Wed 1 Jul 2009
El Golpe de Estado
Posted by anitab under Uncategorized
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We picked up our passports in Managua on Monday morning. Both of us look as if we posed for mug shots from some sweaty Central American prison, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. At least we have legal travel documents now.
As you may recall, we’re supposed to be on our way to Guatemala to help rebuild a hospital. We’ve been thwarted once again. This time by a small coup d’etat that seems to have occurred in Honduras, where President Zelaya was whisked off in his pajamas in the middle of night and flown to Costa Rica, apparently against his will. Something just doesn’t want us to get to Guatemala, and me, being ever superstitious, is beginning to think I should heed the signs and stay put.
We’re monitoring the situation in Honduras and weighing whether it’s safe or not to cross the border. We’ve read in the papers that the army shut down Internet access, closed two pro-Zelaya television stations, and are detaining journalists at the border.
After the coup, Latin American leaders acted quickly where leaders of the ALBA (Bolivian Alternative for the Americas) met in Managua on Monday, the day we happened to be there. Despite his long-winded speeches, I have to give Ortega credit, he’s pretty good at rallying everybody together and making a plan. He was also the facilitator behind an emergency meeting between Central American leaders when the swine flu broke out.
But then again his reasons (and the rest of the leader’s) may be more self-serving, and that really these guys don’t want to see the same thing happen in their countries.
One of the results of the emergency meeting was the withdrawal of several Central American ambassadors from Honduras. Not sure what that will do, but send a message to the current renegade government. Why Honduras didn’t just wait until Zelaya finished his term in six months is anybody’s guess. He apparently only had 30% of the polls. Now that he’s been forced into exile, his popularity has skyrocketed, according to the “El Nuevo Diario”, a left-wing Nicaraguan newspaper.
The funniest thing we read was when Chavez was quoted to have told Zelaya to talk to Obama “to get them to do something”, and Nicaragua agreed.
Times have certainly changed.
I’m amazed at the rapid response of the entire world and their condemnation of the act.You just can’t get away with overthrowing a government like you used to, even in a former banana republic.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. The politics are fascinating.
So far travel advisories have only been issued for the capital city, Tegucigalpa, where I have read in Nicaraguan papers that protestors have been killed and injured. The borders have been closed to all commercial traffic for the next 48 hours. This doesn’t apply to buses, but I can only imagine what the roads look like with all of those trucks backed up. I think for now Chris and I will hang out in San Juan del Sur for another week or so and then reassess the situation.





















