What is being engineered right now is really ugly. I see a U.S.-engineered international pullout of support of democracy in Honduras cloaked in the law. No time to blog on it right now unfortunately- hopefully later tonight. In the meantime, ministers in hiding:

Much of the Honduran military coup government propaganda dutifully being regurgitated by the U.S. press right now focuses on the willingness of the Honduran coup government to hold an election earlier that the already-scheduled November election. This will be an election pitting two right-wing pro-coup candidates against each other, will not represent the people, and will not change the fact of the coup. Any government that follows Micheletti's military coup or participates in their election will be a coup government.

Translated (hurriedly) from my friend Oscar:

Originally posted Friday at 00:55

Today in the morning my computer died from a terrible virus that smoked my startup disk. Strange, because I have a good anti-virus program. If we were living under normal conditions I might think I'd been careless, but given the conditions in which we find ourselves, I should think that Honduran intelligence has become sophisticated enough to kill the computers of the resistance. So as it is, I'm writing from another machine.

Speechless. Astounding misinformation in Honduras's media blackout. This is what Hondurans are expected to believe right now (full text translated below):

El Heraldo's headline reads:
"Fuera Mel, fuera Chávez”, grita multitud a favor de la democracia en Honduras
"'Out with Mel, out with Chavez,' shout the multitude in favor of democracy in Honduras"

Having received false intelligence that some good friends from Honduras had arrived in DC, I dragged myself out of my up-all-night blogging stupor to bike across town to participant-observe the noon rally at the State Department. The first thing I noticed about the State Department: not bike friendly. Note to self: find DC Critical Mass.

From http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-07-02-voa60.cfm :

"Although the OAS deadline for the restoration of the Honduran leader expires Saturday, a senior State Department official said that in practice, the diplomatic process will likely go on somewhat longer.

He cited in particular the difficulty of convening a special OAS meeting on Saturday, given that of the organization's headquarters borders on Washington's central mall which is the focus of the July 4 U.S. Independence Day observance."

Rodolfo Pastor, the new interim Honduran ambassador in DC and son of the renowned historian and Minister of Art and Culture Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle (himself in hiding from the new dictatorship at last report), is calling it a coup. Ambassador Roberto Flores Bermudez, who on the phone told a group of protesters on Monday that he was against the coup, changed his mind. On Monday, he seemed to be hedging his bets; he only made the statement in a clearly shaking voice after making them wait several hours outside the embassy--I was there, I witnessed several citizens being denied entry to the embassy and heard Flores's statement clearly on speakerphone. Flores also came to shake hands with the anti-coup protesters as the OAS on Tuesday, ignoring the small pro-coup group, before somewhat abruptly and dramatically changing his position. Pastor is a principled man, and I am quite confident that he will not change his mind. However, I am not sure about the stability of his position, since he doesn't represent the Coup government or the money.

Please pester the State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339
and the White House: 202-456-1111
asking for
1. A cut off of all US aid (as required by US law) until Zelaya is safely returned to office.
2. Financial sanctions against the coup plotters.

From Democracy Now! today:
US Suspends Military Cooperation with Honduras

This needs to be translated into English. If someone has already done so, please let me know ASAP- this will take me some time, otherwise.

HONDURAS. POLÍTICOS, EMPRESARIOS Y MILITARES: PROTAGONISTAS DE UN GOLPE ANUNCIADO
Leticia Salomón

A. LOS HECHOS

1. LA DETENCIÓN Y EXPATRIACIÓN DEL PRESIDENTE