Keeping an eye on Honduras from overseas
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senior administrator officials tell Fox President Obama received up-to-the minute briefings on ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's attempt to land Sunday in the capital of Tegucigalpa.
Officials had no direct comment late Sunday on the tense standoff, in which military troops loyal to new Honduran President Roberto Micheletti cut off access to airport runways and threatened to arrest Zelaya if he landed.
Zelaya, flying in a plane supplied by Venezuela, abandoned efforts to land, flying instead to neighboring El Salvador. The White House sent word to Zelaya on Saturday that it would be a "mistake" for him to return to Honduras before the political stalemate had been resolved.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Protests by pro-Zelaya sympathizers converged at the Tegucigalpa Airport. Riot police met them. Clashes ensued, resulting in numerous injuries and possibly one death.
National Security Adviser Jim Jones was to continue briefing Obama on his flight from Washington here. Obama begins two days of summitry with Russian President Demitri Medvedev on Monday.
Obama's top adviser on Latin America, Den Restrepo, spent all of Saturday and most of Sunday at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of American States. The OAS kicked Honduras out in protest of the military removal of Zelaya from power.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Micheletti says Zelaya was ousted under provisions of the national constitution that prohibited presidents from seeking a second four-year term. Zelaya sought a referendum on a second term and refused to abandon those efforts when met with resistance in the Honduran Legislature and Supreme Court.
Micheletti has protested the OAS move on the grounds the organization refused to consult with the new government on the justifications for Zelaya's removal from power.