Photo courtesy of Centro Cooperativo Sueco (SCC)

On 28th June, the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya was woken up by 200 soldiers of his own army and was forced into exile in Costa Rica.

Zelaya had that day planned to hold a non-binding consultation to ask people whether they supported moves to change the constitution.

Later that day, Roberto Micheletti, head of Congress, and constitutionally second in line to the presidency, was installed as de-facto leader. He justified Zelaya’s forced exile stating the president had been seeking re-election, something the president has repeatedly denied.

During two months after his removal, Zelaya twice attempted to return to his country.  On 5th July, he tried to fly to Tegucigalpa but his plane was blocked from landing by the military. On the ground, clashes between Micheletti’s troops and supporters left one person dead.

On 25th July, the ousted president made a brief symbolic crossing into Honduras from across the border the country shares with Nicaragua, where he was living in exile.

International Response

The international reaction to the coup has been to isolate the interim leadership. The Organisation of American States (OAS) demanded Mr Zelaya’s immediate reinstatement. As Micheletti’s government failed to plan a deadline to restore Zelaya to power, the OAS turned their back on Honduras. A number of Latin American countries, including Zelaya’s allies Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, withdrew their ambassadors. All EU countries called back their diplomats. The World Bank suspended financial aid.

The reaction of the US has an important role in the conflict, as it is Honduras’s biggest trading partner. The Obama administration stressed that Zelaya is the democratically-elected president but also emphasised the fact that the crisis needs to be resolved.

“We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, she did not explicitly call for Zelaya to return to power, a frequent critic of the US, saying he should try to resolve issues in talks.

Reconciliation?

Photo courtesy of Centro Cooperativo Sueco (SCC)

On 7th July Costan Rican president Oscar Arias, a Nobel peace prize winner, agreed to mediate. After talking with both sides, he drafted the San José accord, published on the 18th July. The text specifically called for Zelaya’s restitution to power. It also underlined the establishment of a reconciliation government where every party would be represented.

The agreement asked for the ousted leader to give up on the Constituent Assembly and so the change of the constitution. Arias suggested that presidential elections would be moved up from the 29th November to the last Sunday in October. The text also contained a clause that gave amnesty regarding political crimes committed during the conflict.

The Arias proposal found some favour among representatives of business in Honduras. Carlos Flores Facusse, former Honduran president, sent a fax to Arias and to the Micheletti advisors in San José suggesting they agree to the key points of the proposal. This was received by the Micheletti advisors “like being hit by a glass of cold water.”

“I’m very sorry, but the proposals that you have presented are unacceptable to the constitutional government of Honduras,” said Carlos Lopez, head of the Micheletti negotiating team. The de facto government in particular could not reconcile itself with the return of Zelaya to power.

Other attempts at agreements have also been rejected by the current leadership, despite Zelaya’s agreement to them.

Peaceful protests have continued throughout Honduras, calling for the elected president’s reinstatement. Many of these have been met with violence by the armed forces and police.

Zelaya’s Return

Photo courtesy of Centro Cooperativo Sueco (SCC)

On 21st September, Radio Globo surprised the Honduran people by claiming return of Manuel Zelaya to the Tegucigalpa. At first denied by Micheletti, it was later accepted he has sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy in capital Tegucigalpa.

The interim government respond by ordering the closure of airports and installing a curfew, while cutting the Brazilian embassy’s electricity and telecommunications. Same treatment is given to Radio Globo and Canal 36, two broadcasters supporting Manuel Zelaya.

Journalist reported that on the following day, protesters have been violently evicted by the police. The army is said to have installed devices that emit electricity waves that make a noise that destroys the ear and spreads chemicals affecting the skin.

“It was a terrible repression,” stated Congressman Marvin Ponce, who was with Zelaya in the embassy. “They don’t respect human rights. They don’t want a political dialogue.”

“It was brutal,” said resistance organiser Juan Barahona, director of El Bloque Popular. “I was outside the embassy when the police began their dispersal. Afterwards we reorganised, and marched through some of the poor neighbourhood. But the police attacked us there as well.”

