In a radio and television address today, the coup perpetrators announced the measure “had already achieve its goal”, so it was lifted. The day before, the international media reported that two leaders of the leftist party Unificación Democrática, were killed: Roger Ivan Bados (54) and Ramon Garcia (40).

Besides their deaths, two peaceful demonstrators were killed by snipers while they were demanding the reinstatement of the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya, on the day the President tried to come back to the country but the de facto government prevented his return.

Also during the weekend, several foreign journalists claimed the Honduran police arrested them for several hours without warrants or justification.

The first journalists detained by the police were from Venezuelan network Telesur and from the television channel Venezolana de Televisión. Though the police argued that the reason to arrest the journalists was that the car they were travelling in had been reported stolen. One of Telesur’s journalists said that a police officer told him they should leave the country soon because “there was nothing to report” there, and faulted the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez for the political crisis in Honduras.

On Sunday, the police arrested a group of foreign journalists in their hotel claiming they had immigration problems. Besides, international news agencies like AFP reported that migration officers went around the hotels with armed, hooded police officers, going over the migration situation of the foreign journalists.

Meanwhile, the Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias, announced that next week he would resume the mediation between the constitutional and the de facto government of Honduras, which started last week in San Jose without major developments.

Zelaya continues saying that his return to Honduras is “non negotiable”, a position supported by the international community.

Several experts have pointed out that the cut off of international aid is vital for the de facto regime, as the country would only be able to continue in this situation for some months.

“It is impossible for a government to resist in the current circumstances for more than six months”, Wilfredo Girón, professor of Economics of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, told AFP.