2009 Honduran coup d'état, Zelaya's detention and exile
He said "What was more beneficial, remove this gentleman from Honduras or present him to prosecutors and have a mob assault and burn and destroy and for us to have to shoot?" Colonel Inestroza also commented that Zelaya's allegiance to Hugo Chávez was hard to stomach and "It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible. I personally would have retired, because my thinking, my principles, would not have allowed me to participate in that."


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Zelaya's detention and exile
Ramón Custodio, head of the country's human rights commission, said that the military made an "error" in sending Zelaya into exile rather than holding him for trial. "I didn't know they would take Zelaya out of the country," Custodio said in an interview in the week of 13 August at his Tegucigalpa office. Honduras's Supreme Court agreed to hear a case brought by a group of lawyers and judges arguing that the military broke the law taking Zelaya out of the country. On 17 August 2009, President Micheletti also said that putting Zelaya on a plane to Costa Rica instead of holding him for trial had been a mistake: "It wasn’t correct. We have to punish whoever allowed that to happen. The rest was framed within what the constitution requires."


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Congress removes Zelaya from office
The National Congress the following morning voted to accept Zelaya's resignation letter, dated 25 June, which Zelaya had denied signing. It studied a special report on Zelaya, and by a show of hands, the National Congress – the majority of whom belonged to Zelaya's own Liberal party – appointed the President of the National Congress Roberto Micheletti, a member of Zelaya's party, to succeed Zelaya. Some felt that the president had changed his politics during his administration, from right to left, which earned him the antipathy of his party.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Many governments, media, and human-rights organisations outside Honduras have termed the ouster a coup. The United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the European Union condemned the removal of Zelaya as a military coup. On 5 July 2009, the Organization of American States OAS, invoking for the first time Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, voted by acclamation of all member states to suspend Honduras from the organisation.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Soon after the coup, U.S. President Barack Obama stated: "We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there." He stated: "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections."


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, equivocated, saying that "We do think that this has evolved into a coup" and noting that under U.S. law, officially declaring a coup would oblige the U.S. to cut off most foreign aid to Honduras." Cutting off aid was seen as a possibility in the days after the coup, and State Department Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter urged Clinton to "take bold action" and to "find that [the] coup was a 'military coup' under U.S. law." Nevertheless, Clinton did not do so, and the U.S. never formally declared that a coup had occurred.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
By November 2009, the U.S. "focused on pushing for elections" in the country. In September 2009, the Board of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, headed by Clinton, cut off $11 million in aid to the Honduran government in the wake of the coup, and suspended another $4 million in planned contributions to a road project. From 2009 to mid-2016, however, the U.S. provided about $200 million in military and police aid to Honduras, a controversial decision given the violence in Honduras and the government's human rights violations.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Arguments that Zelaya's removal was illegal have been advanced by several lawyers. The Supreme Court never ruled on any of the charges filed by the public prosecutor on 26 June. The arrest warrant was issued for the purposes of taking a deposition from him. According to Edmundo Orellana, the events were constitutionally irregular for several reasons: because Zelaya was captured by the armed forces, not the national police (Art. 273, 292); and because the Congress, not the courts, judged Zelaya to have broken the law (Arts. 303 and 304).


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Orellana concluded, "Violations of the Constitution cannot be put right with another violation. The Constitution is defended by subjecting oneself to it. Their violation translates into disregard for the State of Law and infringes on the very essence of the Law. Therefore, a coup d'Etat never has been and should never be the solution to a political conflict." Other civic and business leaders, even those opposed to Zelaya's referendum efforts, agreed that Zelaya was deprived of due process in his ouster.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
Still, many people in Honduras, including most of the country's official institutions, claimed that there was a constitutional succession of power. In a statement to a subcommittee of the US House Committee on International Affairs, former Honduran Supreme Court Justice, Foreign Affairs minister, and law professor Guillermo Perez Cadalso said that all major governmental institutions agreed that Zelaya was violating the law. Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said that, as a sovereign and independent nation, Honduras had the right to freely decide to remove a president who was violating Honduran laws. She added: "Unfortunately, our voice hasn’t been heard." She compared Zelaya's tactics, including his dismissal of the armed forces chief for obeying a court order to impound ballots to be used in the vote, with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: "Some say it was not Zelaya but Chávez governing."


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
There is a small amount of middle ground between those who term the events a coup and those who call them a constitutionally-sound succession of power. On the one hand, several supporters of Zelaya's removal, including Acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti and the top army lawyer, have admitted that sending Zelaya out of the country was illegal, although they argue it was justified by the need to prevent violence. Micheletti said forcing deposed President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country, instead of arresting him, was a mistake. On the other hand, a fraction of those who oppose the events consider the arrest warrant against Zelaya to be legal, although they say he was denied a fair trial.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
According to an opinion of an employee of the US Law Library of Congress which was published September 2009 in Forbes, the military's decision to send Zelaya into exile was illegal, but the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in accordance with the Honduran legal system. This conclusion was disputed by lawmakers, Honduran constitutional law experts, and government officials, who requested that the LLoC report be retracted.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
In 2010 WikiLeaks published a classified cable from 24 July 2009 sent by the US Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Hugo Llorens, finding that the removal of President Zelaya was a coup.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster
The Embassy perspective is that there is no doubt that the military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired on 28 June in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup against the Executive Branch, while accepting that there may be a prima facie case that Zelaya may have committed illegalities and may have even violated the constitution. There is equally no doubt from our perspective that Roberto Micheletti's assumption of power was illegitimate. Nevertheless, it is also evident that the constitution itself may be deficient in terms of providing clear procedures for dealing with alleged illegal acts by the President and resolving conflicts between the branches of government.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster, Independence of judiciary
A lack of an independent, professional judiciary was a factor in the inability of the Honduran government to process Zelaya through a political or criminal trial. The Honduran judiciary remains deeply politicised, with the highest judicial offices still being distributed between the two main parties. Requiring judges to stand for re-election makes them subject to the policies of their sponsoring party. Eight of the judges were selected by the Liberal Party and seven by the National Party. According to a report by Heather Berkman of the University of California. the politicisation of the justice system, including the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Public Security and the Public Ministry, inhibits the due process of law.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster, Independence of judiciary
José Tomás Arita Valle, who signed the arrest warrant for Zelaya, had been vice-minister for foreign affairs in the National Party government of President Ricardo Maduro. José Antonio Gutiérrez Navas, in 1998, spoke at the UN General Assembly, representing the Liberal Party government of Carlos Roberto Flores, at a session to commemorate fifty years of human rights. Oscar Fernando Chinchilla Banegas and Gustavo Enrique Bustillo Palma were National Party alternate members of Congress (2002–2006).


