action against the coup and the coup regime. We should emphasize the violent repression that is being visited on the Honduran people, and the attacks on the Brazilian embassy (including the possibility of an actual invasion) which violate international law.

More tomorrow, no doubt.

SITUATION VERY TENSE: HONDURAS UPDATE SEPT 23 2009

By Emile Schepers

The Honduras crisis remains tense and critical. Everybody should be passing the word and talking to the White House, State Department and Congress to make sure the U.S. government follows up its stated support for the restoration of President Zelaya with actions such as freezing the bank accounts of the coup leaders etc. Here is a brief list of the many things that are happening:

1. IN THE BRAZILIAN EMBASSY, President Manuel Zelaya is still inside with about 70 people including relatives, political supporters, press and embassy staff. The electricity and water is periodically cut off, and there is little food. Zelaya and others in the embassy say they are being threatened with attack plus harrassed by noise machines and tear gas (the noise machine thing is reminiscent of the tactics used against Panamanian president Manuel Noriega under Bush I). However, the threat that the military and police were going to seize the embassy and kill Zelaya and then claim it was a suicide (remember Sept. 11 1973 and the death of Salvador Allende?) has not materialized.

2. IN THE STREETS: LIVE ROUNDS. there was a strict curfew yesterday which left people desparate for lack of food and water. This was imposed after the coup regime violently dispersed the large crowd (up to 20,000 people according to varying reports) which had gathered around the Brazilian embassy to support Zelaya. Then the curfew was briefly lifted supposedly to let people get food. This is not a matter, by the way, of getting a fine for being out after curfew; this is the tradional "toque de queda" of Latin American dictators, more a martial law thing in which they shoot you if they find you in the streets. And indeed at some point a 65 year old construction worker, Francisco Alvarado, was shot dead when he left his home to look for food, according to the Spanish daily "El Pais". His sister says they gunned him down in the doorway of his house. This means that since Zelaya came back there are is at least one and maybe two more fatalities caused by action of the military and police. They are evidently using a mixture of tear gas grenades, rubber bullets and live rounds.
When the curfew was lifted, there was another huge pro-Zelaya demonstration, which was also violently repressed. There was allegedly some looting and the pro-Micheletti police are using this as a pretext for their violent actions. If there was looting it might be from desparation for lack of food. Things are getting very bad in poor working class neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa.
There are also many injured in various hospitals and hundreds of people being held prisoner in a sports stadium.

3. IN THE UNITED NATIONS. Brazil and the United States have called for a Security Council meeting on the Honduras situation, will keep you posted. In the General Assembly today and in the hallways of the UN a number of world leaders spoke on the subject of Honduras. Bolivian president Evo Morales called for the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for the restoration of Zelaya. Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, one of the first speakers, denounced the actions of the Micheletti regime againt the Brazilian embassy and called for the international community to assure the restoration of Zelaya to the presidency. Uruguayan president Tabare Vasquez and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez made similar demands. Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking at a related event, called for a new diplomatic initiative which is evidently going be attempted some time this week. There is also going to be a new OAS effort. Supposedly this is at the initiative of the coup regime. I will provide details as they develop.

4. WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING? Calling, writing, faxing, texting, e-mailing, twittering to get the message out. Pounding away at the White House, the State Department to make sure they back up the stated support for Zelaya with more and firmer actions. Getting on talk radio in English and Spanish and getting letters to the editors of the papers, plus comments on the internet list serves and websites. This is the moment, folks.

More tomorrow.

ACTION NEEDED! HONDURAS UPDATE SEPT 22 2009

By Emile Schepers

Dramatic events are happening in Honduras. At the end of this post I provide numbers to call for us to add our voices.