Committee for Detained and Disappeared Persons of Honduras (COFADEH) alone had documented 36 injured people on that day, many bearing severe wounds from police batons. Two deaths were also reported. Congressman Ponce put the total number of wounded at 172. Independent reports indicated about 350 people were also arrested and detained in the Villa Olympica soccer stadium.

Coup supporters were also seen marching on the following days.

On 27th September, the de facto government prohibited the broadcast of any “spoken, written or televised media” through a 45-day long decree. This is supposed to avoid the spread of any information supporting Manuel Zelaya. It is especially directed towards Radio Globo and Canal 36, both strong supporters of the ousted leader.

The interim president later reconsidered the decree at the request of a Congress delegation. “This decree will be abolished in the right moment, to permit to Honduran people to take part into the elections,” he said.

Stalemate

Photo courtesy of Centro Cooperativo Sueco (SCC)

Despite numerous attempts at dialogue, Zelaya remains in the Brazilian embassy, and the de facto leadership remains in power.

Zelaya maintains civil liberties have to be returned before any attempts at dialogue can be had, and submitted a simple agenda, calling first for the agreement to the San José accords.

Roberto Micheletti shared his enthusiasm regarding this second attempt to restore democracy. “We are going to sit down, this is going forward, I have no doubt about it,” he confirmed.

At the time of writing, on 13th October the delegations have met again for further negotiations, a week after the first attempt of the OAS to solve the crisis. Zelaya’s supporters are still calling for their president’s restitution.

“This is quite hard. We don’t perceive the will to bring the constitutional order back, all they want is to dilate it, but let’s wait and see,” said Rafael Alegría, one of Zelaya’s representatives. According to them, the solution seems to be expected from the OAS and the UN who are now mediators of the conflict.

The fear seems to be that the de facto leadership are just buying time until 29th November, the scheduled date for elections. Zelaya claims any such elections would be a farce, as the current regime has shown little respect for democracy and civil liberties.

But it has, so far, been agreed that they will not been cancelled or delayed. Both parties have managed to agree to six of the 11 points of the San José Accords. They summarise in the creation of a unity government and reconciliation. Moreover, Zelaya has agreed not to call a constituent assembly if he can complete his presidential mandate, ending on 27th January 2010.

As of 13th October, Zelaya is still under the protection of the Brazilian embassy. He has given a two-day ultimatum to his restitution as president.

Manuel Zelaya claimed, yesterday, to have initiated a dialogue with the Roberto Micheletti regime in order to find an end to the political crisis in Honduras.According to Zelaya, this was totally unproductive because of the inflexibility of Micheletti partisans.

The head of the constitution also specified that ousted president also had a brief talk with a member of the interim government on Wednesday night.

“Yesterday night (Wednesday) I received one of the staff members of Micheletti government, someone really close to him at 7pm. He came up with unconceivable propositions saying that Mr Micheletti wants to leave the government and put another president. This is another coup.” said Zelaya to the Cuban television.

It has been announced by the local press that several people from the private sector and from political parties will come to the Brazilian embassy.

Press releases showed that different business sectors were trying to unite to help dialogue between Micheletti and Zelaya . The four presidential candidates are also involved in that initiative.

The ousted leader asked the Honduran people to join the resistance and not attend marches organised by the interim government.

Yesterday, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced its decision to keep the Honduras exempted of the financial help it gives to its members.

The interim government in Honduras has brought a curfew back into place in Tegucigalpa after thousands of supporters of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya came out in force, creating some disturbances.

The police reported that some of the protesters had burnt a bus and a fast food restaurant.

Zelaya’s supporters had planned the protest to coincide with a meeting with other Latin American Secretaries of State headed by the general secretary of the Organisation of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza. The interim government, headed by Roberto Micheletti consequently postponed the visit.

Various groups had travelled from all over Honduras to meet yesterday in Tegucigalpa, the capital, and San Pedro Sula. Small groups of people left their villages walking, growing in numbers along the way.

