Zelaya returns to Honduras to huge welcome, what will the resistance movement do next?

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Zelaya Returns to Honduras but there is a long way to go before democracy returns to Honduras

Transcript

ESSE FREESTON, TRNN: On Saturday, Manuel Zelaya, Honduras's last elected president, will return to his country to live for the first time since his overthrow by the military 23 months ago. His return is the result of an agreement sponsored by the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia and agreed to by Zelaya and Honduras's post-coup regime leader, Pepe Lobo. People have braved relentless rain arriving around the country to welcome back the popular president, who was overthrown on the day he was to poll the Honduran people on whether or not they wanted to rewrite the country's constitution through a participatory assembly representing all sectors of society. It would replace the current constitution, which was written under a US-backed military dictatorship in the early '80s. Saturday will be a day of celebration. But many who opposed the coup are urging outsiders not to confuse the return of Zelaya and other political exiles with the return of democracy. Up to today, Hondurans opposed to the coup have witnessed constant oppression and violence from the regime that took power that day. As Zelaya returns to Honduras, he will find the military still mobilized throughout the country, 11 of the country's most critical journalists assassinated, hate killings against gays, lesbians, bi, and transsexual people skyrocketing, the country's Garifuna people fighting to defend their land from expanding tourism projects. He will find an almost civil war-like atmosphere in the Aguan valley, where death squads have assassinated almost 40 members of the region's organized farmers, farmers who want to plant basic grains to eat, pitted in a land conflict against a handful of wealthy plantation owners who produce palm oil for snack foods and biofuels. Junior Orlando Gomez is a member of the organization MARCA, which is currently occupying land in the area. MORE

Massive Turnout for Zelaya Launches New Chapter of Honduran Struggle

'Largest gathering in Honduran history' receives deposed leader's return, but where to now for Honduran resistance movement?

Produced by Jesse Freeston.

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Transcript:

JESSE FREESTON, TRNN: On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of thousands of Hondurans gathered outside the airport serving the capital of Tegucigalpa to welcome home Manuel Zelaya Rosales, better known as Mel. The day marked exactly 23 months since then-president Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup. And for the first time since, he now walks freely in his home country. He returns home as the most visible leader of a resistance movement that has been fighting for almost two straight years to overthrow the coup regime and has faced incessant repression in return. It was impossible to estimate exactly how many people were there, given that the location required people to spread for miles along various roads, mountainsides, rooftops, and billboards. The coup-supporting media said it was a couple of thousand. The resistance press said around 1 million. The truth is probably in the middle. But many remarked that it was likely the largest gathering in the history of the 8 million-person country. Felix Molina hosts the nightly radio broadcast of the National People's Resistance Front.

FELIX MOLINA (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Zelaya embodies the shared suffering. Zelaya embodies the torture. For the Honduran people, Zelaya is another victim of the coup plotters. Zelaya has been attacked by the military, the business leaders, and the religious leaders, the politicians from his own party. MORE