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Legality of ouster, Independence of judiciary
The US State Department noted in 2004 that the judiciary and Attorney General's office is subject to corruption and political influence.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
In response to the events, a number of demonstrations were held, some opposing the coup and some supporting it. Some of these are listed below.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 28 June, hundreds of demonstrators against the coup put up roadblocks in the capital Tegucigalpa.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 29 June, about 2,000 anti-coup demonstrators spent the day in the city's main square.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 30 June, demonstrations in favour of Zelaya's removal were held. In an emotional speech, Armeda Lopez said "Chavez ate Venezuela first, then Bolivia, but in Honduras that didn’t happen. Here we will not let anyone come to rule us". Signboards included "Enough to illegality", "I love my constitution".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 1 July, at around 10 in the morning, white-dressed coup supporters emerged in the capital city Tegucigalpa. "Mel out, Mel out!” "Democracy yes, dictatorship no!”, "Romeo, friend, the people are with you!” People from the religious sector, women's organisations, politics, and government gave speeches in favour of Zelaya's removal. Jorge Yllescas Olive said "Hondurans have saved our country, justice is on our side and we are demonstrating it to the world". Demonstrators also expressed opposition to Hugo Chávez's threats against Honduras.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 3 July, around 70,000 people demonstrated in favour of the new government and against Zelaya.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 30 July, some thousands marched in protest against the coup in El Durazno, Tegucigalpa. They were dispersed violently by police, according to Amnesty International.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
On 22 September, some hundreds of anti-coup protesters demonstrating outside the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya had taken refuge, were dispersed by police.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Demonstrations surrounding Zelaya’s removal
Government opponents say that the pro-coup demonstrations were staged and/or paid for by the government, giving evidence in some cases. It is claimed that pro-coup demonstrators were bused to the capital Tegucigalpa from all over the country, whereas similar buses with anti-coup demonstrators from the countryside were not allowed to enter the city.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
De facto President Roberto Micheletti ordered a curfew which initially lasted for the 48 hours from Sunday night (28 June) and to Tuesday (30 June) and has continued since then in an arbitrary way. According to Amnesty International and the International Observation Mission for the Human Rights Situation in Honduras, the curfew law was not published in the official journal La Gaceta and was not approved by Congress.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
Originally the curfew ran from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am That curfew was later revised to be in effect from 10 pm to 5 am, was extended twice, ended on 7 July, and was restarted again on 15 July. Amnesty International and the International Observation Mission stated that curfew implementation was arbitrary, with curfew times announced on radio stations, changing randomly each day and between different regions of Honduras. On 1 July, Congress issued an order (decreto ejecutivo N° 011–2009) at the request of Micheletti suspending four constitutional guarantees during the hours the curfew was in effect. The "state of exception" declared on 1 July is equivalent to a state of siege. It suspended civil liberties including freedom of transit and due process, as well as permitting search and seizure without a warrant.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
The ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua on 29 June were detained and beaten by Honduran troops before being released. Venezuela's ambassador to the OAS announced before the OAS that those ambassadors and Patricia Rodas, the Zelaya government's Foreign Minister, had been captured. Minutes later, Armando Laguna, the Venezuelan ambassador in Tegucigalpa, reported that he and the other ambassadors had been freed. Laguna said that he and the other diplomats had been seized when they visited Rodas, and that Rodas was forced into a van and had been transferred to an air base. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated that the Venezuelan ambassador was assaulted by Honduran soldiers and left by the side of a road.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
Allies of Zelaya, among them several government officials, were taken into custody by the military. Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and the mayor of the city San Pedro Sula, Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri, were detained at military bases. According to a Narconews blog, several congressmen of the Democratic Unification Party (PUD) were arrested and the party's presidential candidate, César Ham, went into hiding.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
According to the Venezuelan government's ABN news service, Tomás Andino Mencías, a member of the party, reported that PUD lawmakers were led away by the military when they tried to enter the parliament building for 28 June vote on Zelaya's deposal. A dozen former ministers from the Zelaya government went into hiding, some in foreign embassies, fearing arrest. Local media reported that at least eight ministers besides Rodas had been detained.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Human rights abuses of the interim government
Hugo Chávez and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez separately claimed that Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas was detained by the military. Rodríguez said that the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras had tried but were unable to protect Rodas from a group of masked soldiers who forcibly took her from their grasp. Rodas was sent to Mexico, which offered her asylum and help to resolve the situation.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
Reuters on 29 June 2009, describing the situation in Honduras as a "media blackout", reported that the military had shut down several TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers' websites. Among the TV stations closed were CNN en Español, TeleSUR, and "a pro-Zelaya channel". Reuters said that "the few television and radio stations still operating on Monday [the 29th] played tropical music or aired soap operas and cooking shows", and "made little reference to the demonstrations or international condemnation of the coup".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
A government health worker interviewed by Reuters said that the anti-Zelaya newspapers El Heraldo and La Tribuna, and "some television channels controlled by the opposition" were the only ones still broadcasting on the morning of the 29th. The Miami Herald reported that the "crackdown on the media" began before dawn on the 28th. It said that only pro-Micheletti stations were allowed to broadcast and that they carried only news friendly to the new government. On 29 June, four Associated Press personnel were detained and removed from their hotel, but then released.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
TeleSUR journalist Adriana Sívori, who was in Tegucigalpa reporting the clashes between the police and protesters, reported that she was arrested by the military under threat and that her passport was seized. Her detention was confirmed by the Associated Press. As soon as the international community learned of the detention, and after the quick intervention of the Venezuelan ambassador in Honduras, the journalist and the staff who accompanied her were released.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
According to Diario El Tiempo, there was also some information about the developments that the newspaper Diario El Tiempo had been prohibited to broadcast. Canal 11, located in Colonia de Miramontes, was also prohibited from broadcasting information about the developments. The Cable Color buildings, which also broadcasts programming from CNN and teleSUR, were surrounded by military forces. On 29 June, soldiers shut down Channel 8, a government station which was pro-Zelaya.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
Channel 36 was raided by soldiers minutes after the coup and remained off the air for a week; the Miami Herald of 1 July quoted owner Esdras López as saying that the building's occupants were detained during the raid. Channel 66 was raided and was off the air for a short time; according to some journalists, however, a Channel 66 program by Eduardo Maldonado, a popular radio and TV commentator who is pro-Zelaya, remained off the air for days. Maldonado went into hiding. The  Miami Herald noted that Channel 21's signal was briefly interrupted while it was broadcasting a plea against censorship.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
On Monday 29 June, in a replay of the military raids on the Jesuit radio station in El Progreso of the 1960s and 1970s, the Jesuits' progressive radio broadcasts were abruptly pulled off the air at four in the morning. On Sunday evening at 6 pm, just an hour after the coup government's curfew began, a military contingent broke into Radio Progreso's headquarters. With guns pointed, they shouted: "We’ve come to close down this piece of ****!” One broadcaster locked himself in to keep broadcasting throughout the night. Shortly after, another military convoy stopped outside Radio Progreso.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
A group of soldiers approached the radio station's guard and asked him if there were any people still working inside. When the guard said no, the soldier in charge told him: "If we find someone inside, you will regret it". And while the coup government, led by Roberto Micheletti, a native of El Progreso, threatened to shut down the station with violence, popular organisations resisting the undemocratic change in their government criticised the station for "watering down" its reporting of the tense and dynamic situation.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
According to a press release published on the website of Radio Globo Honduras, which had long sided with Zelaya, a group of 60 soldiers took the radio off the air and the employees, including Alejandro Villatoro, were allegedly threatened and intimidated. The station was allowed to resume transmission, but staff had to follow some rules which they believed limited freedom of expression. The website of the radio was down but was re-established. Alejandro Villatoro said he was arrested and kidnapped by military forces. On or just before 4 August 2009, the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) terminated Radio Globo's transmission frequency rights.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
"Honduras' two leading radio networks, Radio América and Radio HRN, urged Hondurans to resume their normal routine and not to protest". Honduran newspaper La Prensa reported on 30 June that an armed group of Zelaya supporters attacked its main headquarters by throwing stones and other objects at their windows, until police intervened. According to the paper, it was discovered that the group was led by Venezuelan and Nicaraguan nationals.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders released a statement on 29 June stating that, "The suspension or closure of local and international broadcast media indicates that the coup leaders want to hide what is happening".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Media restrictions
Carlos Lauría of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said: "The de facto government clearly used the security forces to restrict the news... Hondurans did not know what was going on. They clearly acted to create an information vacuum to keep people unaware of what was actually happening". However, in an interview published on 9 July 2009 in The Washington Post, Ramón Custodio López, Honduras's human rights ombudsman, said he had received no official complaints from journalists: "This is the first I have heard about an occupation or military raid of a station", he said. "I try to do the best job I can, but there are things that escape my knowledge".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
There were demonstrations supporting and opposing Zelaya's removal from power. The Zelaya administration was investigated and prosecuted in the absence of Zelaya. Some organisations reported human rights violations and media restrictions.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
Zelaya made two open attempts to return to the country, which were rebuffed; he eventually returned clandestinely and sought asylum in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Negotiations between the coup government and those seeking Zelaya's restitution continued a rocky path; although both sides signed the San José-Tegucigalpa-Guaymuras Accord both had differing interpretations as to the implications for Zelaya's restitution. Some Hondurans hoped to move past the coup through the elections of 29 November 2009.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
On June 2019, Zelaya presented in Tegucigalpa a book describing his ouster entitled "El Golpe 28J".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
In May 2011, after more than one and a half years in exile in the Dominican Republic, Zelaya was allowed to return to Honduras. Following his return on 28 May, the Organization of American States was to vote on readmitting Honduras to its body.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
In July 2011, Honduras's Truth Commission concluded that Zelaya broke the law when he disregarded the Supreme Court ruling ordering him to cancel the referendum, but that his removal from office was illegal and a coup. The designation by Congress of Roberto Micheletti as interim president was ruled by the commission as unconstitutional and his administration as a "de facto regime."


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
As of 2014 the coup had weakened democratic institutions such, that along with corruption and police impunity, state security forces persecuted coup opponents, peasants, indigenous protesters and others, and the crime rate increased massively. In this context more than 13,000 Honduran children crossed U.S. borders from October 2013 until May 2014, a 1272% increase compared to 2009.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
That same year, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin asked the U.S. Defense Department Office of the Inspector General to investigate charges that the  , the educational arm of U.S. Southern Command located at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., had actively promoted the coup declared illegal by President Obama but remained unpunished.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, Aftermath
Following the coup trends of decreasing poverty and extreme poverty were reversed. The nation saw a poverty increase of 13.2 percent and in extreme poverty of 26.3 percent in just 3 years. Furthermore, unemployment grew between 2008 and 2012 from 6.8 percent to 14.1 percent.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, WikiLeaks documents
On 28 November 2010, the organisation WikiLeaks began releasing 251,287 confidential documents, which detail correspondence between the U.S. State Department and U.S. embassies around the world. Among these is a cable written by U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens in late July 2009, which analyzes the legality of the removal of Zelaya under the Honduran constitution. Llorens concluded that although Zelaya might "have committed illegalities and...even violated the constitution", "there is no doubt that the military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired on June 28 in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup against the Executive Branch".


2009 Honduran coup d'état, WikiLeaks documents
The US Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan congressional committee, however found the interpretation and application of the Honduran constitution that led to the removal of Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales to be legal. Emails released later show that the 2009 removal was supported by Hillary Clinton's State Department by not recognizing it as coup in order to maintain U.S. aid to the Honduran people. Clinton and her team worked behind the scenes to stall military and economic efforts by neighboring countries through the Organization of American States to restore Manuel Zelaya to office.