Nevertheless, the march did not have the audience they had hoped for.

The new curfew will run from ten at night until five in the morning.

Seven weeks have passed since the coup  took place, and neither the efforts of the OAS or of the President of Costa Rica, Óscar Arias, have helped to make any progress.

Difficult times lie ahead for the people of Honduras, who are nevertheless withstanding the coup and facing the army’s aggression face on. On July 30 clashes between protesters and troops loyal to the coup left a 38 year-old teacher fighting for his life after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet. Roger Abraham Vallejo went into a coma after undergoing surgery and later died. Despite the beatings and arbitrary arrests and detentions, people are continuing the fight to put their democratically elected leader back in his place.

Efforts of the United States to restore Zelaya have been tepid. The US has refused to freeze the bank accounts and cancel the visas of the coup leaders, measures that Zelaya and other Latin American governments have urged Washington to do.

The Obama administration’s first statement did not criticise the coup, and the state department continues to refuse to describe it as a coup.

The ambivalent reaction of the US could be down to the fact that their only Central American military base is in Honduras and the relationship between Washington and the Honduran military is deep and enduring. The two generals who led the coup were both trained at the US School of the Americas (SOA) based in Georgia. (SOA is now known as The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Operation, or WHINSEC).

When Zelaya began to support the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s answer to US-imposed free trade agreements)  this marked him as the black sheep, and can explain the deeper sources of opposition shown by the US.

The instigators of the coup have also been able to draw upon support from the tiny elite in Honduras, who were notably unhappy when Zelaya increased the minimum wage by 60%, saying sweatshops were unacceptable and “the rich must pay their share.”

Consequently, the US multinational Chiquita expressed its concern at Zelaya’s minimum wage decrees, which they said would reduce profits.

Information coming out of Honduras is limited; there has been a media blackout and all mainstream media channels are now under the control of Micheletti. Several journalists from Telesur have been detained since their coverage showed the bloodied faces of protesters who had been quashed by the military.

   

Photo courtesy of Flickr user rbreve

On Sunday, 28th June Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, was woken at 5:30 in the morning when more than 200 soldiers, members of his own army, forced their way in the presidential residence. They came, he told Democracy Now!, “with hoods and bulletproof vests, and rifles, aimed their guns at me, fired shots, used machine guns, kicked down the doors and just as I was, in pyjamas, they put me on an plane and flew me to Costa Rica.”

Zelaya had been trying to hold a non binding public opinion poll on possible constitutional reform which his critics say could have him to increase his term limits. Because this poll did not conform to requirements of recent legislation, holding it was deemed illegal by the Honduran congress and the Supreme Court.

Zelaya decided to go ahead anyway, and ordered the army to provide logistical support for the poll. On 24th June, his armed forces chief of staff, Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, refuses to help Zelaya and steps down in protest. He does so among 33 officers, including the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, as well as the Secretary of Defence.

US diplomats shortly thereafter become aware that a coup may be in the offing. “As the crisis escalated,” reports the New York Times, “American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup.”

Their efforts fail and the Honduran Supreme Court orders that Zelaya be taken from power. On Sunday, hours before the poll is scheduled to take place, he is deposed. That afternoon, Roberto Micheletti, head of congress and constitutionally next in line for the presidency, is installed as the new president. One of congress’s first moves is to accept a letter of resignation from Zelaya, which it emerges later, is signed 25th June, three days before the coup. Zelaya claims categorically that it is a fake.

   

Photo courtesy of Flickr user rbreve

Leaders from around the world join in condemning the coup. President Obama makes a public statement saying that the “coup” was “not legal.” He goes on to ad: “I think it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls for the return to democratic norms. “The action… violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all,” she says. “We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law.” This statement, which falls short of explicitly demanding Zelaya’s return, will become the US policy on the issue.

The Honduran government immediately cracks down on independent media and initiates a night-time curfew. There are violent pro-Zelaya protests in front of the presidential residence, and on Monday, the next day, 2000 people gather to support Micheletti and the new regime in the central square in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

With unanimous international backing, Zelaya appears at the United Nations the following Tuesday. The General Assembly, along with the Organisation of American States (OAS) join in recognising him as the legitimate leader of Honduras.

