From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, freelance journalist Sandra Cuffe speaks to TRNN producer Jesse Freeston about the continuing popular Honduran resistance to the military coup that disposed elected President Manuel Zelaya June 28th.
In Washington, DC, yesterday, an emergency meeting of the Organization of American states voted 33 to zero in favour of removing Honduras from the group. Manuel Zelaya, who was present at the meeting, stated that he plans on returning to his country.
"As president, I'm going to accompany my people, to call for calm, nonviolence, and to help everything unfold in a respectful environment,"
The popular protests against the military coup and acting President Roberto Micheletti's government still persist in the streets. Sandra Cuffe calls the movement, devoid of Zelaya's physical presence in the country and any anti-coup media, "very organic."
Cuffe says that the movement consists of everyone, from opponents of Zelaya supporting democratic elections to union members and housewives. "[It's] unions, it's indigenous organizations, it's the environmental movement, it's church organizations, it's housewives—I mean, every kind of organization. The movement itself is being coordinated by the National Coordination of Popular Resistance, and information is getting around mainly through a couple of radio stations, but mostly it's really word of mouth," Cuffe says.
Zelaya's plane from Washington, DC, attempted to land in Tegucigalpa but the military blocked off the runway with personnel and vehicles. The plane, containing both Zelaya and the President of the UN General Assembly, eventually landed in San Salvador.
Despite the military blocking Zelaya's return to Honduras and the media blackout, Cuffe says that she is pretty sure that the protests will continue. "Even though, you know, people were shot today and young people were killed, and even though the plane couldn't land and nobody has, really, any idea what's actually going to happen tomorrow, I'm 99.9 percent sure that tomorrow morning, people are going to gather...and people are going to be even more determined and optimistic. There was a lot of surprise, a lot of fear, a lot of anger, a lot of sadness. But right now, that optimism, that's really, I'd say, like, the overarching feeling of the movement," she says.
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