2009 Honduran coup d'état, WikiLeaks documents
"The OAS meeting today turned into a non-event ― just as we hoped," wrote one senior State Department official, celebrating their success in defusing what they judged would have been a violent or destabilizing restoration. Secretary Clinton had also helped organize elections where she, Latin American leaders and diplomats, in her own words "strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot".


2009 Honduran general election
General elections were held in Honduras on 29 November 2009, including presidential, parliamentary and local elections. Voters went to the polls to elect:


2009 Honduran general election
The possibility of having a "fourth ballot box" (Spanish: cuarta urna) at the 29 November election regarding the convocation of a National Constituent Assembly constituted a major element of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.


2009 Honduran general election, Campaigning
Preceding the planned November elections, the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis (ouster of president Manuel Zelaya) occurred, bringing the legitimacy of the elections into doubt.


2009 Honduran general election, Campaigning
Campaigning by candidates took place for the three months prior to 29 November in the context of conflict between the de facto government, the de jure government, and resistance to the de facto government, mostly coordinated by the National Resistance Front.


2009 Honduran general election, Campaigning
Nearly one month of this campaign period was covered by the Micheletti de facto government Decree PCM-M-016-2009, signed on 22 September 2009 and rescinded on 19 October 2009. The decree suspended five constitutional rights: personal liberty (Article 69), freedom of expression (Article 72), freedom of movement (Article 81), habeas corpus (Article 84) and freedom of association.


2009 Honduran general election, Campaigning
Hundreds of candidates, including presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes, renounced their candidacy citing scepticism that the same military that overthrew the elected president could be trusted to run a free and fair election five months later.


2009 Honduran general election, Presidential candidates
The candidates of the two main political parties were former presidential candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa of the National Party and former vice-president Elvin Santos of the Liberal Party. The trade unionist Garifuna leader Bernard Martínez Valerio was the Innovation and Unity Party (PINU) candidate. Martínez was the first black presidential candidate in the history of Honduras, according to PINU.


2009 Honduran general election, Presidential candidates
Another trade union leader, Carlos Humberto Reyes, one of the coordinators of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras, was an independent candidate for the election but formally withdrew in order not to legitimise the coup d'état and what he and his supporters perceived would be fraudulent elections.


2009 Honduran general election, Presidential candidates
The table below shows all six continuing and withdrawn candidates, in the order published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.


2009 Honduran general election, Presidential candidates, Opinion polls
A pre-election poll conducted between 23 and 29 August 2009 by COIMER & OP showed a relative majority (41%) who would not declare a voting preference or would not vote in favour of any of the six candidates. By mid-October this had dropped to a minority (29%) according to a CID-Gallup poll. Porfirio Lobo's support increased from 28% in August to 37% in October, and Elvin Santos' support increased from 14% to 21%.


2009 Honduran general election, Presidential candidates, Opinion polls
According to the two polls, Carlos H. Reyes' support dropped from 12% to 6%, while the other three candidates increased from 1–2% support in August to 2–3% in October. A popularity rating question in the COIMER & OP August poll, concerning positive, average and negative opinions towards presidential candidates and other prominent people, found that Porfirio Lobo had more negative than positive popularity (34% versus 30%), as did Elvin Santos (45% versus 19%) and the de facto President Roberto Micheletti (56% versus 16%) and César Ham (20% versus 16%). Carlos H. Reyes had more positive than negative ratings (25% versus 14%), as did de jure President Manuel Zelaya (45% versus 26%).


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
Over thirty thousand security personnel were involved in running the election, including 12,000 military, 14,000 police officers and 5000 reservists. Mayors were requested by the army to provide lists of "enemies" (Spanish: enemigos) of the electoral process in order to "neutralise" them (Spanish: neutralizarlos).


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
Amnesty International protested to the Honduran de facto government about violations of habeas corpus on 28 and 29 November. One of the people who were disappeared was Jensys Mario Umanzor Gutierrez, last seen in police detention early on the morning of 30 November. Amnesty International (AI) stated that no courts, including the Supreme Court, were available to receive a petition for habeas corpus. AI also referred to two men arrested under terrorism charges and beaten, and 14 minors detained under decree PCM-M-016-2009 for gathering in groups of more than four persons, and later freed without charges. AI also said that human rights organizations in Honduras "suffered attacks and acts of intimidation".


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
On election day, police and military suppressed an anti-election rally in San Pedro Sula, with reports of one death plus injuries and arrests. There were also reports that employees of government agencies and private businesses were being told that they would be fired if they did not vote.


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
The European Parliament did not send observers. However, observers were sent by the centrist European People's Party, who reported a "high degree of civic maturity and exemplar democratic behaviour" during the elections.


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
Despite few outside legal observers, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute were there as American observers. The IRI supported the projections of 61% from the interim government and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The NDI has so far not commented on their projection of the vote turnout, however have commented on an independent, local Honduran observer part-funded by USAID, the Hagamos Democracia who put the turnout on 48%.


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
The NDI commented that they had a low margin of error on what percentage of the votes were allocated to the candidates as they had successfully projected the vote's outcome: 56 percent for Lobo and 38 percent for Santos. He also said a 48 percent turnout would be consistent with a trend of increasing abstention in Honduras. Turnout was 55 percent in the 2005 election that brought Zelaya to office, 10 percentage points lower than in the previous election.


2009 Honduran general election, Conduct
Official turnout was revised down to 49%, a figure consistent with the TSE's own internal figures on election day but over which it had preferred to announce the entirely unfounded but rather more politically convenient 61%, as was caught on video at the time. 49% incidentally, is also a decline on the 55% 2005 election turnout.


2009 Honduran general election, Results, President
Porfirio Lobo Sosa, popularly known as Pepe Lobo, of the opposition conservative National Party was elected to succeed Micheletti. Early reports gave Lobo over 50% of the popular vote, with Elvin Santos the closest opponent with around 35%. While some regional nations did not accept the election as valid, others including the United States have supported its legitimacy. While exiled President Manuel Zelaya called for a boycott of the election, turnout ranged from around 30% in poorer areas to 70% in more wealthy communities. Lobo previously served in the Honduran Congress. He has hinted that charges against Zelaya will be dropped.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions
Organisations and individuals in Honduras, including the National Resistance Front against the coup d'État in Honduras, Marvin Ponce of the Democratic Unification Party, and Bertha Oliva of Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, and internationally, including Mercosur, President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina andthe Union of South American Nations, said that elections held on 29 November under Micheletti would not be recognized.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
Hundreds of people made a noisy drive-by protest in Tegucigalpa on 1 December to symbolise their rejection of the elections and to highlight that the turnout estimates of over 60% were inaccurate. Zelaya's aide Carlos Reina called for the elections to be cancelled.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
In early November 2009, Dagoberto Suazo of the National Resistance Front against the coup d'État in Honduras asked for the international community to continue to refuse to recognise the planned 29 November elections. Marvin Ponce, a member of Congress from the Democratic Unification Party, said that it was not possible to hold the elections in the aftermath of the coup d'état.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
Bertha Oliva of COFADEH criticised the United States government for stating that Honduras could hold "free elections in less than three weeks" when "Hondurans [were being] subjected to arbitrary arrest, the closure of independent media, police beatings, torture and even killings by security forces". Oliva claimed that it was not possible to have an election campaign when the right to freedom of assembly, freedom of movement and press freedom were absent. She called for elections to be delayed until at least three months after human rights and democracy are restored.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
On 6 November 2009, following the failure of Micheletti and Zelaya to together create a "unity cabinet", Zelaya called for a boycott of the 29 November election.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
On 9 November 2009, following a national meeting of leaders of the National Resistance Front against the coup d'état, presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes declared the withdrawal of his candidacy, on the grounds of not legitimising the coup d'état and fraudulent elections. At the time of Reyes' withdrawal, the Honduran newspapers El Tiempo and La Tribuna showed Reyes' right hand in a plaster cast due to an injury sustained during his 30 July beating by Honduran security forces under the control of the de facto Micheletti government.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
At least 30–40 candidates from various parties and independent candidates, including at least one National Party candidate, Mario Medrano in San Manuel, Cortés, also withdraw in protest. Mario Medrano stated that he withdrew his candidature in order not to legitimise the coup d'état, that this was independent of party membership, and that anyone elected could be removed [if the coup d'état remained legitimate].


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
Canadian investigative journalist Jesse Freeston released a series of three videos before and after the elections them of being "coup laundering". In the final video, "Honduran Elections Exposed", Freeston separately interviews two members of the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The engineer in charge of the count says that 49% of Hondurans had turned out to vote. Meanwhile, the spokesman for the tribunal told Freeston that roughly 65% had turned out. Freeston concludes that nobody knows how many Hondurans turned out, since all four major international election observers (UN, EU, Carter Center, and OAS) all refused to participate.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, Honduras
The videos also exposed the police attack on an anti-election protest in San Pedro Sula, the arrest of a man for possession of anti-election posters in Tegucigalpa, a letter the military sent to all the mayors in Honduras seeking contact information of anyone involved in the National People's Resistance Front, the shutting down of anti-coup media outlets Radio Globo and Canal 36, and the targeted assassinations of anti-coup community organizers.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
Mercosur declared on 24 July 2009 that it would not recognise the results of the planned November elections or any other elections organised under Micheletti. President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina stated, "We must condemn any benevolent coup attempt, that is, when through a civilian-military coup legitimate authorities are ousted followed by attempts to legalize the situation by calling new elections. This would be the death kiss for the OAS democratic charter and turning the Mercosur democratic charter in mere fiction".


