The city is erringly quiet today. There are no horns, only the sound of the birds and the few diplomat and press vehicles that are allowed to be out; even the dogs don’t have anything to bark at today. Manuel (Mel) Zelaya is back, and with the tension of the exiled president’s return, an all-day curfew that most likely will be extended indefinitely is in place.
Protected from within the protection of the Brazilian Embassy, Mel announced his arrival yesterday despite the denials by Roberto Micheletti and the current government. The resistance party and their followers are extremely excited, rallying around the embassy, parading with their red and white flags. Then at about 3:30 pm, the government announced a curfew was going to start at 4 pm. Of course traffic was mass chaos with the entire city trying to get home at once. Later yesterday evening, they then announced the curfew was going to continue all day today as well.
So we’re here, stuck at home, listening to the calm of the city. I can’t complain, it’s a nice peaceful day and we have everything we need right here at home. The hardest thing is that we can’t travel out to our communities today, who still need us desperately despite any political bickering. A group of 1-200 people ignored the curfew altogether last night and camped out near the embassy until the police and military broke up the crowd at 5 am this morning. In fact, that’s really what this “curfew” is about, an excuse for police to be able to break up any gatherings or manifestations, and they really don’t care about individuals out in their local neighborhoods. The little market even opened up on the corner for a while today, and all the neighbors rushed to stock up on food and just get a quick escape from their cabin fever. It was like spring time in the states, when everyone comes out of their homes, start working in their yards and meeting their neighbors again. Funny how a 24 hour curfew and political uncertainty can have the same effect.
A lot of Hondurans hate Zelaya and don’t trust him one bit. They just want to see him arrested. Many others are optimistic that Zelaya being back in country will allow the political situation here to finally be resolved. That if he’s here to reign over the November presidential elections, the international community will actually recognize the elections as legit. I hope they’re right.
