Free Republic

Note: The following text is a quote: Three Convicted in International Truck Theft Conspiracy Sentenced to Prison HOUSTON—Three men who conspired to steal and transport millions of dollars of truck tractors, trailers and other heavy equipment to Central America have been sentenced to prison, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Rito Jasso-Zorilla, 32, Victor Antonio Garcia, 27, and Orlando Gonzalez Huerta, 29, all citizens of Mexico, were sentenced by United States District Judge David Hittner this morning for their respective roles in assisting Yuri David Melendez, 42, of Houston, with the far-reaching scheme. Beginning in 2001, Melendez received requests...

Church members from Utah and abroad gathered on Friday to hear some Book of Mormon stories their teachers have never told them. The lessons centered around Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Guatemala, as the most likely setting for Book of Mormon peoples and events at the 7th annual Book of Mormon Lands Conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City. The conference drew 280 attendees — the conference’s biggest crowd ever — as a result of key speakers such as Dr. John L. Lund, Joseph Allen and Jerry L. Ainsworth, said Stephen L. Carr, senior vice president of the...

(English-language translation) Sao Paulo - High-level officials with the Brazilian government are accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "orchestrating" the plan for the return of deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, who is sheltered at the Brazilian Embassy, the local press reports. Advisors to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Foreign Ministry interviewed by Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado pointed out that the "infrastructure, the logistics, and the advice to specifically seek the Brazilian Embassy" for Zelaya's clandestine return were prepared by Chávez. Zelaya's unexpected bursting into Brazil's diplomatic legation has caused an unprecedented and hard-to-resolve conflict, since...

EGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras' de facto leader vowed on Friday that no country will push the small Central American nation around Roberto Micheletti, said Honduras had enough basic foodstuffs to endure economic sanctions if it were further isolated over the coup. "We don't accept anyone imposing anything on us.

Honduras was on a collision course with one of the region’s most powerful leaders last night after its government tried to expel Venezuelan diplomats for meddling in the country’s affairs. The diplomats, backed by Venezuela’s leftist President, Hugo Chávez, vow to stay on in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, defying a government that they regard as illegal. “It is a de facto government, led by a coup and supported with bayonets,” Ariel Vargas, the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires, said after the interim administration of Roberto Micheletti, who came to power in a military coup last month, ordered the Venezuelan envoys to leave...

Honduran officials are investigating allegations that President Manuel Zelaya and his chief of staff stole millions of dollars from the central bank before the military ousted Mr. Zelaya last month, according to a senior Honduran official, government documents and other evidence.

Nicaraguan Congress members and opposition party members asked Zelaya to either refrain from calling for civil war and unrest in Honduras or to leave their country...and to stop telling people that he was going to lead the insurrection with Nicaraguans...because it isn´t going to happen...they also reminded him he is a guest and he needed to respect them a bit more...and to kindly go to Venezuela where they might take to his war yelps a little better...looks like Nicaragua woke up finally.

In a high-stakes move to reclaim his post, ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya tried to fly to this Central American nation on Sunday. The provisional government said it would turn the aircraft away, even as it signaled a new willingness to negotiate a solution to the region's biggest political crisis in years. Honduras' civil aviation director said Mr. Zelaya's plane was being redirected to El Salvador. Mr. Zelaya, a leftist kicked out by Honduras' army last week in his nightshirt, departed from Washington to Tegucigalpa on an aircraft believed to belong to Venezuela's government. He was accompanies by the U.N....

Honduras says Nicaragua has troops moving on border 05 Jul 2009 20:20:26 GMT Source: Reuters TEGUCIGALPA, July 5 (Reuters) - Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday Nicaraguan troops were moving to the mutual frontier and urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to respect Honduran sovereignty. He gave no further details about troop movements in Nicaragua which shares a border with Honduras to the southeast of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Military ordered to turn back Zelaya's jetBy WILL WEISSERT and NESTOR IKEDA – 1 hour ago TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' ousted President Manuel said he was getting on a flight home to reclaim his post on Sunday, accompanied by the U.N. General Assembly president and a group of journalists. The interim government said it ordered the military to prevent the landing of Zelaya's plane. If turned away, it will likely land in El Salvador, where a separate flight was headed with Latin American leaders who support Zelaya's reinstatement. Thousands of protesters were gathering in the capital of Honduras in...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 4 -- Although the U.S. government knew for months that Honduras was on the brink of political chaos, officials say they underestimated how fearful the Honduran elite and the military were of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Rumors were buzzing in the capital that the fight between Zelaya and his conservative opponents had reached the boiling point, but diplomatic officials said the Obama administration and its embassy were surprised when Honduran soldiers burst into the presidential palace last Sunday and removed Zelaya from power... The overthrow, and the new Honduran...

BOGOTA – The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States. "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol. "We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in...

Those promises remain largely unfulfilled. Corruption has dogged his government with several officials accused of taking kickbacks. He doubled the minimum wage but most businesses have refused to pay it, saying they can't afford it amid a global financial crisis. And violence has surged, rising 25 percent from 2007 to 2008 to make Honduras one of Latin America's deadliest countries. [snip] His government declared it had the right to monitor phone conversations, though officials say they stopped tapping after a month because of the public outcry. Zelaya has been embroiled in disputes with media outlets, accusing them of criticizing his...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Soldiers stormed the house of leftist President Manuel Zelaya in a predawn raid Sunday, arresting him and removing him from power amid a growing crisis over Mr. Zelaya's plans to try to get re-elected. Mr. Zelaya called the action a kidnapping, and said he was still president of Honduras... The Honduran Congress named its leader, Roberto Micheletti, to replace Zelaya following his military ouster and forced exile in Costa Rica. A resolution read on the floor of Congress accuses Mr. Zelaya of "manifest irregular conduct" and "putting in present danger the state of law," a reference to...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km west from Caracas June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files) Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in...

Senior U.S. official says the Obama administration sees Zelaya as the only constitutional president of Honduras after coup.

The Honduran Army has ousted and arrested Chavez pal, and Obama supporter, President Manuel Zelaya. According to the Reuter's report: The Honduran army ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to seek another term in office. ~~~ Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chavez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America -- said he would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally. A military plane flew Zelaya to Costa Rica and CNN's Spanish-language channel...

Soldiers seized the national palace and sent President Manuel Zelaya into exile in Costa Rica on Sunday, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum. Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said he was victim of a coup. The Supreme Court said it was supporting the military in what it called a defense of democracy, and the Honduran ambassador to the Organization of American States said the military was planning to swear in Congressional President Roberto Micheletti to replace Zelaya. Zelaya was arrested shortly before polls were to open in a referendum on whether to change the constitution. The...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - More than a dozen soldiers arrested President Manuel Zelaya and disarmed his security guards after surrounding his residence before dawn Sunday, his private secretary said. Protesters called it a coup and flocked to the presidential palace as local news media reported that Zelaya was sent into exile. The chief executive was detained shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum the president had insisted on holding even though the Supreme Court ruled it illegal and everyone from the military to Congress and members of his own party opposed it. Zelaya was taken into military...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The military arrested Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Sunday morning, the same day he vowed to follow through with a referendum that the country's Supreme Court had ruled illegal, local media reported. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to an unknown destination, the newspaper La Prensa reported. -snip-