Honduran troops crack down on protests

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduran security forces Monday fired tear gas at protesters demanding the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, as Western Hemisphere leaders pressed for an end to Central America's first military coup in 16 years.

Troops in battle dress chased rock-throwing demonstrators through downtown streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital, as a military helicopter whirred overhead. At least 30 people were injured, a Red Cross official said. One man reportedly died after being hit by a truck in an earlier incident.

Honduras found itself increasingly isolated a day after the army arrested Zelaya and deported him to Costa Rica. President Obama said allowing the coup to stand would set a "terrible precedent" evoking "a dark past." Several Latin American countries recalled their ambassadors from Tegucigalpa.

Honduras' de facto rulers imposed a media blackout, preventing international newspapers from circulating and blocking access to Internet news sites and international cable-news networks.

Zelaya, a leftist whose efforts to change the Honduran Constitution fueled opposition to his rule, appeared at a summit of regional heads of state in Managua, Nicaragua, and was invited to speak at the U.N. General Assembly today.

"I want to return to my country," Zelaya said. "I am president of Honduras."

Despite nearly unanimous international condemnation of the coup, the man whom the Honduran Congress named to replace Zelaya remained defiant. Roberto Micheletti said the Honduran Supreme Court backed the removal of Zelaya, whom it accused of violating the constitution. Micheletti said Zelaya had used his close ties to Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, to drag Honduras to the radical left.

"Eighty to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened," Micheletti said on Honduran radio.

Honduras is, in fact, divided. Zelaya has a strong following among the country's poor, but he alienated Congress, the Supreme Court and much of institutional Honduras.

In the streets of Tegucigalpa, protests were growing. Several thousand Hondurans converged around the presidential palace early Monday, vowing to occupy the zone until Zelaya returned.

Chanting support for the president known by the nickname Mel, protesters burned tires and set up barricades using bricks, stones and metal signs. Some armed with sticks and clubs taunted soldiers. Smoke billowed in the air, and traffic snarled on the blocked streets.

"This is only the beginning," said demonstrator Felix Murillo Lopez, 37, a high-school teacher. "For sure, it's going to get bloody."

By Monday afternoon, troops had begun cracking down. They fired M-16 rifles into the air and lobbed tear gas at groups of demonstrators, some of whom hurled stones and broke windows. Most of the violence took place in an area near the presidential palace.

"The soldiers beat us like dogs," said Yamie Viera, 30.

Injuries included people overcome by the acrid gas, and several people with bloodied heads could be seen, said Luis Reyes of the Red Cross as he bandaged one bleeding young man. He said 30 people were treated at his station.

Bertha Oliva, a prominent human-rights activist in Honduras, said her group had reports of 60 injuries treated at a hospital.

"These people causing this violence are digging their own tomb," Oliva said.

Earlier in the day, workers at the telephone company protested the installation's takeover by about 50 troops. Some demonstrators around the presidential palace said that they might not have agreed with all of Zelaya's policies but that using the army to remove him was incorrect.

"The president told the oligarchs that they were a bunch of corrupt people who weren't democrats and who oppressed the people and who didn't share their wealth," said Dalila Aparicio Colindres, a 53-year-old teacher who was protesting in favor of Zelaya with her 20-year-old son. "They didn't like it, and it made him their enemy."

"I'm here in the street to support democracy," said another demonstrator, Medardo Cardona Landa, an artist and teacher.

Micheletti and the other people running Honduras have argued that the removal of Zelaya and installation of Micheletti were legal because Congress and the courts signed off on the actions.

After weeks of tension, the standoff between Zelaya and his many opponents came to a head over a vote he had scheduled for Sunday asking Hondurans about revising the constitution.

The Supreme Court, the attorney general's office and the military opposed the vote, deemed illegal because it was not endorsed by the electoral tribunal. Many feared Zelaya was using the bid to extend his own time in office, as other Latin American leaders have done. As it stands, the Honduran Constitution limits presidents to a single four-year term.

Ramón Custodio, the Honduran national human-rights commissioner, said the military action could not be called a coup.

"We are returning to constitutional order," he told journalists in Tegucigalpa. "It was impossible to continue with such an authoritarian person."

In Washington, the Obama administration repeated its condemnation of the ouster, despite ambivalence about Zelaya himself.

"Our immediate priority is to restore full democratic and constitutional order in that country," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. She urged dialogue.

The Organization of American States scheduled a meeting of foreign ministers for Tuesday to debate whether Honduras should be suspended under rules that disqualify nondemocratic regimes.