The return of Mel

“Hola, Bitcheletti, I’m ba-ack!” Guess who’s gonna be scrubbing the skidmarks out of his underwear tonight…

So, the news all over the BoRevosphere is that the legitimate president of Honduras is back in country, though not yet behind his desk. Kudos go out to El Salvador for helping him sneak back in (bet the golpistas were only watching the Nicaraguan border!), and to Brazil, for loaning out its embassy as a refuge. (Lula and Mauricio, I owe you guys some serious FLFB tributes. Please pose for some cute photos between now and Friday, y’hear?)

While we wait for the Great Ass-Walloping to begin, let’s reflect on the sweetly amusing irony that only yesterday, Gorilletti was bragging to Greta Van Softball on FUX about how he’s the bestest Dear Leader ever, and how there’s no proof of his human rights abuses, and blah blah blabbity blah blah.

And when you’re done with that, enjoy the words of Honduran anti-coup leader Juan Barahona, one of many who’ve been keeping the faith while they wait for the restoration of their democracy:

The co-ordinator of the National Front Against the Coup D’état in Honduras, Juan Barahona, assured on Monday that there was little chance that the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti would remain in place for 24 hours, following the return of Manuel Zelaya to Tegucigalpa.

“It’s very hard for the putschist regime to stay on in power for more than 24 hours, and the Armed Forces will have to unleash a bloodbath in order to stop this [anti-coup uprising],” said the leader in an interview with VTV.

Barahona said that thousands of people are gathering outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa to see and greet the constitutional president.

“It’s a popular reaction, this afternoon Tegucigalpa was a capital inundated with people, and various departments elsewhere have confirmed that more Zelaya supporters are on their way…Now this zone [around the Brazilian embassy] is a sea of people, and more caravans of buses are coming from other cities.”

Barahona considers the return of the legitimate president to have caused a popular movement “which no one will be able to stop…it will take a massacre, it’s very difficult [to imagine] that the army would want to go there,” said Barahona, referring to the area around the Brazilian embassy. He says that “the objective is to bring Zelaya back to the house of government.”

Translation mine.

And there is little doubt in my mind that they will succeed in doing just that. Seven years ago, the people of Venezuela did it too–by convincing the loyal sectors of their own armed forces that it was time to look for the legitimate president and bring him back. That took just 48 hours. It’s taken a bit longer than that in Honduras, but unless the Honduran army wants a bloodbath, it will have to understand that the people, not the business sector and themselves, are in charge now. And they are not going to rest until the man they elected is back in the sash, Channel 36 is back on the air, and the putschists in custody.

¡Viva Honduras!

EDIT: Looks like he entered via Nicaragua after all, not El Salvador. Sorry, Mauricio, not this week. But keep yer dimples polished anyway, ‘coz I like ’em. Meanwhile, Lula’s probably gonna be the Lion King of the next OAS or Unasur summit, and Daniel Ortega will get an honorable mention too for sheltering Mel as long as he did.