Police raid centre occupied by Zelaya supporters

(30 Sep 2009)
1. Police officer using battering ram to break down door
2. Close-up of police helmet with other officers entering building in raid
3. Police running along balcony and entering building
4. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Orlin Cerrato, police spokesman:
"Following the executive order given, they (referring to the interim government) kept asking us when we would remove these people from the National Agrarian Institute. And so this week the operation was completed."
5. Police officer carrying battering ram
6. Close-up of judicial order, pan right, UPSOUND: (Spanish) Gabriela Gallo, judge: "This is the document that empowers me as executive judge to oust these people, to search and raid."
7. Police on balcony
8. Various of police filing through doorway
9. Various of police detaining and searching occupants of building
10. Pan of detained surrounded by police
11. Wide of police walking down street
STORYLINE:
Honduran police acting on an emergency decree suspending civil liberties raided the offices of the National Agrarian Institute in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday.
About 150 police and soldiers raided the compound which had been occupied by supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya since the June 28 coup.
Authorities detained 54 farm activists and Zelaya supporters, police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said.
Cerrato said the action was aimed at recovering control of the building, which contains valuable land title records.
Police used battering rams to break into the offices.
The whole operation took less than an hour and no one was hurt, authorities said.
Lawmakers have made clear that Congress will revoke the emergency security crackdown if the interim government does not, said Rigoberto Chang, a congressman with the conservative National Party.
Congress has the power to lift or modify the decree issued on Sunday that bans unauthorised gatherings and lets police arrest people without warrants, rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution.
It also allows authorities to shut news media for "statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law."
On Monday a radio station and a television channel were also raided and their equipment seized.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti backtracked on the decree on Monday, saying he had agreed to reconsider the move at the request of congressional leaders.
But Wednesday's raid contrasted sharply with recent overtures to end the crisis from those who supported the coup.
The disagreement over the security decree was the biggest public rift between Micheletti and the Congress that put him in power after soldiers forced Zelaya into exile on June 28 in a dispute over changing the constitution.
The country's political and business elite have been urging Micheletti this week to meet face-to-face with Zelaya after growing weary of the turmoil that has paralyzed Honduras.
Zelaya, who returned to the country on September 21 and took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, says he is ready to break the stalemate.
Micheletti initially insisted on the decree to counter what he said were calls for "insurrection" by the ousted leader's supporters.
But conservative politicians expressed fear it would endanger the November 29 presidential election, which they consider Honduras' best hope for regaining international recognition.
The ballot was scheduled before the removal of Zelaya, whose presidential term expires in January.
Micheletti so far has been staunchly opposed to putting Zelaya back in office.

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