1. COUP REGIME REPRESSES ZELAYA SUPPORTERS AND THREATENS ATTACK ON THE BRAZILIAN EMBASSY. This morning heavily armed cops attacked the thousands of people who had gathered around the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, driving them away, injuring up to 84 people according to some reports and arresting about 300 who are being kept in a sports statium. There are reports of specific resistance leaders being targeted. Later, there were reports by various sources that Roberto Micheletti, the increasingly deranged leader of the coup regime, had asked the Honduran supreme court (the one that gave its blessing to the coup) to give him authority to send in his goons to invade the Brazilian embassy. He had said that he would respect the diplomatic status of the embassy but only if the Brazilian government handed over Zelaya or gave him political asylum in Brazil, which Brazil of course has refused to do as it considers anything coming out of Micheletti's mouth as having no validity. This evening, Zelaya himself reported that the coup regime has announced (evidently through megaphones aimed at the embassy) that it is going to send in police or military to go into the embassy and capture Zelaya by force. This would be a major violation of international law and in fact would justify Brazil in declaring war on Honduras (which is not likely). The US embassy issued a statement that if the Brazilian embassy is attacked, it will consider this to be an attack on the US embassay also. For at least a while, the coup regime had cut off water and electricity to the Brazilian embassy, but there are reports that the Red Cross and the US embassy have been sending in food and water.

What to make of this? My first inclination is to consider this to be just psychological warfare, but one can't be sure, because the coup regime is really terrified and enraged by Zelaya's lightning return to Tegucigalpa and might behave like a cornered wild beast and do irrational, desperate things. So we can't take the stance that "oh, they're only bluffing" and have to do what we can to prevent such a disaster, which mainly consists of continue to push our own government to take a strong stance and to make sure the Obama administration lets Micheletti and all his supporters know that if they violate international law by attacking the Brazilian embassy, all US bank accounts of coup supporters in the US will be frozen and all trade with Honduras will be suspended.

2. RESISTANCE CONTINUES. In spite of the repression at the embassy, the National Front Against the Coup and other resistance groups are calling for people to find their way to Tegucigalpa for a major demonstration at the university starting tomorrow at 8 am Honduras time. The regime has set up blockades and is repressing the pro-Zelaya media by threats and by cutting off electrical current, but the word seems to be getting out. As far as I know the curfuew continues, though I have not seen a specific announcement.

3. INSULZA BLOCKED FROM COMING TO HONDURAS. Yesterday, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said he was coming to Tegucigalpa today, but he was not able to do so because the coup regime closed all the airports with the specific purpose of keeping this one person out. I do not have info as to if or when he may make another try.

4. BRAZIL CALLS FOR AN EMERGENCY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING ON HONDURAS. Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim has requested that the UN Security Council meet in emergency session on the Honduras crisis, I guess tomorrow. I don't know if this has been agreed to. Brazil is not on the Security Council this time around, but has asked permission to attend and present its case.

5. MICHELETTI SAYS HE WILL HAVE A DIALOG BUT ONLY WITH PEOPLE FROM OTHER PLANETS. This morning an op-ed appeared in the Washington Post under the name of Roberto Micheletti, in which he repeated his sing-song that there was no coup and that the elections are the solution because there is freedom of assembly and of the press in Honduras. At the very time Washingtonians were reading this piece, the army and national police were beating up and arresting the people who were trying to exercise freedom of assembly at the embassy, and the pro-Zelaya media were being harassed by power cut-offs and armed threats. Later today the Spanish daily El Pais reported that Micheletti says that he is "disposed to dialog" but only with people who are impartial on the Honduras issue. He specifically denounced Costa Rican president Arias. (Some weeks ago he had suggested that Germany be asked to mediate, and has also tried to set up Secretary of State Clinton and Republican Senator Lugar as co-equal representatives of the US to meet with him).

I have to stop now but if something big is going to happen in Honduras tonight, I will try to gt the word out. Meanwhile please call the State Department at 202 647 4000 to insist that the United States act firmly to prevent further violence against President Zelaya and his supporters, and against the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Also please contact your senators and congressperson at 202 224 3121 with the same demand. More contact information on Congress can be found at www.thomas.loc.gov.

More tomorrow