5 (or 6?) day marches enter the city...

Well, the lomg awaited marches entered the city last night and this morning. I'm not sure the total amount was more than a few thousand. We saw them as we returned home today. They gathered at a large intersection near our home. For those that have been here, it was the intersection where the Burger King is across from Chili's and Pizza Hut on Avenida Juan Pablo II. That is the road that goes to Casa Presidencial and Mall Multiplaza. I think the turnout was probably pretty disappointing to the organizers. It just didn't overwhelm the way they had probably hoped. I could be wrong, but I was personally expecting a bigger presence.

We just now got the announcement that they have re-established a curfew for tonight here in the city. It will be from 10:00pm tonight until 5:00am tomorrow. There are reports of vandalism and disturbances after the crowd dispersed from the meeting. They broke up around 4:00 or so and by 5 there was a public bus and a fast food restaurant (I think it was a Popeye's Chicken) going up in flames. There re reports that a motorcyclist was shot by a traffic officer (unconfirmed as always) started the trouble. Certainly puts a damper on their demonstration to have some jokers deciding it is more important to be criminal. I am pretty sure that is the reason for the curfew.

No new word on when the group from the OAS will be coming in an effort to find a workable solution to the crisis. The current government has said that it is OK for the secretary to come as long as it is as an observer. They just don't trust him to be able to come and enter the dialogue in a positive manner.

I really loved what President Obama said the other day in response to the criticism he has received from deposed President Zelaya, Hugo Chavez, and Raul Castro. They have recently accused Obama of not getting involved enough in the Honduras situation. Zelaya said that this could be over in a moment if the US would intervene. Obama said

"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You can't have it both ways."

"If these critics think that it's appropriate for us to suddenly act in ways that in every other context they consider inappropriate, then I think what that indicates is that maybe there's some hypocrisy involved in their -- their approach to U.S.-Latin American relations that -- that certainly is not going to guide my administration's policies."

Grace and paece.