Ousted Leader Returns To Honduras, Defies Arrest

Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest
By Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press Writer | Yahoo! News

Deposed President Manuel Zelaya defied threats of arrest and returned home to Honduras Monday, three months after he was forced into exile at gunpoint.

Seeking safety at the Brazilian Embassy, Zelaya called on his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protest.

"It is the moment of reconciliation," he said Monday during a televised speech that featured Zelaya's voice but not his image.

His surprise arrival sparked demonstrations in the streets outside the embassy as supporters, who have protested for months since his ouster, cheered his return.

"We are all happy, because he is the constitutional president of Honduras," teacher Alfredo Rodriguez Escobar told The Associated Press. Overhead a police helicopter hovered over the growing crowd.

The return sharply and suddenly escalates the country's political crisis — challenging the government installed by the coup to make good on its promise to arrest Zelaya and making him a polarizing figure for demonstrations — for and against _directly in the country's capital. Read more.