Honduras: story of life in the embassy
One month of returning to Honduras Manuel Zelaya, journalist Maisonnave Fabiano, who is inside the Embassy of Brazil, told BBC News what life inside the embassy is.
Maisonnave, correspondent of the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, tells how contacts with the outside are because the building is surrounded by security forces.
The arrival
Besides Zelaya and his wife, at the embassy are consultants, journalists and activists.
"I arrived at the embassy on the night of Sept. 25, four days after the arrival of Zelaya. Zelaya was there on Monday, I went to the embassy on Friday. I was the only Brazilian journalist here for a week until they reached another one . But to get to the embassy, I had to negotiate a license with the government of Micheletti. He had been admitted to Honduras by land from El Salvador, but had to wait eight hours a pass.
"There are 46 people in the house: Zelaya and his wife and three political advisers, Father Andres Tamayo, the former chairman of the (National Telecommunications Commission) CONATEL, Razel Tome, and the Liberal leader, Carlos Reina.
"There are several security men, at least six, which brought 17 pistols, which are now held by the embassy, as well as journalists and supporters of the president.
Day by Day
The food must come in a box to take to fix. Then the dogs smell the food. Sometimes it is not let inside, sometimes the police steals the dessert, flan, or other things
"To eat, journalists bought the meal together. There is a cook, a restaurant near here, that provides it. He takes it to the United Nations or an human rights NGO , which are the only ones who can come in here.
"We pay the restaurant with the help of a journalist friend who is outside. She left the food paid until Saturday. Then I have to do what I do. It is a pool for journalists, which share that. Each meal costs 200 lempiras , around $ 10. Today we ate a soup with meat and chicken with rice.
"The food has to come in a box to take to fix. Then the dog smell food. Sometimes not let in soft, sometimes steals police dessert, flan or others.
"The problem now is the breakfast. Breakfast was Gatorade and crackers, but the police started to ban the entry of these products. We are three days ago without breakfast. What remains are a few small boxes of skim milk left over here.
"We are waiting to be flexible entry, but every day is different. Last week they banned the entry of fruit. They could come in with a prescription. Now you can again. Suddenly banning toothpaste . The bulbs can only come if the back was burned. never know what to do.
"Security is in charge of police and military, but who reviews the food is the police. It was agreed that the Brazilian territory goes all the way from the sidewalk. This allows us to go to receive food and, sometimes, at that time , talked to the commander Pagoaga. But it is always a tense conversation.
Who are they?
In total there are 46 people who are in the embassy, including Zelaya and his wife
"There are three social classes here: the president and his family (now only his wife). He is with her Doris Garcia, a former Minister of Women, which is assisting the First Lady.
"The class B are journalists and aides, and class C are other advisers and activists. Some sleep on mats, others sleep on cardboard.
(Here is interrupted conversation. Maisonnave is heard talking with a colleague at the embassy, about their place to sleep tonight. "Solved the problem, the dialogue is resumed).
"We are six journalists, two of AP, one of Reuter, an AFP photographer. Newsstand only me, a photographer from the newspaper Estado de São Paulo, Wilson Pedrosa went today (Tuesday).
"The embassy is a two-story house with about 400 square meters. There is room. The ambassador was absent when he Zelaya. This was the house of the poet João Cabral de Mello Neto, who was Brazil's ambassador here. Then turned embassy , who was in charge of the charge d'affaires Francisco Catunda. But he almost did not come. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry sent the minister counselor at the OAS, Irineu de Paula, to take charge of the situation.
"We slept in a very large room next to the room where he sleeps Zelaya marriage. When I arrived there were about 75 people. We slept about 15 or 20 in this room. Today we are only six people sleeping in this place. Everyone has a mattress inflatable. Until two days ago I shared a mattress with Pedrosa. It is a mattress that people of Telesur, which is gone, he left here. mattresses are journalists.
"There is a girl who washes our clothes, but not iron. Before I paid him with cigarettes, but now the payment is 100 Lempiras ($ 5) in time of cell wash about six pieces of clothing.