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
On 10 August, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) also declared that it would not recognise the results of elections held while the de facto Micheletti government remained in power. On 17 August, President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, together with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, made a similar statement. On September 3, the US State Department issued a statement revoking all non-humanitarian assistance to Honduras and said, of the November 29 elections "At this moment, we would not be able to support the outcome of the scheduled elections".


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
The U.S. has since changed position and announced that it will recognize the results of the election as a part of the San Jose-Tegucigalpa Accord. Prior to the elections, the OAS advanced a resolution that would have refused to recognize its results. Initially, the U.S. administration pushed for the return of Zelaya, however, subsequently back-tracked on a threat not to recognize the election. The OAS resolution was ultimately blocked by the United States.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
The U.S. State Department rejected appeals by other Organization of American States (OAS) member nations to condemn what many perceived to be a fraudulent election and, instead, declared the contest "free, fair and transparent.”  The International Republican Institute, an organization linked to the United States Republican Party, also declared the elections had been "free of violence and overt acts of intimidation". The victory of Porfirio Lobo Sosa was quickly recognized by the United States, which increased military and police aid to the government, despite much of Latin America continuing to view him as an illegal pretender to the Honduran presidency.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
In the days preceding the elections, Israel, Italy, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Germany, Costa Rica and Japan also announced their intentions to recognize the results of the elections.


2009 Honduran general election, Reactions, International
On 30 November at the 19th Ibero-American Summit in Estoril, Portugal the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela announced they would not recognize the elections whereas Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama said that they would. On 7 December the five Mercosur member states once again ratified their decision of not recognizing the election of Porfirio Lobo.


2009 Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority forum
2009 Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority forum was a public forum held on the night of July 14, 2009 by the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority. The forum gave the citizens a chance to provide feedback and comments about the two free Hong Kong TV station TVB and ATV. A large number of questions and complaints were directed at the station representatives. Starting from issues of self-censorship, the forum soon escalated to chaos including heated comments toward TVB general manager Stephen Chan Chi Wan.


2009 Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority forum, Background
Both ATV and TVB's current broadcast license went into effect on 1 December 2003. Traditionally TVB news used the slogan (無綫新聞，事事關心), which means "TVB News, care about events". In June 2009 people became dissatisfied with how the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests were being reported locally. Thus the phrase (無綫新聞，事事旦旦) became a new protest spinoff phrase. On June 5, a day after the Tiananmen square 20th anniversary, all the TV stations were analyzed for their handling of the Tiananmen broadcast.


2009 Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority forum, Background
TVB, which has the largest viewership and largely regarded as a monopoly, broadcast only 8 minutes of the event well after a number of lesser important programs. Some of the programs that came before Tiananmen news included students abusing drugs in Tin Shui Wai, and lesser important news regarding Legco and the Hong Kong subway. This led TVB to be labeled as CCTVB by the critics, which is a knockoff of the People's Republic of China's censored state-run station CCTV.


2009 Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority forum, Forum
On July 14, 2009 the forum had about 350 participants. The forum originally began with the complaints of self-censorship being practiced by both stations along with other broadcast freedom issues. The questions later spiraled to issues of monopoly, controlling of celebrities etc. Each citizen had 3 minutes to ask questions.


2009 Hong Kong Community Shield
2009 Hong Kong Community Shield was the first edition of the Hong Kong Community Shield. The game was a football match between the winners and the runners-up of the previous season's Hong Kong First Division League.


2009 Hong Kong Community Shield
The match was played in Hong Kong Stadium, on 17 August 2009. The two opposing teams were 2008–09 Hong Kong First Division League winners South China and runners-up Kitchee.


2009 Hong Kong Community Shield
Because of Typhoon Morakot, which was currently affecting Taiwan, a part of the ticket revenue was donated to two charities, the Hong Kong Red Cross and United Christian Hospital.


2009 Hong Kong Community Shield
The game was won by Kitchee with a 2–0 victory over South China. The game's two goals were made by Spanish player Albert Virgili and Equatoguinean player Baruc Nsue.


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
The 2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes was the fifteenth contesting of the tournament, taking place at Kowloon Cricket Club, Hong Kong. Eight nations competed in twenty-two matches over two days, 31 October – 1 November 2009. South Africa won the tournament, narrowly defeating hosts Hong Kong in the final, after Farhaan Behardien hit the required six off the last ball of the match.


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
Despite losing in the final, Hong Kong's Irfan Ahmed was awarded the Ben Hollioake Trophy, given to the player of the tournament. He played in all seven of Hong Kong's matches, and finished with 163 runs, which was bettered only by England's Peter Trego. He also claimed three wickets in the tournament, at an economy of 13.63 runs per over, ranking him fifth of all bowlers for economy. South Africa's David Wiese claimed the most wickets, taking seven in his seven matches. Peter Trego topped the batting charts with 184 runs, boosted by a top-score of 65* after returning to bat in England's third match after they'd lost four wickets. His 21 sixes were also the most scored by a batsman in the tournament.


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations
All standard laws of the game as laid down by the MCC applied with the following significant differences:


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, General
Games are played between two teams of six players, and consist of five overs of six balls, with the exception of the final which consists of five overs of eight balls. Each member of the fielding side, with the exception of the wicket-keeper shall bowl one over. Wides and no-balls count as two runs to the batting side, plus an extra ball.


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, Last man stands
If five wickets fall (not including batsmen retiring not out) before the allocated overs have been completed, the remaining batsman continues, with the last batsman out remaining as a runner. The not out batsman shall always face strike, and shall be declared out if his partner is declared out.


2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, Batsman retire
A batsman must retire not out on reaching 31 runs, but not before. He may complete all runs scored on the ball on which he reaches his 31, and retire immediately after. If one of the last pair of batsmen is out, any remaining not out batsman may resume his innings. In the case where there is more than one, they must return in the order they retired.


2009 Hong Kong Games
The 2009 Hong Kong Games, officially known as The 2nd Hong Kong Games (Chinese: 第二屆全港運動會), was a major multi-sport event in Hong Kong. The games were staged between 9 May and 31 May 2009, with participation from 2307 athletes. The awards included 80 gold medals, 80 silver medals and 81 bronze medals. The ultimate tournament victor was the Yuen Long District.


2009 Hong Kong Games, Purpose
Expanding on the 2007 Hong Kong Games, the event aimed to popularize sports participation in the Hong Kong area. Also, with the staging of 2009 East Asian Games in December of the same year, the Hong Kong games acted as a precursor to this larger event.


2009 Hong Kong Games, Event
The 2009 Hong Kong Games included 6 separate events: athletics, basketball, badminton, swimming, table tennis and tennis. Swimming and tennis were featured for the first time in the Games.


2009 Hong Kong Games, Opening ceremony
The Opening Ceremony was held on 9 May in Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground.


2009 Hong Kong Games, Closing ceremony
The Closing Ceremony was held on 31 May in Kowloon Park Sports Ground.


2009 Hong Kong Sevens
The Hong Kong Sevens, referred to as the Cathay Pacific Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens for sponsorship reasons, is the 5th stop on the IRB Sevens World Series. The 2009 event was played between the 27–29 March, and was won by Fiji. Unlike the 7 other tournaments, Hong Kong contains 24 teams to compete.


2009 Hong Kong Sevens, Standings after Tournament
South Africa, who finished second in this tournament, went to the top of the IRB Sevens World Series. England, who were joint-first with South Africa before, dropped to second place, with Fiji going to third and New Zealand fourth.


2009 Hong Kong Super Series
The 2009 Hong Kong Super Series was a top level badminton competition which was held from November 10, 2009 to November 14, 2009 in Hong Kong. It was the 11th BWF Superseries competition on the 2009 BWF Super Series schedule. The total purse for the event was $250,000.


2009 Hong Kong–Macau Interport
The 65th Hong Kong Macau Interport was held in Hong Kong on 20 June 2009. Hong Kong captured the champion by winning 5-1.


2009 Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup XXI (also known as the Hyundai Hopman Cup for sponsorship reasons) corresponds to the 21st edition of the Hopman Cup tournament between nations in men's and women's tennis. The tournament was held from 3 January through 9 January 2009 at the Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth, Western Australia.


2009 Hopman Cup
Eight nations competed. They were formed of one man and one woman from the same nation. The nations were split into two pools of four in a round robin format, with the group winners contesting the final.


2009 Hopman Cup
The United States were the defending champions and they were invited to compete again. Chinese Taipei qualified for the event by winning the Asian Hopman Cup.


2009 Hopman Cup
Slovakia won their third title, defeating Russia in the final 2–0.


2009 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2009 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament was held at the end of the 2008–2009 regular season. The better seed hosted each first round match. The second and third rounds were played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The championship game was played at the home court of the highest remaining seed, also Hinkle Fieldhouse, the home court of the Butler men's basketball team.


