Coup de Etas

Hey everyone. I think that is how you spell that. I don´t know if any of you have heard what has been happening here, but there is a severe and potentially dangerous situation come about in the last 4 days. I don´t know all the details but I´ll tell you what I know and what I have been told and what I think.

On Thursday night, June 25th, the president of Honduras Mel Zelaya fired the Minister of Defense (I don´t know why exactly). There was a major upheaval over this and Friday June 26th, at about 1 am, he was kidnapped and taken hostage in Costa Rica. There was a coup by his own government that night and a new president was put into power Saturday morning. As far as I know, this is why this happened.
Honduras is set to have their presidential election in November for the new term president to begin Jan 2010. The political system here works the same as in the States except for the complete corruption here is not even hidden. Every 4 years they have a new election and the president can only have 2 terms. So, apparently President Zelaya tried to pass a bill that said he was allowed to change the Honduran constitution without having to seek a referendum or permission from the Cabinet. He was going to put this idea to a democratic vote which was supposed to happen this past Sunday. Pretty much, if the bill was passed, he would instantly become a dictator if he wanted. He could essentially do whatever the hell he wanted, he could dismantle the government and no one could stop him without a war. If that is what he wanted to do. So you would think that the bill wouldn´t go through cuz that's just a plain stupid idea. Here's where the corruption comes in...he bought the vote. I don't know how exactly because I don't understand the voting system here but its definitely not democratic by our definition of the word. I believe that there are representatives of each department of the country and they ask the people what they want and then cast their vote for their department. So if the majority of the reps are bought off, anything can be passed. And no one tries to hide it. SO....
to avoid the inevitable passing of the corrupt bill allowing the president potential absolute power, his own Supreme Court had him removed from office. Now I don't know why they couldn't do it politically but I assume that impeachments and trials and all that jazz would take forever (remember Clinton?) and the vote was to be put Sunday. So I suppose removing him from the country means that another president has to be instated in order for the country to have a leader. I assume its the same if Obama were to be kidnapped, the VP Joe Biden would take over. Here I don't know how it works, but they put a new guy, last name Micheleti, in right away and the vote was stopped. SO now we have a big big big problem. Pretty much because what the Supreme Court did was not only illegal, but paramount to treason. They kidnapped their president and forced a coup. The country has been, or soon will be, split to choose sides, and agreements made with other countries will be in jeopardy. I´ll try and explain this as simply as I can cuz its complicated as hell, (try to understand it in Spanish!! God my head hurts).
Ok so Zelaya has some sort of deal going with Venezuela (no idea what) and apparently this coup has really buggered things up for them so their president is talking about sending his military into Honduras to try to help Zelaya come back into power if he wants to. This means civil and international war. Of course Honduras has allies to in Nicaragua and other surrounding countries, but as far as I understand, no one else wants to get involved and its all talk. Right now, there is military presence in all major cities and the new government has periodically shut off the country´s electricity. The threat of riots and looting is high and there is a threat of danger so everyone has essentially been grounded from travelling. There is also a chance that the government could instill a ban on gasoline and any other means of energy so no one can mobilize themselves and chances are, if things escalate, there will be a country wide curfew. Pretty much, at any time, there could be a civil war. Since the police here are military, the military are pretty preoccupied dealing with potential crises which means a lack of security in the main cities. Thus creating a chance of riots, looting and pillaging and mass murder. Yay me.
So now before my father panics (and yes I have explained all this to him) I am safe. We are all safe. We have been told by our coordinators that we are not to leave our host families and communities until things calm down for fear of being caught in a riot or stuck without a way home. Puts a huge damper on our travel plans (we couldn't go to Tela and I might not get my weeks vacation), plus we are all incredibly bored.
So to sum up a long story, we are all fine. Safe and sound and as of now we are not going to be sent home. We will only do that if things escalate. But holy crap does drama follow me.
Take care of you and I´ll be ok I´m sure. These ICYE people know their shit.

Hugs n stuff.