On Wednesday, the OAS issues an ultimatum to the coup government, saying that if they don’t step down by the following Saturday, the OAS will revoke their membership in the powerful organization. Zelaya, who had originally promised to go back to Honduras Thursday, agrees to put of his return until the ultimatum expires.

   

Photo courtesy of Presidencia de la Republica de Ecuador

The coup leaders are implacable, and refuse to step down, claiming that Zelaya broke the law and that he will be arrested if he returns. On Saturday, facing total inaction from the coup government, the OAS acts on its promise and votes 33 to 0, that the small country’s membership be revoked. It’s the first time this has happened since Cuba was kicked out in 1962 for allying itself with the Soviet Union.

And then on Sunday, 5 July Zelaya attempts to return.

Boarding a Venezuelan plane along with the General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, he flies for Tegucigalpa calling for his supporters to gather at the airport in “without arms.” Anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people arrive. In live broadcast from the plane, Zelaya tells Venezuelan Telesur news channel “The blood of Christ is coursing through my veins… Soon I will be with you all to raise the crucifix.”

Rebuffed by the coup government placing army trucks and personnel across the runway, the plane is unable to land.  The protests turn violent, with police and army using tear gas and rubber bullets to drive Zelaya supporters away. At least one person is killed. The crowds chant “We want blue helmets!” meaning UN peacekeepers. “I’m doing everything I can,” Zelaya says. “If I had a parachute I would immediately jump out of this plane.” The plane is forced to land in El Salvador.
 

The following Tuesday, 7 July, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias agrees to mediate talks between the two sides. A Nobel laureate since 1987 for his role ending Central American civil wars, Hillary Clinton says Arias is “the natural person to assume this role.”

The talks hinge on one issue, whether Zelaya will return. Before the talks both leaders issues statement saying that they are inflexible on the issue. On Thursday 9 July, they arrive at Arias’s Costa Rica home. Without ever meeting, they both have individual talks with Arias and leave Friday’s negotiation to their respective delegations. Micheletti says he is “totally satisfied.”

   

Photo courtesy of Flickr user rbreve

After the talks, Zelaya calls for “the re-establishment of the state of law, democracy and the return of the president elected by the Honduran people.” For his part, Micheletti says “We are in agreement with his [Zelaya's] return here – but to be sent directly to the courts.”

At time of writing, the second day of talks is still underway.

US Role

These are the facts, but they leave many questions to be answered. First might be the US role in the events in what is traditionally called its backyard. A mark of the new administration, the State Department has taken behind the scenes role, leaving the public diplomacy to regional players like Arias and José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the OAS. But what, if any, are the American interests in the situation?

As the New York Times reported, American diplomats were aware that a coup was being planned, and throughout the situation, the US could have applied more pressure to de facto regime. Despite Obama’s statement, the administration has consistently stopped short of an official, legal recognition that what took place was a coup. While US aid has been put on hold for the time being, recognising the coup would mandate the state department to withdraw aid for the country completely, a move they are apparently reluctant to join the World Bank in making.

More than two thirds of Honduras’s US$3.5b budget is reliant on foreign aid, with some US$68.2m to Honduras in 2010, slated to come from the US in 2010 as well as US$43.2m this year. The US is also Honduras’s largest trading partner, and notably absent from public discussion is talk of trading sanctions. The US is also the only country in the region that hasn’t withdrawn its ambassador.

On the other hand, US embassy in Tegucigalpa reports that US$16.5m in military aid had already been suspended, and the coup administration faces the possible loss of another US$180m in the upcoming year.

The Coup’s Story

The de facto Honduran government has maintained throughout the events that Zelaya is a criminal, and he himself has never made it clear what his planned changes to the constitution were to be. Was he trying to extend his term limits, and if so, was it a coup?