2009 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament, Bracket
First round games at campus sites of lower-numbered seedsSecond round and semifinals will be hosted by Butler. Championship will be hosted by lower-numbered remaining seed


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing
The 2009 Hotel Shamo bombing was a suicide bombing at the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 3 December 2009. The bombing killed 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government, and injured 60 more, making it the deadliest attack in Somalia since the Beledweyne bombing on 18 June 2009 that claimed more than 30 lives.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing
The hall had been brightly decorated, and there was a feeling of excitement – such ceremonies rarely happen in Mogadishu.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing
The attack took place inside the meeting hall of the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu during a commencement ceremony for medical students of Benadir University and was carried out by a suicide bomber dressed as a woman, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes", according to Minister of Information Dahir Mohamud Gelle. According to witnesses, the bomber approached a speakers' panel, verbally greeted them with the phrase "peace", and detonated his explosives belt. Former Minister of Health Osman Dufle, who was speaking when the blast happened, reported that he had noticed an individual wearing black clothing moving through the audience immediately before the explosion.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing
The ceremony—the second since Benadir University was formed in 2002 and a rare event in war-torn Somalia—had attracted hundreds of people. In attendance were the graduates and their family members, University officials, and five ministers of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Security inside the meeting hall was light and all of the ministers' bodyguards were outside the hall.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing, Casualties
Suddenly, the hall shook and I heard a PAW! sound from the front of the ceremony, where most government officials and dignitaries were sitting. I got down on the ground and looked back. Dozens of people were on the ground under a huge cloud of smoke. Others were stampeding to the exit for safety.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing, Casualties
The bombing killed 24 people and injured 60 others. Most of those killed were students, but also among the dead were two doctors, three journalists, and three government ministers—Minister of Education Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel, Minister of Health Qamar Aden Ali, and Minister of Higher Education Ibrahim Hassan Addow were killed. Minister of Sports Saleban Olad Roble was critically injured, and was hospitalised. He was later reported to have been flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment, where he died on 13 February 2010.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing, Casualties
The three journalists killed in the bombing were: Mohamed Amiin Abdullah of Shabelle Media Network, a Somali television and radio network; freelance photographer Yasir Mairo, who died of injuries in hospital; and a cameraman alternately identified as freelancer Hassan Ahmed Hagi and Al Arabiya cameraman Hassan Zubeyr or Hasan al-Zubair. Their deaths raised to nine the number of journalists killed in Somalia during 2009, including four for Radio Shabelle. The explosion also injured six other journalists, including two—Omar Faruk, a photographer for Reuters, and Universal TV reporter Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle—who were taken to Medina Hospital in critical condition.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, The bombing, Casualties
The dean of Benadir University's medical college was among the wounded.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath
No one immediately claimed responsibility for orchestrating the bombing, but Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the President of Somalia, blamed the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath
In a news conference held in the Hotel Shamo after the attack, President Ahmed called for international assistance to Somalia. He also displayed, according to a local journalist, what he identified as the bomber's body and remains of an explosive belt and a hijab. The Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported the bomber was a 23-year-old citizen of Denmark.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath
According to Idd Mohamed, a senior Somali diplomat, the attack was carried out to foster "terror" and "panic" and undermine the legitimacy of the Transitional Federal Government. Wafula Wamunyini, the acting head of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), expressed a similar opinion, claiming that the attack had the purpose of "intimidat[ing] and blackmail[ing]" the Somali government. Stephanie McCrummen of The Washington Post described the attack as "the worst blow in months" to the United Nations-supported government of Somalia.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
The attack drew condemnation from a number of organisations, including the African Union (AU), the European Union, the United Nations Security Council, and the National Union of Somali Journalists.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
AMISOM described the bombing as "inhumane and cowardly", and characterised it as a "heinous [crime] against humanity". AMISOM also promised to "spare no efforts" to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack, and stated that the attack would not deter the AU from continuing to carry out its mission in Somalia.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
Baroness Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union (EU), echoed AMISOM's sentiment, calling the bombing a "cowardly attack against civilians including students, doctors and journalists".


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
The UN Security Council president Michel Kafando labelled the attack an act of terrorism and a "criminal act", called for a "thorough investigation", and conveyed "sympathies and condolences" to the victims of the attack, their families, the TFG, and the Somali people.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
A joint statement by the UN, the EU, the Arab League and the United States affirmed that the international community would continue its support of the Transitional Federal Government; however, a senior European diplomat indicated that any additional military support to the TFG was unlikely.


2009 Hotel Shamo bombing, Aftermath, Reactions
The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement expressing condolences to the families of the three journalists killed in the bombing and noted that the attack "cemented" Somalia's "position as the deadliest country in Africa for journalists".


2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede
The 2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede occurred on 29 March 2009 in the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast before a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Malawi and Ivory Coast. Nineteen people were killed and 135 were injured. In an attempt to control a stampede police fired tear gas into the crowds, who had begun jostling with each other at least 40 minutes before kick off. The match was particularly popular among locals, with world stars such as Didier Drogba, Sol Bamba and Salomon Kalou due to play for Ivory Coast.


2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede, Overview
The match was the first match in Group 5 of Round 3 of the CAF zonal qualifying. It was played despite the deaths occurring before kick off, and was won 5–0 by Ivory Coast. Officials have said that ticketless football fans were to blame for the stampede. Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro held a crisis meeting with ministers and football officials on 30 March to discuss the tragedy. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said: "I wish to express extreme sorrow and extend our condolences to the Ivorian football community and, most importantly, to family, friends and loved ones following the tragic deaths in Abidjan yesterday. FIFA has also launched an inquiry into how the tragedy happened".


2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede, Overview
On 9 May 2009 FIFA decided to extend its investigation into the event, they interviewed members of the Ivorian Football Federation, police and other local and national organisations. FIFA had not given a deadline for the conclusion of the investigation.


2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede, Overview
On 22 July 2009, FIFA fined the Ivorian Football Federation $47,000 following the enquiry into the stadium tragedy. Football's world governing body imposed a series of safety measures after concluding the long investigation. FIFA also announced a donation of $96,000 to a fund set up for the families of the victims.


2009 Houphouët-Boigny stampede, Overview
Earlier casualties at incidents at football matches in Africa included 127 people killed in 2001 in the AccraSports Stadium crowd stampede in Ghana, 11 people killed in rioting in September 2008 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and eight crushed to death in June 2008 in Liberia.


2009 Houston Astros season
The Houston Astros' 2009 season is the 48th season for the franchise in the National League in Houston, Texas and their 10th season at Minute Maid Park. The Houston Astros attempted to win the NL Central for the fifth time (1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001), but failed.


2009 Houston Astros season, Regular season, April
The Astros lost their season opening series against the Cubs, their one win coming off of former Cincinnati Red Jeff Keppinger's tenth inning RBI single in his first at bat with the club. They were then swept by the Cardinals in St. Louis in a three-game series, giving up 19 runs while only being able to score 5 runs. The team then traveled to Pittsburgh where they lost the first game 0–7.


2009 Houston Astros season, Regular season, April
The next day, Mike Hampton won his second start of his second stint with the franchise with an 8 strikeout, 6 inning outing for the win over the Pirates. Lance Berkman's 6th inning 3 run home run helped the Astros win the third game of the series against the Pirates. The Astros then returned home to Minute Maid Park, where they had three good outings against the Reds by ace Roy Oswalt, journeyman Wandy Rodríguez and Triple-A Round Rock call-up Felipe Paulino.


2009 Houston Astros season, Regular season, April
José Valverde gave up a 2-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to Ramón Hernández for the loss in Oswalt's game on April 17, Rodriguez's got the win with a strong offensive outing by the Astros led by Geoff Blum with 3 RBIs on April 18, and Geoff Geary gave up a two-run double to Micah Owings in the top of the seventh inning for the loss in Paulino's game on April 19.


2009 Houston Astros season, Regular season, April
In the fourth game of the series, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee's back to back solo shot home runs were not enough to beat the Red's Edwin Encarnación's 2 RBI single and Joey Votto's 2 RBI double to give the Red's the series, 3–1. The Houston Astros are an even 451 wins and 451 losses to the Chicago Cubs


