TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS — Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted a week ago in a military coup, failed Sunday in his attempt to return home to reclaim power, his flight forced to detour after the nation's de facto rulers said it could not land here and placed army trucks on the runway.
Thousands of Zelaya's supporters, pressing toward the heavily guarded Tegucigalpa airport in hopes of greeting him, reacted with anger and clashed with soldiers and police who pushed them back.
Troops lined the landing strips and snipers took up positions on the roof of the terminal, which was shut Sunday afternoon after most commercial flights were canceled. Protesters hurled rocks and debris over fences toward the police. Witnesses reported one death and several injuries after security forces fired tear gas and what appeared to be live rounds at people attempting to force their way onto the airport grounds. Military aircraft patrolled overhead.
As Zelaya's plane approached Honduran airspace, he spoke live with 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 was a lost cause. Honduran military vehicles could be seen scattered along the runway.
Zelaya's detour to Nicaragua -- he ultimately was expected in neighboring El Salvador -- capped a long day of suspense and uncertainty as the deposed president insisted he would return to Honduras, and his foes just as adamantly said they'd block him. Reporters, imagining scenarios of scrambled fighter jets and mid-tarmac arrests, stalked the airport, as befuddled luggage-toting passengers (including one group of Christian missionaries from South Carolina) stepped past phalanxes of police to learn their flights had been canceled.
In Washington, U.S. officials said earlier in the day that if Zelaya could not reach Tegucigalpa, he was expected to return to the U.S. capital today for further strategizing. But Zelaya suggested he might remain in Central America and make another effort to return.