The Honduran constitution essentially makes felony to try to create a new constitution. It is legal to modify about 90% of the constitution, but for several key points including term limits. In order to change the constitution, which is legal, you must collect at least 24,000 requests, or have the support of the congress. At the time of the coup, Zelaya claimed he had about 40,000 requests, more than enough to initiate a process of constitutional change.

The poll question only asks whether citizens agree to holding a “constituent assembly” on changing the constitution, and mentions nothing of term limits. This means that the legality of the poll is essentially improvable, unless you could show categorically what Zelaya intended to do. 

Not often mentioned in debates of these issues, is that at the time of the coup, Zelaya had an approval rating of only 30%, which had fallen from a high of 57% in January 2007. So even if Zelaya had secured a place in the running, he would have likely lost. If the coup leaders were really only trying to stop him from being re-elected, why not just wait until he was voted from office in November. And if his constitutional initiative had really been as unpopular as the coup claims, why not let it fail?

Zelaya’s Story

Zelaya argues Honduran elites were angered by his populist policies. A landed logging tycoon, Zelaya was elected in 2006 on a centre right platform, and if he’d stuck to it, he’d likely still be in power today. But over the last few years, he’d drifter internationally and domestically to the left.

He joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, and Petrocaribe, both regional trade blocks initiated by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez to foment regional autonomy from US interests. Throughout the last few week, Chávez has been doing everything he can to help the deposed leader. “This is a coup against Venezuela!” he said immediately afterwards and even make threats of armed action.

Domestically, Zelaya had started a free lunch school and computer lab program in schools, lowered the cost of public transportation and nearly doubled minimum wage. He says these are the real reasons for the coup. “Honduras is controlled by a group of 10 families that control the entire economy,” he told Democracy Now! hosts Amy Goodman. “It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government,” Honduran army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza said after the coup. “That’s impossible.” More public members of the coup government have not directly answered Zelaya’s accusations, preferring to maintain their argument that he is a criminal.

Possible Resolutions

The first two days of talks appear unlikely to yield a resolution. “It’s possible that this is going to take more time than we could have imagined,’’ Arias said. “It is difficult to talk about a successful negotiation if President Manuel Zelaya is not reinstated.”

State Department officials have floated several possible outcomes. They include some kind of power sharing arrangement between Zelaya and Micheletti, and Zelaya returning to serve the rest of his term, but with limits on his power. Regardless, they all include some form of Zelaya returning.

A group of almost 40 American intellectuals including Noam Chomsky have written and co-signed a letter to Hillary Clinton calling for Zelaya’s immediate reinstatement. “Anything less than the urgent restoration of President Manuel Zelaya to office would be an usurpation of the will of the Honduran people,” the letter reads.

It calls against early elections, saying they would, “currently would take place under a coup regime that has suspended civil liberties, and where the conditions for free elections do not exist.”

“There is one legal, just, and democratic solution to Honduras’ current crisis,” the letter reads, “the swift restoration of President Zelaya and the imposition of economic sanctions-trade as well as aid, on the illegal regime.” But with the State Department sitting back, talks going nowhere and the Honduran government unwilling to budge, what may happen is unclear.  

Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), arrived today in Honduras to conduct negotiations with the interim government. The OAS has issued an ultimatum, saying they will revoke Honduras’s membership unless deposed president Zelaya is returned to power by this weekend.

Insulza made clear that he “was not going to Honduras to negotiate,” but to tell the Honduran government to reinstate Zelaya. They have said they may be open to holding early elections.

However, interim president Roberto Micheletti has publicly stated that Honduras is not open to outside influence. “We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,” he said.

Zelaya was deposed by the army last Sunday over his controversial attempts to change the constitution. Critics say he was trying to increase his term limits, a line the interim government has held to. Zelaya has agreed to postpone his return until after the diplomatic mission.

There have been protests both for and against the new government. In San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second largest city with over 1m inhabitants, Micheletti has installed his nephew as mayor, reports Telesur.

At 11am this morning, protestors reporting hearing gun shots. In the ensuing chaos, some 50 people were arrested. The mayor, Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri, has reportedly not been seen since.

