Plane carrying ousted Honduran President Zelaya refused permission to land

July 6, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

WRITETHRU (Editors: Updates throughout.)

By Laura Figueroa and Frances Robles

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS — The military blocked the runway in Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin’s airport and refused ousted President Manuel Zelaya permission to land here Sunday, as thousands gathered below to welcome him home.

“If I had a parachute, I would jump off,” Zelaya said in a telephone interview from aboard the plane to Venezuela’s Telesur network. “They are threatening to kill us.”

Zelaya was ousted in a predawn raid last week. He vowed to come home Sunday, but his flight was turned back at the airport.

In a nationwide address that interrupted local programming, aviation official Alfredo San Martin said no plane without permission to land would be allowed to touch down in any Honduran airport. If heads of state are aboard, he said, they should request permission before coming.

The president of the United Nations joined the deposed president as he attempted to return to his country a week after military soldiers removed him from office in the early morning hours.

Earlier Sunday, Zelaya said he would return to Honduras with U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto and an envoy of other Latin American leaders.

“I’m going to return to my people,” Zelaya said in an interview aired on Venezuelan TV station TeleSur.

The return trip was scheduled despite the fact that Honduras’ new government has vowed to prevent Zelaya’s plane from landing.

“I think that if 1,000 heads of state are accompanying him, if those people are not invited to this country as heads of state, then they are simple citizens and they have to respect Honduran laws,” said Ramon Custodio Lopez, the nation’s human rights ombudsman. “If a plane of any nationality tries to land here, no matter who is aboard, if they do not have permission to land, they cannot land.”

Security around Tegucigalpa’s airport was beefed up with military guards blocking off the area, as helicopters fly overhead. American Airlines, Taca, and Delta all suspended flights to and from the country. Only Continental continues to offer service.

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