TEGUCIGALPA -- Surrounded by hundreds of protesters shouting for the return of ousted President Manuel ``Mel'' Zelaya were a dozen black Hondurans swaying to the rhythm of their own drums and singing in their local Garifuna language.

They weren't there to support the populist president -- ousted more than three weeks ago -- but to defend one of his most controversial ideas: revising the constitution.

``We have no political visibility in this country and that makes us extremely vulnerable,'' said Alfredo López, 56, a community activist and one of about 400,000 ethnic Garifunas in Honduras. ``The constitutional assembly would have given us a chance to change that.''

Zelaya was toppled June 28 as he aggressively and, some argue, illegally pursued a national referendum to redraft the constitution. With just six months left in his term, his enemies feared he was bent on abolishing presidential term limits to remain in power.

But for many Garifunas, the constitutional assembly held the promise of winning long-sought rights, such as proportional representation and legal title to communal and ancestral land.

``We have been in a continuous struggle for decades to have a voice, to be visible, to have representation,'' said Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities. ``It's not that we supported Zelaya -- and much less the events that led to his ouster -- but we have our own very good reasons for wanting a constitutional assembly.''

Those hopes were dashed when the army, acting on orders from the supreme court, seized Zelaya from his home at gunpoint and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. It was the same day the referendum would have taken place. Zelaya tried but failed to return to Tegucigalpa on July 5.

The ousted Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who is serving as interim president, were in talks to resolve the crisis until talks broke down last weekend. Both claim to be the legitimate leader of this nation of 7.8 million people.

Few believe constitutional revisions are still on the table.

ORIGINS IN REGION

Historians trace the origins of the Garifunas back to the 1600s when escaped black slaves began to mix with Amerindians in St. Vincent. Today, Garifuna communities stretch along the Caribbean coast from Belize to Nicaragua, and there is a sizable diaspora in Miami and New York.

The Garifunas caught global attention in 2001 when UNESCO proclaimed their language, dance and music ``Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.''

In Honduras, they are respected for their food, artists and soccer players, said political analyst Miguel Cálix. But that hasn't won them a voice in the national dialogue.

``There is a very subtle, even subliminal, racism here,'' he said. ``That's something that has never been overcome.''

Rubén Francisco García Martinez is one of just four Garifunas in the Honduran congress. He and his colleagues came into office in 2006. Before them, there had not been a Garifuna voice in the legislature for 75 years, he said.

While Honduras has socially progressive laws, the nation's party structure makes it difficult for minorities to work their way into positions of power, said Martinez, who belongs to the Liberal Party of both Micheletti and Zelaya.

``We're lacking democracy within our own parties,'' he said.

`PROPAGANDA'

Martinez, who favored Zelaya's ouster, said he was suspicious of how the former leader played on the hopes of the Garifuna community to push his agenda.

``The Zelaya administration had an entire propaganda machine set up to promote the constitutional assembly,'' he said. ``We don't need a new constitution; what we need is to enforce the laws that are already on the books.''

One of the Garifunas' key demands is winning legal title to communal and ancestral property. Zelaya won their support during his presidential campaign promising to do just that. But the promises were soon forgotten, said Casildo of the ODECO.

``During his administration, not a single centimeter of land was legalized,'' he said. ``There was a huge breach between what he promised and what he did.''

The issue is important as Garifuna communities struggle to protect their undeveloped coastline from tourism projects.

López, the man who was leading the group of Garifunas in a recent protest, has worked for decades to try to keep a luxury resort, complete with 18-hole golf course, out of his community of Tela Bay.

That struggle was derailed in 1997 when he was falsely accused of drug trafficking and thrown in jail. He was released in 2003, only after the Inter-American Human Rights Court ruled that those charges were ``trumped-up'' and ``intended to prevent him from acting as leader of the Garifuna community.''

`THIS WAS A CHANCE'

It's that kind of legal and institutional weakness that highlights the need to enshrine the direct participation of minorities in the constitution, said Carlos Mauricio Palacios, a historian who has worked with indigenous communities for 15 years.

``This was important, not just for the Garifunas, but all the minority communities,'' he said. ``This was a chance to secure rights that have long been denied to them.''

Anthropologists identify at least nine distinct ethnic groups in Honduras. The Garifunas are the second-largest minority -- with estimates ranging from 250,000 to 500,00 -- after the indigenous Lencas.

Marching at the front of the drum line, López said the pro-Zelaya street protests that have erupted since his ouster have given these minorities and the poor a voice. ``I have never seen anything like this in all my years,'' he said, admiring the crowds. ``I think politicians are going to have to realize that we are a multicultural, multilingual nation.''