Reporting from Tegucigalpa, Honduras — Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted a week ago in a military coup, appeared to fail Sunday in his attempt to return home to reclaim power, with Honduras's de facto rulers placing army trucks on the airport runway to prevent his flight from landing.
Thousands of Zelaya's supporters, pressing towards the heavily guarded Tegucigalpa airport in hopes of greeting him, reacted furiously and clashed with soldiers and police who pushed them back.
Troops lined the airport landing strips and snipers manned the roof of the terminal, which was shut Sunday afternoon after most commercial flights were cancelled throughout the day. Protesters hurled rocks and debris over fences toward the police. Witnesses reported that a child was killed and several people wounded after security forces fired tear gas and what appeared to be live rounds at crowds attempting to enter the airport grounds. Military aircraft patrolled overhead.
As Zelaya's plane approached Honduran airspace, he went live on a Venezuelan television station, saying he couldn't land.
"They are threatening us, saying we'll be intercepted, that they'll put things on the runway if we try to land," Zelaya told Telesur TV by telephone. "They have blocked our landing."
He said he was speaking from the cockpit alongside the pilots.
"They're doing everything they can to land," he said. But it appeared to be a lost cause.
Zelaya's plane was going to be diverted to neighboring El Salvador, officials said -- capping a long day of suspense and uncertainty as the deposed president defiantly insisted he would return to Honduras, and his foes just as adamantly said they'd block him.
Zelaya was arrested by soldiers early June 28 and sent into exile in Costa Rica after months of political friction.
Reporters, imagining scenarios of scrambled fighter jets and mid-tarmac arrests, stalked the airport, as befuddled luggage-loaded passengers (including one group of Christian missionaries from South Carolina) stepped past phalanxes of police to learn their flights had been .
In Washington, U.S. officials said earlier that if Zelaya could not reach Tegucigalpa, he would head to Washington today for further strategizing.
Despite the tense showdown, the new government of Honduras signaled a willingness Sunday to "dialogue" with the Organization of American States, a day after the group punished it with a rare suspension after it refused to reinstate Zelaya. Acting President Roberto Micheletti said he was appointing a delegation to reach out to the OAS.
However, any talks will not address the international community's central demand, the reinstating of Zelaya, said the de facto foreign minister, Enrique Ortez.
"What is not up for discussion is that Honduras has any another president" besides Micheletti, he said.
wilkinson@latimes.com
Renderos is a special correspondent
Times Staff Writer Don Lee in Washington contributed to this report
