Venenzuela, September 27: Protests in support of Manuel Zelaya have gained pace with thousands on the streets 90 days after the Honduran president was ousted.
After thousands marched to the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya has been holed up since Monday, hundreds more took part in a vehicle protest, hanging out car windows, honking horns and waving Honduran flags as they drove through a main axis of the capital, Tegucigalpa.
A top diplomat leaving the Brazilian embassy denounced the state of “siege,” with troops lined up around the compound.
“It’s the only place in the world where there’s an embassy under siege,” said Francisco Catunda, the Brazilian charge d’affaires, as he left the building for the first time since Zelaya appeared there at the start of the week.
However, Catunba said that most people inside the embassy were in good health, adding that one Brazilian diplomat told him he had smelled gas the previous day, after Zelaya accused the army of trying to intoxicate him and some 60 people still inside the compound.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday that Zelaya “could stay as long as necessary for his safety” in the Brazilian embassy.
Zelaya, a rancher who veered to the left after his election and formed an alliance with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was ousted from power in a military-backed coup in June.
—–Agencies