Today’s news…

After the plane Zelaya flew back to Honduras in yesterday afternoon was denied access to land at Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa, he flew to El Salvador where he met with the President there, along with the Presidents of Paraguay, Ecuador and Argentina, as well as the Secretary General of the Organization of American States. From there, he returned to Managua, Nicaragua and met with one of his major supporters, Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua.

The people of Honduras continue to have demonstrations in support of both Zelaya and Micheletti. Today some 2,000 Zelaya supporters held a peaceful rally outside the presidential palace – now 8 days after the Honduran president was taken from his home in the early morning by the Honduran military as ordered by Congress and the Supreme Court. Today the supporters of the government run by Zelaya have announced their plan to change their protesting strategy. They have decided to no longer just congregate in the streets of the capital city, but have agreed to block the highways leading into and throughout the city, which means a blockade of transporting gasoline and other commercial goods, as well as closing off the nation’s borders.

However, the current government, under Micheletti, has promised that there will be no interference with importing gasoline and other such goods.

Tomorrow, Manuel Zelaya is scheduled to return to Washington D.C. to meet with the Secretary of State – Hilary Clinton, where he is expected to urge her to impose economic sanctions, according to the BBC. This would restrict essential aid to one of the poorest countries in Central America – where 70% of the population lives below the line of poverty.

The current government has given orders to keep the Tegucigalpa airport closed until July 10^th. They say it is for safety reasons – to prevent protesters from gathering, and thus preventing more possible deaths such as those that occurred yesterday at the time of Zelaya’s arrival.

A notice was issued today stating the Honduras is going to take action against Venezuela for flying one of their airplanes in Honduran airspace without permission. This was the plane Mel Zelaya flew in yesterday in his attempt to return home.

Under Micheletti apparently a new law has been put into place – where anybody for any reason may be detained from their home even if no warrant exists. This has led to the detainment of 98 Nicaraguans currently in Honduras. The current government is still concerned that Nicaraguan troops have been prepared at the border, and therefore they are detaining Nicaraguan citizens they find throughout Honduras as they are concerned they are involved somehow with possible military actions.

Zelaya reported to CNN that “within hours” he will be returning to take power in Honduras. We’ll see how the meeting goes tomorrow with Hilary Clinton – by the sounds of it he’s expecting to attempt his return again quite soon.

Today our office workers and teachers came back to work, although it was only for the morning. They left at 1pm in order to make it back into the city in plenty of time before the 6:30pm curfew. One of the employees, a good friend, was telling me about the demonstrations he had been at over the past couple days. I asked whose "side" he was on - he made a good point, which is how I think a lot of Hondurans are feeling right now. He's not really on either "side" - but just wants democracy and peace restored to his country. It is no secret that Zelaya's support has diminished drastically throughout his term as president. However, many don't support the ways of Micheletti either. They just want peace...