Allegedly, William Hall Micheletti, nephew of acting president Micheletti, has since been installed as mayor. In elections in November 2008, Sunseri won 63% of the vote, while William Hall Micheletti gained 16%.

The interim government in Honduras has rejected a three day deadline to stand down and accept the return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya. The Organisation of American States said Wednesday that if the president was not reinstated by the weekend, they would suspend Honduras’s membership.

Zelaya was deposed Sunday for trying to hold a non binding referendum to gage public opinion on modifying the constitution. Critics and the interim government say it was an attempt to extend term limits.

Interim president Roberto Micheletti, who was sworn in by congress on Sunday, maintains that no coup took place, and that Zelaya was removed with due democratic process. “We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,” he said. He has also made it clear that Zelaya, who faces a raft of charges in the country, will be arrested on return.

During the next three days, the OAS will conduct a diplomatic mission in the country, with the hopes of coming to some kind of agreement. Washington has taken a back seat role, and chosen to defer to the mission.

“We will wait until the OAS secretary-general has finished his diplomatic initiative and reports back on July 6 before we take any further action in relationship to assistance,” a senior Obama official told Reuters. Zelaya will wait on the mission to attempt a return, which he had originally said would be Thursday.

Elected in 2006 on a centre right platform, Zelaya had steadily tacked left over the last few years. He had built ties with Venezuela, joining Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a trade block designed to develop Latin American autonomy from US interests.

This created fear in the Honduras’s powerful elite that the country would shift towards Chávez’s socialist policies of nationalization. Critics of the new government argue that the coup was carried out to protect these interests. At the time he was deposed, Zelaya’s approval ratings had reached a low of 30%, from 57% in January 2007.

Reaction within Honduras has been difficult to gage, as the new government has clamped down on media. It is clear, however, that there have been protests both for and against the regime change, and one of Micheletti’s first moves as president was to issue night time curfew.

The congress has since issued a decree formally ends Hondurans rights to free association at night, formalizes the curfew and allows police to hold citizens for 24 hours without charge.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has issued a three day ultimatum for the interim Honduran government to stand down and except the return of exiled president Manuel Zelaya.

The head of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, condemned what he called “an old-fashioned coup.” If Zelaya is not reinstated in three days, the OAS will convene to suspend Honduras. Zelaya had originally intended to return on Thursday, but has agreed to wait.

Acting president Roberto Micheletti has promised to arrest Zelaya if he returns. He told the Associated Press Tuesday that Zelaya “has already committed crimes against the Constitution and the law.” Adding that, “He can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns.”

Honduran military took Zelaya from his bed early Sunday morning, and forced him to leave the country due to controversy arising from the referendum he had intended to hold later that day. The English language media has widely reported that the referendum sought to extend Zelaya’s term limits, a fact he has adamantly denied.

The text of the non-binding ballot, as reported by Terra news service on 24 March, asks whether Hondurans agree with holding “a national constituent assembly to issue and approve a new political constitution.”

The world has reacted with near universal condemnation. The World Bank has suspended loans to Honduras valued at some US$400m, and the US is the only country in the region not to have withdrawn its ambassador to Honduras.

The New York Times reports that “[U.S. government] officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup.”

The coup was carried out by armed forces chief of staff Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, who Zelaya fired Wednesday for refusing to help conduct the referendum. Velasque was a trained graduate of the US Army School of the Americas.

President Obama has called for a return to constitutional norms, referring to the “coup” as “not legal.”

In country reaction appears to be mixed. Protestors for and against the new government have convened in the streets. In an unpublished letter to CNN, Estefanía Murillo Martínez, 22, a communications student in the capital says, “the overall feeling when Roberto Micheletti took over the presidency of my country was relief.”

The interim government has reportedly sanctioned the independent media and set up road blocks to prevent protestors from reaching the capital, where there are reports of rolling blackouts. Police have used tear gas and, allegedly, rubber bullets to clear pro-Zelaya protestors. Injuries and deaths have been reported, though numbers are unclear.