Chronology of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis
[19] Political analyst and former minister German Leitzelar noted that "According to the Penal Code Article 302, officials promoting the fourth urn could face between 15 and 20 years in prison, accused of the crime of treason".
"[39] President of Congress Micheletti wrote to Romeo Vásquez Velásquez saying "Respectfully I am writing you to greet you and to remind you of the Mission to be undertaken June 28; that already the institution that you lead has been called to defend our constitution and country and every one of those Hondurans thanks you ...
A Honduran Supreme Court judge issued a sealed order, based on the Attorney General's petition, to detain José Manuel Zelaya Rosales for 18 different charges including "acting against the government, treason, abuse of authority, and usurpation of power" in relation to the poll.
[51] The Washington Post reported that the "new Honduran government clamped down on street protests and news organizations [July 1] as lawmakers passed an emergency decree that limits public gatherings following the military-led coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office."
[59] On Sunday night, Reuters reported that hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters, some masked and wielding sticks, set up barricades of chain link fences and downed billboards in the center of Tegucigalpa and blocked roads to the presidential palace.
To ensure democracy, the rule of law, public safety and peace, the National Congress issued an order (decreto ejecutivo N° 011-2009) at the request of President Micheletti temporarily suspending four constitutional guarantees during the hours the curfew is in effect.
[95] The Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), an association for civil rights, said that on Wednesday 1 July, police and military were flattening homes and sequestering people in the communities of Olancho, which is the birthplace of the president in exile, Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
The association denounced that the Armed Forces and the Police have unleashed repression against the people of Honduras and all liability for the violations being committed against social leaders, against whom there are arrest warrants, residents, rural communities, students, peasants and workers.
[109] Many demonstrations for the constitution, peace, democracy and against Zelaya's attempts to return to power took place in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Talanga, La Ceiba, El Progreso, Choluteca, and other cities.
[125] According to the Associated Press, Zelaya, accompanied by several ambassadors and the United Nations General Assembly president, departed Washington's Dulles Airport on a jet, registration N515RN owned by CITGO a subsidiary of the Venezuelan PDVSA,[126] hoping to land in the Honduran capital.
The Commission holds the hypothesis that the shots were made by members of the Army, but it claims that certainty is impossible to reach, as the military refused to cooperate with the criminal investigations ordered in September of that year[137] La Prensa reports that Zelaya supporters are paying people L250-L300 ($13.22 - $15.87) to demonstrate against the de facto government.
"[142] Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, Minister of Culture under Zelaya, told the BBC from hiding "Today there is the risk [of civil war] because both sides have a wide social base, they are completely polarised and they have weapons and resources.
[177] The Secretary of Information, Réne Cepeda, told the AFP that the de facto government issued a request that the UN send an independent Human Rights commission to Honduras to cut down on the disinformation.
[181] The New York Times revealed that two former aides of Bill Clinton were advising Micheletti and the de facto government in their interactions with US legislators in Washington, D. C. and their meetings with Oscar Arias in San José, Costa Rica.
Lanny Davis, who served as President Clinton's personal lawyer, was hired by the Honduran chapter of the Business Council of Latin America to help their delegation lobby against economic sanctions against Honduras.
Honduran political analyst Juan Ramon Martinez said Micheletti might be trying to float a more flexible image to the outside world while entrenching his position inside Honduras, where there have been large marches in favor of keeping Zelaya out.
[247] An international human rights mission including, among others, Nora Cortiñas of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, reported that "the army and the special forces of the National Police of Honduras attacked thousands of pacific demonstrators, with fire weapons, wood and rubber projectiles and as well as tear gas, thrown even from helicopters."
The international mission "gathered testimonies of protesters whom have been ill treated and brutally beaten, at times in a sexual manner (strikes on people's buttocks and threats of rape)" and said that minors had been attacked and detained.
[262] About five thousand marchers left the departments Colón and Atlántida as part of a nationwide convergence march in opposition to the coup d'état, planned to end simultaneously in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula on 11 August.
"We ask that you instruct the Treasury Department to freeze the bank accounts and assets of individuals involved in the coup, and deny them entry into the United States", Obama's fellow Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter dated August 7 but released today.
The head of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, flew to Honduras with seven foreign ministers to persuade the post-coup government to accept a proposal to reinstall ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
[295] Time magazine reports, "in the past three weeks, Micheletti has cracked down on civil rights, shuttered pro-Zelaya broadcasters and decreed that more media will be muzzled if they 'transmit messages that incite national hate.'
Honduran police announced restrictions on protests, saying they must be authorized by the government 24 hours in advance with a request detailing the people in charge and the time and route the march will take, in an effort to quell near daily rallies in favor of Zelaya.
"[304] U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Chilean former president Ricardo Lagos were named to the commission tasked with monitoring the creation of a power-sharing government in Honduras, under the U.S.-brokered agreement to end the nation's 4-month-old political crisis.
His request came after Washington's top envoy to Latin America, Thomas Shannon, told CNN en Español that the U.S. will recognize the November 29 elections even if the Honduran Congress decides against returning Zelaya to power.
[326] Costa Rica promised Friday to restore ties with Honduras if its presidential elections are clean, joining other nations in rejecting ousted President Manuel Zelaya's insistence that recognizing the vote would legitimize a June coup.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, head of the Cuban delegation at the 19th Ibero-American Summit in Portugal, demanded the adoption of a declaration rejecting the Honduran elections held under a dictatorship in Honduras established through a military coup with the encouragement and support of the United States.
They support the efforts carried out by the government of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in urging international organizations to "bring to justice the masterminds and perpetrators of the coup d'état and those responsible for human rights violation and political persecution in Honduras.
Dilma Rousseff, chief of staff for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said that the Central American country's recent elections should be considered separately from the 28 June coup that ousted ex-President Manuel Zelaya.
[340] EFE reports, along with many other sources, that Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Manuel Zelaya Rosales have agreed to meet Monday to try to put an end to the political crisis in Honduras, announced Dominican President Leonel Fernández.