2009 Houston Astros season, Player stats, Batting
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases


2009 Houston Cougars football team
The 2009 Houston Cougars football team, also known as the Houston Cougars, Houston, or UH, represented the University of Houston in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season. It was the 64th year of season play for Houston. The team was coached by second year head football coach, Kevin Sumlin. The team played its home games at Robertson Stadium, a 32,000-seat stadium on campus in Houston. The Cougars finished the season 10–4, 6–3 in CUSA play, were co–champions of the west division and lost to East Carolina 38–32 in the CUSA Championship Game. They were invited to the Armed Forces Bowl where they lost to Air Force 47–20. It was the second consecutive year that they had played Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Previous season
The 2008 season was head coach Kevin Sumlin's inaugural season with the Cougars. The Cougars finished 3rd in Conference USA's West division with a 6–2 conference record and 8–5 overall record. The Cougars ended their season with a win against the Air Force Falcons in the Armed Forces Bowl. This marked the first time since 1980 that the Cougars won a bowl game, and ended their eight-game losing streak.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Previous season
In addition, the Cougars defeated two nationally ranked teams: #23 East Carolina and #25 Tulsa; the former of which was on the road. It was the first time the Cougars had defeated a ranked opponent in an away game since the 1984 season. Another first since then was the defeat of two nationally ranked teams in one season.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Previous season
At the conclusion of the post-season, offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer graduated from Houston, and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Phillip Hunt was also signed to the Cleveland Browns. Houston's starting quarterback Case Keenum held the number two rank for passing yards in the NCAA.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Preseason, Spring practices
The Cougars held Spring practices from March 24 to April 18, 2008. On April 4, the team played a public scrimmage. The Cougars' annual Red-White Game, which was the conclusion of the Spring practices, was abruptly halted after the first ten minutes of gameplay due to rainy weather conditions.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Northwestern State
The Northwestern State Demons of the Southland Conference traveled to Houston to meet with the Cougars for the first time in school history. Head coach Bradley Dale Peveto, a former Houston defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, led the Demons in his first game ever. With the first five touchdowns for Houston resulting from the Cougars' first five possessions, the Demons' first first down occurred only after the score was 28–0 in the home team's favor. With the game well in hand for the Cougars in the third quarter, starting quarterback Case Keenum was rested for the rest of the game.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
The Cougars traveled to Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater to face Oklahoma State (ranked 5th in the AP football poll and 6th in the Coaches' Poll). Houston came out of the gate with a touchdown and field goal in the first quarter, but Oklahoma State responded with a drive to the endzone in the beginning of the second quarter. However, Houston parlayed an onside kick into two more touchdowns to close the half. In the third quarter, Oklahoma State dominated, with touchdowns coming from rushes by Keith Toston and Beau Johnston.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
A punt return for 82 yards by Dez Bryant yielded another touchdown for Oklahoma State. However, the Cougars clawed back in the final quarter, with the help of a Case Keenum pass that turned into a tipped ball caught by Bryce Beall, and a Zac Robinson interception that was returned for a touchdown. Following the win, Houston was launched into the #21 ranked spot in the AP Poll, which marked the first time since 1991 in which the Cougars had been ranked in the top 25.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Houston faced-off against former Southwest Conference rivals, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, for the first time since the demise of that athletic conference following the 1995 season. The game also marked the first time that Houston hosted Texas Tech on-campus, as the Astrodome had served as the previous home for the Cougars during that era. During Houston's bye the week prior, AP and Coaches' Poll voters ranked the Cougars ahead in the polls to #17 and #23 respectively. It was the first time in eighteen years that Houston entered a game as a nationally ranked team.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Although attempting to recover from a loss to #2 Texas the week before, Texas Tech's starting quarterback Taylor Potts had passed for a career record of 46 passes for 420 yards.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The game received heavy media coverage, and was broadcast nationally on ESPN2. After a complete sell-out of public game tickets by Houston athletics, 1,500 student guest tickets went on sale the Monday morning before the game. With students arriving around midnight to await box office opening, all student guest passes were gone within three hours. The game marked a record attendance of 32,114 at Robertson Stadium in its current seating capacity including an appearance by U.S. Senator for Texas and gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Following a similar phenomenon from Monday, 5,500 students were allowed general admission into the game for no charge on gameday. Houston businessman Jim McIngvale donated a 9'x16' LED screen displaying the ESPN2 broadcast for use in the stadium parking lot during the game to accommodate the remainder of the University of Houston's 37,000 student enrollment who were unable to gain entry. UH Alumnus Hakeem Olajuwon facilitated the pre-game coin toss. Fellow alumnus and former Cougars basketball coach Clyde Drexler was also in attendance.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Although prior to the win, Texas Tech had been victors of the previous five meetings, the all-time record between the teams was updated to 18–10–1 with Houston leading. The Cougars' record improved to 3–0.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, UTEP
Following the home victory, Houston went on the road to El Paso, Texas to face conference foe UTEP for the seventh time in school history. Having moved five spots up to #12 in the AP Poll prior to the game, the undefeated Cougars were heavily favored to win. UTEP's record was 1–3, and were coming off a 64–7 loss to Texas. Despite a remarkable attempt by Houston, where Case Keenum threw for a career record of 536 passing yards with 5 touchdowns, the Cougars could not contain UTEP's run-style offense.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, UTEP
UTEP running back Donald Buckram ran for a career-high of 262 yards against Houston as the Miners completed a 58-41 upset. Houston's all-time record against UTEP fell to 3–4. The Cougars would fall completely out of both the AP Poll and Coaches' Poll top 25 rankings, but continued to receive votes.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Mississippi State
Houston attempted to begin rebuilding after the UTEP upset in Starkville, Mississippi meeting with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. It was the fifteenth meeting between the two teams, where the Cougars held an 8–6 record over the Bulldogs who first competed against each other in 1956. The last time Mississippi State defeated Houston was in 1972, as the Cougars won the last two meetings. The game was nationally televised on ESPNU. The Bulldogs were able to contain Houston's offense to 17 points in three quarters and enter the fourth quarter in a tie game.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Mississippi State
The Cougars offense scored two touchdowns in rapid succession with six and four minutes to go in the game, and then conceded a touchdown run to Anthony Dixon with 1:22 to play. However, the Cougars were able to recover a Mississippi State onside kick attempt and went on to win the game. Following the win, the Cougars regained a place in the top 25 list for both the AP Poll and Coaches' Poll with a ranking of #23.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulane
Houston completed its three-game road trip in New Orleans, Louisiana against the Tulane Green Wave. With a record of 5-1 after completing the game, Houston was off to the best start of a season since 2003. Having competed against each other for the first time in 1968, the Cougars held a 10-4 all-time record against Tulane, and had won their last seven games against the Green Wave.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulane
Heavily favored Houston started off the game slowly against Tulane's pass defense which stood as the best in Conference USA at the time, and the Cougars went into halftime leading only 9-6 against the Green Wave. However, in the second half the offense exploded for 20 unanswered points in the third quarter and 15 points in the fourth while conceding 10, and Houston left the Superdome a 44-16 winner. Following the game, Houston rose to #17 in the AP Poll and to #18 in the Harris and Coaches' Polls. When the initial BCS ranking came out the following Sunday Houston secured the #17 spot, marking the first week the Cougars were ranked in the BCS poll.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, SMU
The Cougars returned to play in Houston for the first time since its September victory over Texas Tech to face the SMU Mustangs in their homecoming game. Another former Southwest Conference opponent, SMU was coached by second-year head coach June Jones. It was the 25th meeting between the teams, where Houston held a 15-9-1 record in the all-time series. The game was nationally televised on the CBS College Sports network. Houston took advantage of two SMU turnovers early in the game and utilized an effective running game to take a 24-3 lead into halftime.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, SMU
SMU's turnover issues continued into the second quarter as Houston kept going to freshman Charles Sims on the ground. Sims finished the game with 15 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Case Keenum finished with comparatively light duty, only collecting 233 yards and two touchdowns on 36 completions as Houston dispatched SMU 38-15. Following the victory, Houston moved up to #15 in the AP poll and to #16 in the Coaches' and Harris polls, but moved down to #18 in the BCS poll.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Southern Miss
The Cougars continued the 2009 season with a Halloween showdown versus conference rival Southern Miss. Houston came into the game at 7-1 and on its best start since 1990, in the days of the Southwest Conference. The two teams last met in the 2006 Conference USA Football Championship. The game turned into a shootout early as neither defense proved able to slow down quarterbacks Martevious Young and Case Keenum.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Southern Miss
Southern Miss led early 13-7 at the end of the first quarter, but Houston collected 23 points on three touchdowns and a returned blocked extra point to go into halftime leading 30-22. The game slowed down somewhat in the second half as Houston extended the lead to 40-22 in the fourth quarter, but Southern Miss's Young led the Golden Eagles to a late game comeback, scoring three touchdowns in eight minutes to tie the game at 43 with only 57 seconds left.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Southern Miss
However, Houston's Keenum calmly led the Cougars down the field in a scene reminiscent of the Texas Tech game and needed only 36 seconds to complete a game-winning touchdown drive. Keenum passed for a career record 559 yards that day. Houston escaped out of Robertson Stadium that day with a 50-43 victory. The following day, Houston found itself ranked 13th in the AP poll, 15th in the Coaches', 14th in the Harris, and 15th overall in the BCS poll, an improvement in all rankings.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulsa
The 8-1 Cougars took to the road the following week to take on the ever-dangerous Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Houston came into the game with an 18-16 record all time versus Tulsa. The game took mostly the form of the previous game against Southern Miss, where neither team's defense were effective against potent passing attacks. The Cougars utilized a strong first half from wide receiver James Cleveland to go into halftime leading 24-21.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulsa
Houston's defense nearly collapsed completely in the third quarter as Tulsa QB G.J. Kinne tore the Cougars apart in the air and on the ground, scoring three individual touchdowns in the third quarter. Houston's offense were able to keep up mostly with Tulsa, and the quarter ended with a 38-34 score favoring Tulsa. Tulsa's defense solidified somewhat in the fourth quarter, holding Houston out of the end zone on a goal line stand early and making Houston settle for a 26-yard field goal with eight minutes to play.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulsa
Tulsa's offense then churned out one last scoring drive with three and a half minutes to play to bring the score to 45-37. Houston needed a touchdown with a two-point conversion on its last drive to tie the game. Keenum again led the Cougars down the field and threw a third touchdown pass to James Cleveland to bring UH to 45-43, but Keenum was sacked on the two-point conversion attempt. With only 21 seconds to play, Houston attempted a last gasp onside kick attempt which was successfully recovered by Tim Monroe.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Tulsa
Keenum quickly brought the offense 27 yards down the field in three plays and then retired to give walkon freshman kicker Matt Hogan a chance to win the game on his leg. It was the first time Hogan had tried a field goal longer than 50 yards, but he booted the field goal down the middle as Houston escapes being upset once again, winning 46-45. The victory was the first one by game-winning field goal in school history. After the thrilling comeback, the Coaches' poll moved Houston to #12, the Harris to #13, and the BCS ranking remained unchanged at #15.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Central Florida
With visions of a possible top 10 ranking in the near future, the 9-1 Cougars traveled to Orlando, Florida to play the Knights of Central Florida. UCF had met Houston only two times before, each team winning a game. The game began as though heavily favored Houston would win in less dramatic fashion than normal, easily taking a 10-0 lead to the second quarter. However, in the second quarter UCF began going to the ground and exploiting serious weaknesses in the run defense exposed by games against Texas Tech and UTEP.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Central Florida
UCF ground out yards and jealously kept the ball out of the hands of the dangerous Houston offense. Unable to cope with the punishing ground game, Houston scored only one kickoff return touchdown in the next two quarters and UCF took a 23-17 lead into the fourth quarter. UCF scored two more touchdowns, one rushing and one passing, early in the fourth to move to 37-20 while grinding down clock and keeping the ball in UCF possession.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Central Florida
Houston's offense broke out only with three and a half minutes to play by way of a touchdown pass, and then another one with only ten seconds to play to bring the game to 37-32. However this time, Houston would not recover the last second onside kick and UCF completed the upset. The victory by UCF was the first against a Top 25 ranked opponent in school history. After the loss, Houston dropped far in the polls to #22 in the Coaches' and #23 in the Harris, with the BCS dropping Houston further to #24. Not only had any vision of a BCS Bowl for the Cougars disappeared, even the possibility of a conference title began to come into doubt as the loss put SMU in the lead for the CUSA West division title.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Memphis
Houston returned to Robertson Stadium to lick their wounds of the previous week. The 1-9 Memphis Tigers were in town. Houston struck first, quickly, and often in the first half; Keenum completed 29 passes for 405 yards and 5 touchdowns before retiring just after halftime. Houston took a commanding 42-14 lead into halftime, and Houston tacked on two more touchdowns by way of a touchdown pass from backup quarterback Cotton Turner and a Charles Sims touchdown run to easily win 55-14.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Memphis
Memphis's two touchdowns came by way of running back Curtis Steele, indicating Houston had not fixed their major ground game issues. With the victory and a loss by SMU to Marshall earlier in the day, Houston ended the week as leader of CUSA West with only one game remaining. Houston's ranking recovered slightly the following day; the Coaches' and Harris polls placed the Cougars at #20 and the BCS at #23.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Rice
The final game of the season was a Thanksgiving renewal of the rivalry with Rice, with the two teams playing for the Bayou Bucket. Houston came into the game with a 27-9 record versus the crosstown Owls. Much like the Memphis game, Houston's offense scored at will versus the Rice defense. Case Keenum scored only two touchdowns on 323 yards passing before hitting the showers at halftime, his Cougars leading 59-0. The game slowed down somewhat in the third quarter, and Houston extended its lead to 65-0 before Houston's reserves conceded two touchdowns.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Rice
Houston's reserves added two touchdowns of their own, and the Cougars defended the Bayou Bucket 73-14. The 73 points was the most scored by any team in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS season. The victory also sealed a CUSA West title for the Cougars - though SMU won earlier in the day, Houston owned the tiebreaker by way of defeating the Mustangs in October. Houston's ranking improved two spots in all polls; the Coaches' and Harris polls placed the Cougars at #18 and the BCS at #21.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, East Carolina (C-USA Championship)
The Cougars, representing CUSA West, traveled to Greenville, North Carolina for the Conference USA Championship against defending champion East Carolina. ECU employed the same strategy used by conference mates UTEP and UCF in their upsets of the Cougars - run the football often and grind the clock. Alongside that, the ECU run defense stopped the Cougar running game completely cold (only 30 yards total rushing), leaving Houston to rely on the skills of Case Keenum to carry them through.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, East Carolina (C-USA Championship)
The Cougar passing game did have success for a while as Houston led at halftime 19-14, but the Pirate defense became more and more stifling as the day wore on, finally Keenum threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter which after translating to two ECU rushing touchdowns put the game out of reach. ECU became the first school to successfully defend a Conference USA title by a score of 38-32. With this loss, the Cougars dropped to #25 in the Harris and Coaches' polls and out of the BCS poll completely.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, East Carolina (C-USA Championship)
Rumors persisted that Coach Sumlin was leaving for a position at Texas A&M. He continually denied those rumors which were proved true. The rumors of Sumlin leaving deeply affected how the Cougars played and it contributed to its loss.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, East Carolina (C-USA Championship)
Later in December, it was announced Houston accepted an invitation to play in the 2009 Armed Forces Bowl.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Air Force (Armed Forces Bowl)
The 2009 Armed Forces Bowl was a rematch of the previous year's matchup between Houston and Air Force, which was itself a rematch of a 2008 regular season game. Houston won the bowl the previous season.


