Remembering the Honduran Coup

Special photo report.

Photos: Belén Fernández

(ISTANBUL) - In honor of the impending one-year anniversary of the Jun. 28, 2009 coup d’état against Honduran President Mel Zelaya.

He was deposited in his pajamas in Costa Rica courtesy of the armed forces, I am posting a series of photographs I took at Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa on Jan. 27 of this year.

This was the date of Zelaya’s second expatriation from Honduras, following his undercover return to the country in September and 4 months spent confined to the Brazilian embassy.

The installment of Pepe Lobo as president via illegitimate elections elicited praise from the U.S. administration. Zelaya is currently in the Dominican Republic, where he continues his campaign for repatriation.

Check back Monday for a commemorative post on the coup.

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Outside Toncontin airport, a poster reaffirms commitment to the battle for a National Constituent Assembly to reform the current constitution, which hails from the era in which Honduras served as a base for the U.S. contra war against Nicaragua. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Graffiti signed FNRP (the anti-coup National Front of Popular Resistance) proclaims: “We want more tractors, not guns”, possibly in reference to Hugo Chávez’ tendency to donate tractors to allied governments. Gun donations meanwhile tend historically to come from further north. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Banner equating coup president Roberto Micheletti with feces. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

One of the innocent-seeming “grandmothers of the Resistance”, an unsuccessful ploy by Chávez to discourage Honduran troops from firing at peaceful crowds. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Evidence of need for Venezuelan fast food empire. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Venezuelans disguised as Hondurans salute Zelaya’s departing plane. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Pro-Zelaya mob, having seen the president off, searches for something to attack. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Police fidget near the airport runway. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

It has yet to be proven that the balloons released in honor of Resistance martyrs did not come from Venezuela. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

Police stand by in case more anti-coup schoolteachers require fatal bullets to the head. (Photo: Belén Fernández)

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Belén is a feature writer at Pulse Media. Her articles also have appeared in CounterPunch, Narco News, Palestine Chronicle, Palestine Think Tank, Rebelión, Tlaxcala, The Electronic Intifada, Upside Down World, and Venezuelanalysis.com. Her book “Coffee with Hezbollah,” a humorous political travelogue chronicling her hitchhiking trip through Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli assault, is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, and Barnes and Noble.

Born in Washington, DC, in 1982, Belén earned her bachelor's degree with a concentration in political science from Columbia University in New York City. Her diverse background of worldwide experiences, created a fantastic writer; one whose work we are extremely happy to share with Salem-News.com viewers. You can contact Belén at: belengarciabernal@gmail.com

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