Two Qeqchi Maya leaders were shot and killed and over a dozen wounded this week near the site of a shuttered nickel mine in Guatemala. The first shooting took place Sept. 27 on land claimed by the community of Las Nubes, which Compañia Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN), a subsidiary of Manitoba's HudBay Minerals, also claims to own. Early reports indicated CGN's private security guards opened fire while attempting to remove families from their land. Adolfo Ichi Chamán, a teacher and community leader, was killed and at least eight more wounded by AK-47 fire.

As of the morning of Sept. 28, a 45-day state of siege decreed by the de facto Honduran government was in effect, allowing the authorities to suspend rights of free speech and assembly; police agents and soldiers had already closed the Radio Globo radio station and the Channel 36 television station under the decree. The state of siege followed a week of increasing tensions after president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, deposed by a June 28 military coup, secretly returned to the country on Sept. 21 and established his headquarters in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. (Americas MexBlog, Sept. 28)

Honduras' de facto government backed off Sept. 28 from an emergency decree that barred protests and limited free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure. The turn-around came just hours after soldiers raided the offices of Radio Globo, seizing equipment, and shut down Channel 36 TV, leaving it broadcasting only a test pattern. Regime spokesman Rene Zepeda said the outlets had been taken off the air in accordance with an emergency decree announced late the previous day that allowed authorities to close news media that "attack peace and public order."

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, speaking to reporters from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where he has taken refuge Sept. 24, indicated that he has already opened channels of dialogue with the de facto regime. Meanwhile, security forces clashed with his supporters at several points around the capital, hurling tear gas, detaining over 100, and leaving two dead and another 100 injured by official count. Zelaya charged that at least 10 were killed over the past two days of protests, and that "there are death squads" operating in Honduras that the world doesn't know about.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has reportedly returned to his country, taking refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he called for dialogue and for resistance leaders to converge on the capital. "I cannot give details, but I'm here," Zelaya told Channel 36 TV by telephone announcing his arrival Sept. 21. De facto President Roberto Micheletti denied that Zelaya was back. Honduran authorities have threatened to arrest him if he returns.

Two Honduran presidential candidates announced in a communiqué on Sept. 9 that they will not participate in the Nov. 29 general elections unless four conditions are met: the return of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, who was removed from office by a military coup on June 28; an end to human rights violations; the demilitarization of Honduran society; and an end to a slander campaign against the leftist Democratic Unification (UD) party, which currently holds four of the 128 seats in the Congress. The two candidates are former union leader Carlos H. Reyes and legislative deputy César Ham, who heads the UD. Both are active in the National Front Against the Coup d'Etat, the leading resistance coalition; the front issued a communiqué on Sept. 7 calling for a boycott of "the electoral farce called by the coup perpetrators."

Honduran business leader Adolfo Facussé arrived at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport near the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula the morning of Sept. 13 after being deported from the US. He was reportedly detained by US immigration authorities and sent back to Honduras after flying to Miami on Sept. 12. Facussé was apparently a casualty of a decision announced by the US State Department on Sept. 3 to revoke visas of Hondurans involved in the June 28 coup. Also on Sept. 12, Honduran officials said the US had revoked visas for de facto president Roberto Micheletti, 14 Supreme Court judges, the de facto foreign relations secretary and attorney general, and the armed forces chief (El Heraldo, Honduras, Sept. 13; New York Times, Sept. 13 from AP)

On Sept. 11 Guatemalan and United Nations authorities arrested nine suspects in connection with the May 10 murder of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano. The suspects include William Gilberto Santos Divas, a former officer of the National Civil Police (PNC) who is considered the ringleader; his brother, Alberto Estuardo Santos Divas, also a former PNC officer; two former police agents; and a former army specialist. According to Carlos Castresana, head of the UN-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the investigation was based entirely on physical evidence: tapes from video cameras near the crime scene in Guatemala City's Zone 14; a search of William Santos Divas' car, identified from the tapes; and some 12,000 messages on Santos Divas' cell phone.