Word: zelaya
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Those who back Zelaya's restoration, including the Obama Administration and every other world government, argue that condoning a military coup would simply set Latin America's democratic clock back to the dictator-infested 20th century. Zelaya's opponents equate his leftist politics with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - whom they call a socialist caudillo - and they point to Chavez's declaration this week that he helped Zelaya get to Tegucigalpa as proof that Zelaya is the Venezuelan's puppet...
...Zelaya says he got no help from Chavez and, contrary to Chavez's statements this week that he advised Zelaya to take refuge with the Brazilians, tells TIME the Venezuelan President did not know he was headed to that embassy. "No one knew," says Zelaya. "I'm a great friend of [Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva], who has given me a lot of support, so going there was a sensible thing...
Either way, Zelaya, 57, says he trekked 15 hours by foot, car and plane (he won't say over which border or who helped him) before showing up at the Brazilian mission. It took him in, even though it may have to host Zelaya, who would be arrested if he stepped outside, for weeks if not months. Zelaya had tried unsuccessfully to fly and walk into Honduras in July. "How could I stay in exile," he asks, "when the coup has been condemned by every country in the world? I had to come back to show support for the people...
...After Zelaya told the Miami Herald earlier this week that the Micheletti government was "threatening me with death" and that "Israeli mercenaries" were trying to zap him with high-frequency radiation, Brazil admonished him to soften his rhetoric. But after army and police riot squads were criticized at home and abroad this week for their heavy-handed use of clubs, tear gas and mass arrests, Zelaya still argues, "We came here for dialogue and they answer us with war. Since the coup this has become a violently repressive regime." Micheletti supporters, however, suggest that's part of Zelaya's strategy...
...Zelaya also hints that he came to Tegucigalpa in part because he and his leftist allies in the region, including Chavez, felt the U.S. has been too tepid in trying to leverage Micheletti. (The Obama Administration has cut off some $30 million in aid to Honduras as well as visas, and has threatened not to recognize the presidential election results if Zelaya is not returned to office by then.) "President Obama and Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton have made a great effort, and I realize they live in a democracy with limits on their actions," he says...