The pressure
There is a girl who washes our clothes, but not iron. Before I paid him with cigarettes, but now the payment is 100 Lempiras ($ 5) in time of cell wash about six pieces of clothing
"It's a very strict military siege around the embassy. The houses have been evacuated. The street is completely isolated. I do not know where they were neighbors. The lock is installed just two blocks from the embassy with a strong military presence and Police and wire fences, but sometimes let in a carriage.
"Last night was quiet, but the weekend, Thursday through Sunday, made much noise at dawn and at night. The military and police imitating animal voices. One night they played trumpet and trombone for one hour, four to five in the morning. Every night they put two powerful spotlights on the embassy. Those who sleep in the garage suffer more. To try to avoid the effect of light and now put up an impromptu cardboard curtain. But even so the light is very strong. Our fourth also very clear. For ten days they do.
"To enter the embassy, people are carefully reviewed. It can last up to an hour this review. The police and military are in balaclavas. There are a lot of intimidation, they recorded everything, take pictures ...
Zelaya
Maisonnave (left) is at the Brazilian embassy since Sept. 25.
"I see every day Zelaya. He has good humor, speaks to us, we love to tell jokes. Almost always wearing the same clothes: white shirt, black vest and hat. Sometimes used guayabera. Access to it is easy, every time I asked I did talk to him.
"After all this time, the atmosphere is informal. The other day we were watching the game between Brazil and Ghana, by the end of the U-20 world championship and entered the committee representing Zelaya in the negotiations. We only ask them to be careful not to kick the television cable. That is the climate of informality.
"Zelaya is actually very stable. There are times when it seems tired, but not explode. Hardly changes the mood, nor the best nor the worst moments. What he feared most, the beginning was for his safety. The two first weeks almost never went out, was within four walls. But that's better now. On Sundays he goes to the garage, to attend mass.
Negotiations
I see every day Zelaya. He has good humor, speaks to us, we love to tell jokes. Almost always wearing the same clothes: white shirt, black vest and hat
"Regarding the negotiations, Zelaya only accepts his return to the presidency. Any other proposal was rejected. Want an immediate return. Does not seem ready to loosen it. But accept a conditional return to the presidency. He always says he distrusts Micheletti that their proposals are delaying tactics.
"The most disappointing moment for him came when the OAS delegation two weeks ago. He believed that the OAS diplomats were to reach an agreement, which would not have been if they had something already in advance. But it was what happened.
"When he realized that there was no agreement gave a tough interview, accusing the OAS to be complacent with Micheletti. As he passed us he said that it was all a farce. The great disappointment it was this.
"Last week was more suspicious, but on Friday it expected a deal never came. His wife even has managed to leave the embassy.
"It is difficult to foresee what will happen. What we see is that Micheletti wants to postpone an agreement all you can. But we are very concerned that the elections will be recognized outside of Honduras. Much of what will happen depends on it, on throughout the U.S. position, which remains very ambiguous on the issue. When the U.S. is defined on that, things will be clearer.
"Nobody risks provide a way out. The negotiations are stalled. Zelaya People are now very pessimistic, think that this is not resolved soon. Zelaya told us jokingly that we preparáramos to spend Christmas here. Today (by Tuesday) came Arturo Corrales representing Micheletti but Zelaya's friend, to talk to him. This suggests that, at least, still maintain some contact.
"Hostility " in Honduras
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Honduran army's tactic of loud music played in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa was criticized by the OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.
Inside the embassy is the deposed President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, who wishes to return to power before carrying out the presidential elections scheduled for 29 November.
See story in this video from BBC World.
Honduras: the dialogue is "stagnant"
Zelaya met with Arturo Corrales, a member of the commission of Micheletti.
A day after the delegates of the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, declared "bogged down" the dialogue process that was meant to resolve the institutional crisis in Honduras, the headquarters of the failed talks still a useful place to take the pulse of the situation .
