***UPDATE 6*** - 8:54 pm Eastern - According to several sources, it looks like President Zelaya may have landed in Nicaragua as opposed to El Salvador. Early reports claim one person killed and 6 others wounded at the airport standoff. These are early reports. It should be mentioned that the illegal coup regime in power tonight in Honduras had stated earlier in the day that Nicaraguan troops were massing on the border, a claim later denied by the president of Nicaragua.
***UPDATE 5 *** - 8:20 pm Eastern - (article posted minutes ago)
Bloomberg is reporting that Zelaya is diverting to El Salvador due to what is happening on the ground at the airport...
Zelaya, speaking from the plane in an interview on the Telesur network, said the plane will head toward El Salvador where he will meet with allies. He vowed to try to enter Honduras tomorrow or at a later date.
***UPDATE 4*** - 8:10 pm Eastern - (article posted minutes ago)
Zelaya supporters are being shot at the airport, according to a Times reporter who witnessed it.
Stephen Ferry, a photographer working for The Times, was at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa, where the Army fired on protesters. “I saw a kid being shot in the head, I think he is dead,” Mr Ferry said. “There are lots of injured — I don’t know how many. They just opened fire — it was completely unprovoked.”
***UPDATE 3*** - 7:49 pm Eastern - (article posted 4 minutes ago)
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya says he can't land at the main Honduras airport because soldiers are blocking the runway with several military vehicles.
The pilot of his Venezuelan plane circled around the airport and decided that landing is "totally impossible" because of the trucks in the way.
Groups of police and soldiers also are stationed around the runway and the perimeter of the airfield, facing off against thousands of Zelaya supporters outside.
Zelaya says he'll announce later where they'll land.
***UPDATE 2*** - 7:44pm Eastern - (article posted an hour ago) -
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is now approaching Honduras in a Venezuelan plane, asking the military that kicked him out to please let him land "in the name of God."
Speaking live from the plane on the Telesur network, Zelaya says he is just minutes away from landing.
***UPDATE*** - 5:32pm Eastern -
[caption id="attachment_2905" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya protest outside the entrance to the international airport in Tegucigalpa, Sunday, July 5, 2009."]
[/caption]As far as I can tell, an hour or so ago, two planes left from Washington, DC. One is "Tango One", the Argentine presidential plane (carrying the presidents of Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay, along with the president of the Organization of the American States)... the other plane is carrying President Zelaya and with him, the courageous President of the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations, Mr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann.
Though Zelaya has been in D.C. for several days now, President Obama has NOT met with him, to our shame. I guess his DLC/neo-liberal staff wouldn't LET him.