2009 Houston Cougars football team, Game summaries, Air Force (Armed Forces Bowl)
Houston's inability to stop a running game was exploited worst of all by Air Force, who features a running-heavy triple offense. Air Force running backs marched up and down the field and chewed up 41 minutes of game time while the Air Force's pass defense, statistically #1 in the nation, sat back and intercepted Case Keenum's passes seemingly at will - Air Force collected six interceptions in all, a career worst for Keenum. Air Force led comfortably 24-6 at halftime and Houston proved little resistance in the second half, losing in all 47-20. Houston had now lost nine of ten bowl games dating back to 1980. The loss removed Houston from every end-of-season poll.


2009 Houston Dynamo season
The 2009 Houston Dynamo season was the fourth season of existence for the Houston franchise since joining Major League Soccer (MLS) prior to the 2006 season. It was the team's fourth season with head coach Dominic Kinnear, majority owner Philip Anschultz, president Oliver Luck, and chief operating officer Chris Canetti.


2009 Houston Dynamo season
The Dynamo qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive year after finishing 2nd in the Western Conference during the regular season. In the playoffs, Houston defeated the Seattle Sounders 1–0 over two legs in the Conference Semifinals before losing 2–0 to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Conference Final. In the U.S. Open Cup, the Dynamo reached the semifinals, where they lost 2–1 to the eventual champion Seattle Sounders. The Dynamo also competed in the CONCACAF Champions League, losing to Atlante 4–1 on aggregate in the quarterfinals of the 2008–09 Champions League while also finishing third in their group for the 2009–10 Champions League, failing to advance.


2009 Houston Dynamo season, Final roster
Appearances and goals are totals for MLS regular season only.


2009 Houston Dynamo season, Player movement, In
Per Major League Soccer and club policies terms of the deals do not get disclosed.


2009 Houston Dynamo season, Player movement, Out
Per Major League Soccer and club policies terms of the deals do not get disclosed.


2009 Houston Dynamo season, Competitions, Major League Soccer, Standings
(SS) = Supporters Shield winner; (E1) = Eastern Conference champion; (W1) = Western Conference champion


2009 Houston Dynamo season, Competitions, Major League Soccer, Results summary
Last updated: October 25, 2009Source: Pld = Matches played; Pts = Points; W = Matches won;  T = Matches tied;  L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference


2009 Houston Texans season
The 2009 Houston Texans season was the franchise's 8th season in the National Football League and the 4th under head coach Gary Kubiak. The Texans improved upon their 8–8 record in 2008 and claimed their first winning season in franchise history. However, 4 straight heartbreaking division losses came back to haunt them, as they narrowly missed making the playoffs, being the first team out in a series of tiebreakers, and due to the Cincinnati Bengals and rival Indianapolis Colts resting their starters against the New York Jets after clinching the AFC North and No. 1 AFC seed, respectively.


2009 Houston Texans season, Offseason, Coaching changes
Head coach Gary Kubiak entered his fourth year as the Texans' head coach. Frank Bush, who had served as the Texans senior defensive assistant since 2007, was promoted to defensive coordinator on January 13, 2009 after the firing of Richard Smith. Smith was terminated shortly after the conclusion of the 2008 season. David Gibbs, son of NFL coach Alex Gibbs, was hired on January 19, 2009 as the new defensive backs coach after previously serving in the same role for the Kansas City Chiefs since 2006. Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Houston Oilers offensive lineman Bruce Matthews enters his first season as a coach in the NFL, filling one of the offensive assistant coach positions for the Texans.


2009 Houston Texans season, Offseason, NFL draft
The Texans had eight selections for the 2009 NFL Draft. They received an additional fourth-round pick (selection 122 overall) in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for quarterback Sage Rosenfels.


