Revolts

When Bertha Oliva's husband was kidnapped by a death squad during the darkest chapter of Honduran history, she was three months pregnant. She never saw him again. Coming to her defense during that time 28 years ago was Ramon Custodio, a champion of leftists and militants persecuted by a brutal army. The two worked together for years, founding one of the first independent human rights organizations in a country that has slowly shed military rule and attempted to move toward democracy.

What happens when a government announces that it is withdrawing in protest from an international organization -- which doesn't recognize the government in the first place? Are they in or out? That is just one of the quandaries facing Honduras these days. Having ousted its president in a military coup and refusing the world's demand that he be reinstated, the tiny country is in legal limbo. Deposed President Manuel Zelaya vows to return to Honduras today.

One day after the Honduran military prevented him from landing at his capital's airport, ousted President Manuel Zelaya said he would meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington -- then take another run at going home. The session with Clinton, scheduled for today, would be the highest-level contact by the Obama administration with the leftist leader, who was deposed in a coup just over a week ago. American officials have said they hope Zelaya's U.S.

On Saturday, June 27, the order came down: Arrest the president. That night, Honduran military officers stopped taking calls from U.S. officials. At sunrise Sunday, army commanders firing warning shots into the air marched through the back door of the president's home, rousted him from bed and took him away, still in his pajamas. It was over in 15 minutes.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, seeking a solution to the Honduran coup crisis, on Saturday proposed reinstating ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya as president and holding early elections as part of a power-sharing plan for a new government. Zelaya said he accepted Arias' plan in principle, but the de facto government in Honduras continued to insist that Zelaya not be allowed to return to the presidency.

Talks to resolve the coup crisis in Honduras collapsed Sunday after the de facto government refused a mediator's proposal to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The failure of negotiations under the direction of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias dashed the most promising diplomatic effort aimed at ending the crisis and raised the specter of more violence. "What is the alternative to dialogue?" a disappointed Arias said in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital. "Possibly . . .

The Obama administration has sharply increased pressure on the de facto government running Honduras after last month's military coup, hoping to break a stalemate in negotiations with ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton telephoned Roberto Micheletti, named president of the country after the June 28 coup, to warn him against letting the talks falter, said Clinton's chief spokesman, P.J. Crowley.

The chief mediator in the Honduran coup crisis offered a 12-point proposal Wednesday that calls for the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya as early as Friday. But Zelaya's delegation immediately rejected the plan because of the conditions it attached to his return to office. Representatives of the de facto government that deposed Zelaya said they would submit the proposal to the Honduran Supreme Court and attorney general's office for consideration.

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya jumped behind the wheel of a white Jeep in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua on Thursday and roared north toward the border, launching a second attempt to return home and reclaim power. With negotiations deadlocked, Zelaya said the time had come for him to make his move. He said he hoped to cross into Honduras from northern Nicaragua on Saturday.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya pushed through a crowd made up mostly of journalists and some supporters, lifted the chain that divides Nicaragua and Honduras, and stepped into his homeland Friday, nearly a month after he was deported in a coup. He stepped back into Nicaragua 30 minutes later.