On Tuesday, the Clarion Hotel in Tegucigalpa returned both the interim government delegation, headed by Roberto Micheletti, such as Zelaya.
Despite being physically in the same space, the parties did not officially acknowledged having had any contact.
And a little to the image of Honduran society, the increasingly boring (and fewer) journalists that you are still following up the process, just accumulated frustration.
"We have not received any new proposal, nor are we waiting for," he told the journalists Victor Meza, Zelaya's chief negotiator, shortly after noon, as he left the hotel.
"But they know where to find" he said.
Nothing new
The last public appearance of the negotiating committee of the interim government, which started about six o'clock, local time, did not bring anything new.
In the mouth of Vilma Morales, interim government officials, delegates representing Roberto Micheletti simply invited his counterpart to resume the dialogue. But they made no reference to any new proposal.
Another negotiators Micheletti, Arturo Corrales, acknowledged during the hearing that the discussion on the return of Zelaya was not hindered by a matter of form but of substance.
"They first have to define whether or not to" said Corrales, who also insisted that the fundamental reference had to be the Honduran Constitution.
"We have not received any new proposal, nor are we waiting for," said Meza zelaya.
The interim president, however, has been blunt in his insistence that the Constitution voids any possibility of return of Zelaya. And in that context, the statements his delegate evidence the lack of progress to date on this fundamental point.
For now the most exciting was the announcement of a meeting between the deposed president and Arturo Corrales, one of the members of the negotiating committee of the interim government.
According Corrales, the meeting came at the invitation of Zelaya and was intended to "exchange views, ask questions about the process of dialogue."
"It was a very polite conversation, wide and fluid. Very those of Honduras. We are thinking of Honduras. But that's all I can say," the negotiator on his return to the hotel at 4:30 pm (local time).
Corrales, however, declined to talk about deadlines. "But if I feel it (an agreement) is near," he said.
If it is true or not, only time will tell.
"Something more viable"
Upon arrival at Clarion, early morning, Meza denied that the reason for his visit was to meet with the commission of Micheletti, which is said to present a new "expanded proposal" in the afternoon.
"If they show something, hopefully with something more viable," was the reaction of Meza was once asked by reporters about the possibility.
"If not, the crisis will only deepen," he said.
And while the skepticism and indifference carefully planned by Meza could well be a display of his own role as a negotiator, the truth is that it also reflects the deep conviction that seems to prevail in most of the population.
"(The future of the dialogue) is a subject that should interest because it is a question of country, but the truth is that we in the same. It is difficult to stay interested," he told the BBC Adam Artica, a student of 20 years of the National University.
They always say the same thing, not come to an end and then it gets boring, repetitive
Cesar Alvarez, a student
"They always say the same thing, not come to an end and then it gets boring, repetitive," agreed his companion in that house of studies, Cesar Alvarez, who is a year older.
Both were skeptical about the chances of a short term solution.
"It resolved that, you have to solve. The problem is how," Alvarez said.
On the streets
For now, the route of popular mobilization, which has bet the Front called resistance against the coup, again showed its limitations, at least in this situation.
Organized resistance on Tuesday morning a new show, just at the premises of the National Autonomous University, and intends to continue to mobilize to demand the restitution of Zelaya and a Constituent Assembly to reform the political system of Honduras.
But the call on Tuesday was anything but crowded. And at noon sharp in the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), only the slogans painted on some walls reminded that the country is a state of emergency since June 28.
And it seems that the maximum house of studies in Honduras also contains the possible answers.
Leda Baltodano, students of 19 years, told BBC News that the university and in the country, opinion is clearly divided.
But Baltodano is those who believe elections are scheduled for 29 November, which could solve the problem.
"No country is going to deny that (the institutional crisis in Honduras) is resolved in a democracy. It would be contradicting" he said.
But only hours earlier, at university, the resistance sympathizers chanted a new slogan: "If no refund, no choice."
What dialogue? Well, on that is likely to be news later. But it might not.
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