2009 Houston Texans season, Offseason, NFL draft
The team signed undrafted Tennessee running back Arian Foster after the draft, and signed him to the practice squad, and he made his NFL debut mid-season. Foster would go on to win the NFL rushing title the following year.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 1: vs. New York Jets
The Texans began their season with a Week 1 showdown with the New York Jets. Houston would trail in the first quarter as Jets kicker Jay Feely nailed a 24-yard field goal. The Texans' deficit would increase in the second quarter as quarterback Mark Sanchez completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chansi Stuckey. Things only got worse for Houston in the third quarter when running back Thomas Jones scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. The Texans would get on the board as safety Dominique Barber returned a fumble 48 yards for a touchdown, but New York would seal the win with Jones' 38-yard touchdown run.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 2: at Tennessee Titans
Hoping to rebound from their loss to the Jets, the Texans flew to LP Field for a Week 2 divisional battle with the Tennessee Titans. Houston would trail early in the first quarter as Titans running back Chris Johnson got a 57-yard touchdown run. The Texans would respond with quarterback Matt Schaub completing a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Andre Johnson, but Tennessee replied with quarterback Kerry Collins completing a 69-yard touchdown to Johnson. The Titans would add onto their lead in the second quarter as Collins completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nate Washington.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 2: at Tennessee Titans
Afterwards, Houston would take the lead as Schaub completed a 72-yard touchdown pass to Johnson and a 29-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jacoby Jones, along with kicker Kris Brown making a 38-yard field goal. Tennessee would tie the game to end the half as kicker Rob Bironas made a 40-yard field goal.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 2: at Tennessee Titans
In the third quarter, the Titans got their lead again as Johnson got a 91-yard touchdown run. Afterwards, the Texans would tie the game as Schaub completed a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Owen Daniels. In the fourth quarter, Houston would take the lead as Brown nailed a 23-yard field goal. Afterwards, the defense prevented Tennessee from rallying.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 2: at Tennessee Titans
With the win, the Texans improved to 1–1. It was the first road win against Tennessee since 2004.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 3: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Coming off their hard-fought road win over the Titans, the Texans went home, donned their Battle Red uniforms, and prepared for a Week 3 AFC South showdown with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Even though the Jaguars got the first points of the game with kicker Josh Scobee's 52-yard field goal, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub got his team the lead with an 18-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jacoby Jones. Afterwards, a back-and-forth second quarter commenced. Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard would get a 2-yard touchdown, yet Houston wide receiver Kevin Walter came through with a 9-yard touchdown reception. The Jaguars would deliver a big strike with running back Maurice Jones-Drew's 61-yard touchdown, but the Texans once again got the lead as tight end Owen Daniels got a 2-yard touchdown reception.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 3: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville would get the lead again in the third quarter as Jones-Drew got a 1-yard touchdown run, followed by Houston kicker Kris Brown tying the game with a 27-yard field goal. However, in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars delivered a huge strike as Jones-Drew got an 8-yard touchdown. The Texans tried to rally, but the Jaguars' defense stood firm and prevented any kind of a comeback.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 4: vs. Oakland Raiders
Hoping to rebound from their divisional loss to the Jaguars, the Texans stayed at home for a Week 4 duel with the Oakland Raiders. Houston delivered the opening shot of the first quarter with kicker Kris Brown's 26-yard field goal, followed by the Raiders tying the game with a 46-yard field goal from kicker Sebastian Janikowski. The Texans would take full command in the second quarter as Brown nailed a 34-yard field goal, followed by running back Steve Slaton getting a 32-yard touchdown run and catching an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matt Schaub.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 4: vs. Oakland Raiders
Oakland would close out the half with Janikowski's 33-yard field goal. In the third quarter, Houston would continue its domination with rookie linebacker Brian Cushing tackling Raiders running back Justin Fargas in his own endzone for a safety, immediately followed by wide receiver Jacoby Jones returning a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 5: at Arizona Cardinals
Coming off their home win over the Raiders, the Texans flew to the University of Phoenix Stadium for the first time ever for a Week 5 interconference duel with the Arizona Cardinals. Houston would trail in the first quarter as Cardinals running back Tim Hightower got a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, followed by quarterback Kurt Warner completing a 9-yard and a 26-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Afterwards, the Texans began to rally as running back Chris Brown got a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 5: at Arizona Cardinals
Then, quarterback Matt Schaub would hook up with wide receiver Andre Johnson on an 11-yard and a 17-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. However, Arizona would strike on two key plays. First, Cardinals cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie would intercept a pass from Schaub and return it 49 yards. Second, Arizona's defense held Houston's offense 1 yard out of the endzone three times.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 6: at Cincinnati Bengals
Hoping to rebound from their road loss to the Cardinals, the Texas flew to Paul Brown Stadium for a Week 6 duel with the Cincinnati Bengals. Houston would get off to a fast first quarter start as quarterback Matt Schaub found tight end Owen Daniels on a 12-yard touchdown pass. The Bengals answered in the second quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run from running back Cedric Benson, yet the Texans would reply with Schaub completing a 38-yard touchdown pass to running back Steve Slaton. Cincinnati would close out the half with quarterback Carson Palmer's 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Laveranues Coles, followed by kicker Shayne Graham nailing a 50-yard field goal.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 6: at Cincinnati Bengals
In the third quarter, Houston stormed right back with Schaub completing a 23-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jacoby Jones and a 7-yard touchdown pass to Daniels. Afterwards, the defense held to preserve the 11-point lead.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 7: vs. San Francisco 49ers
Coming off their impressive road win over the Bengals, the Texans went home for a Week 7 interconference duel with the San Francisco 49ers. Houston would get off to a fast start in the first quarter as running back Steve Slaton got a 1-yard touchdown run. The Texans would add onto their lead in the second quarter as quarterback Matt Schaub completed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Slaton and a 42-yard touchdown pass to tight end Owen Daniels.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 7: vs. San Francisco 49ers
However, the 49ers began to rally in the third quarter with quarterback Alex Smith hooking up with tight end Vernon Davis on a 29-yard touchdown pass. In the fourth quarter, San Francisco continued to catch up as Smith found Davis again on a 14-yard touchdown pass. Houston would respond with kicker Kris Brown booting a 50-yard field goal. The 49ers tried to come back as Smith connected again with Davis on a 23-yard touchdown pass, yet the defense halted San Francisco's rally.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 8: at Buffalo Bills
Coming off their home win over the 49ers, the Texans flew to Ralph Wilson Stadium for a Week 8 duel with the Buffalo Bills. Houston would trail in the first quarter as Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens got a 29-yard touchdown run. The Texans would get on the board in the second as kicker Kris Brown nailed a 42-yard and a 22-yard field goal. Buffalo would close out the half with a 21-yard field goal from kicker Rian Lindell.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 8: at Buffalo Bills
The Texans would creep closer in the third quarter with Brown booting a 26-yard field goal. Afterwards, in the fourth quarter, Houston took the lead for good as running back Ryan Moats got an 11-yard (followed by quarterback Matt Schaub's 2-point conversion pass to wide receiver Andre Johnson), a 1-yard, and 3-yard touchdown run.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 8: at Buffalo Bills
With the win, the Texans would improve to 5–3, their best start in franchise history.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 9: at Indianapolis Colts
Coming off their road win over the Bills, the Texans flew to Lucas Oil Stadium for a Week 9 AFC South duel with the Indianapolis Colts. Houston would trail early in the first quarter as Colts quarterback Peyton Manning found running back Joseph Addai on a 7-yard touchdown pass, followed by a 22-yard field goal from kicker Matt Stover. Indianapolis would increase their lead in the second quarter with Stover's 37-yard field goal, yet the Texans closed out the half with kicker Kris Brown nailing a 56-yard field goal.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 9: at Indianapolis Colts
In the third quarter, Houston began to gain ground as quarterback Matt Schaub completed a 1-yard touchdown pass to running back Ryan Moats. The Texans would take the lead in the fourth quarter as running back Steve Slaton got a 1-yard touchdown run, but the Colts retook the lead with running back Joseph Addai getting a 2-yard touchdown run. Houston had a chance to tie the game with one second left in regulation, but Brown's 42-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 9: at Indianapolis Colts
In what was another close game resulting in a tough loss, the Texans went into their bye week at 5–4.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 11: vs. Tennessee Titans
Hoping to rebound from their loss to the Colts, the Texans went home for an AFC South rivalry match against the Tennessee Titans. In the first quarter Houston got on the board first as QB Matt Schaub got a 3-yard touchdown pass to RB Steve Slaton. In the second quarter the Titans replied with QB Vince Young completing a 13-yard touchdown pass to WR Kenny Britt. Then Houston tried to pull away as Schaub hooked up with WR Andre Johnson on a 13-yard touchdown pass, until the Titans replied again with RB LenDale White making a 1-yard touchdown run.


2009 Houston Texans season, Regular season results, Week 11: vs. Tennessee Titans
The Texans fell behind in the third quarter as kicker Rob Bironas made a 50-yard field goal, but came back to tie the game when kicker Kris Brown made a 26-yard field goal. In the fourth quarter the Titans scored for the win when Bironas got a 53-yard field goal.