UPDATE: via Al Jazeera TV EN
- Military blocks runway preventing President's return.
- Child shot by military at welcoming event of citizens at airport.
- US Conservatives support the coup.
- Military denies shooting civilians.
- Chavez calls Obama, "Prisoner of the Empire"
US Media rushing to catch up.
Filed at 8:11 p.m. ET
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Ousted President Manuel Zelaya was kept from landing at the main Honduras airport Sunday because the runway was blocked by groups of soldiers with military vehicles, some of them lined up against a crowd of thousands outside. His Venezuelan pilot circled around the airport and decided not to risk a crash.
NYT Online
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- A jet carrying deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was unable to land at Tegucigalpa's airport Sunday evening amid a tense standoff between government troops and Zelaya's supporters.
A protester rallies in support of ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in Tegucigalpa.
Zelaya told the news network Telesur that he was denied permission to land the jet in Tegucigalpa, where military vehicles were arrayed on the runway.
Soldiers lined barricades surrounding the airport in expectation of clashes between Zelaya's supporters and the provisional government that has vowed to keep him from coming back from a weeklong exile.
CNN International
The US Right Wing supports the coup.
The Organization of American States and most governments in the world have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya by the military last Sunday as a coup d'etat. But the people who currently hold power in Honduras say they followed legal procedures outlined in their nation's constitution and their position is backed by many conservatives in the United States.
VOA
OAS Takes as Stand (Reuters)
Zelaya's plan to return followed the strongest move yet by foreign governments to isolate the caretaker government since the coup -- which was the first in Central America since the Cold War era and was triggered by a dispute over presidential term limits.
The OAS met into the early hours of Sunday in Washington and took the rare step to suspend Honduras after the interim authorities ignored an ultimatum by the 34-member body to reinstate Zelaya.
OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo planned to travel to El Salvador to monitor Zelaya's return, said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who also planned to be in that group.