Honduran regime imposes state of siege

[Hannah Bell]

Three months after the coup that brought it to power, the right-wing regime headed by Liberal Party leader Roberto Micheletti has imposed a 45-day state of siege, suspending all basic democratic rights.

Monday saw the implementation of the decree, which allows for arrests and searches without charges or warrants, and abrogates the right to assembly, freedom of movement and freedom of speech and press.

The coup regime has claimed that the measures were necessary to counter supposed calls for “insurrection” by ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who managed to make a clandestine return to the country on September 21, taking refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Following his return, far from calling for an “insurrection,” Zelaya appealed for dialogue and then met with the four candidates for president—all of them coup supporters—in an election set for November. Those resisting the coup had called for a boycott of this vote...

The coup regime issued a deadline to the Brazilian government Monday, giving it 10 days to either hand over Zelaya or remove him from the country to asylum in Brazil. After that, it said, it would no longer recognize Brazil’s diplomatic immunity, and security forces would be free to carry out an assault on the embassy to capture the deposed president...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/hond-s29.shtml

[nosmokes]

1. Took em longer than I thought it would. Viva Zelaya!