Honduras faces expulsion from bloc

Hopes for a rapid diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Honduras have been dampened with the country's Supreme Court telling a top regional envoy the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya was irreversible.

A spokesman for the court said it had told Jose Miguel Insulza, head of the Organisation of American States, that the removal of Zelaya in a coup last Sunday was "irreversible," in defiance of an OAS demand he be reinstated.

Insulza was taking part in talks here with politicians, legal and religious figures as the OAS warned Honduras would face expulsion by a Saturday deadline if it did not reinstate Zelaya.

That move appeared more likely following Friday's talks.

Insulza "thinks they will vote to suspend (Honduras)," one diplomat said, after the OAS chief met with the G16 group of donors to the Central American nation, which includes the United States, the World Bank and Japan.

"(He) told us he thought it was a crisis that would last a long time."

‘No one wants to budge’

Insulza said that "no one wants to budge," according to another diplomat, shortly after a spokesman for the Supreme Court gave its verdict.

The OAS chief was due to return to Washington on Saturday, where the regional body would vote on whether to suspend Honduras from the 35-nation group, a threat last carried out on Cuba in 1962, diplomats said.

Diplomats said Insulza had dismissed any idea of negotiating with the instigators of the coup and did not meet with the attorney general.

The leaders who deposed Zelaya said they may consider holding early elections to end the impasse but at demonstrations held in the capital on Friday they remained defiant.

"I'm president of all Hondurans," shouted interim leader Roberto Micheletti to a crowd of thousands of supporters. He was sworn in by Congress hours after Zelaya was ousted.

Thousands of Zelaya supporters demonstrated nearby in Tegucigalpa.

Zelaya sent to Costa Rica

Soldiers bundled Zelaya into a plane at dawn last Sunday and sent him to Costa Rica after a dispute with the country's courts, politicians and army over his attempts to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term.

The growing demonstrations, a freezing of international aid and recalls of foreign ambassadors have since shaken the country.

In the first unrest in three days, the army clashed with demonstrators in northern Honduras on Thursday.

With their lives also disrupted by night-time curfews, which suspend some freedoms guaranteed by the constitution, as well as media blackouts and reported detentions, the 7.5 million inhabitants of one of Latin America's poorest countries have become increasingly frustrated.

Return date unknown

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said on Friday that Zelaya could return on "Saturday or more likely Sunday."

Zelaya had earlier said from Panama that a string of personalities would join him when he returned to the country, including Nobel Prize winners and presidents, although he did not mention a return date.

The international community has placed pressure on Honduras, including aid freezes from the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

The United States, a key ally, has indicated it may follow suit, saying it would wait until Monday before making a decision.

The Honduran finance minister lamented in Chile on Friday that between $US300 and $US450 million ($A379.36 and $A569.04 million) of foreign aid was frozen.

"This irregular situation in my country puts social investment programs in a very precarious situation," Rebeca Santos said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Zelaya's key backer, announced that Caracas was suspending shipments of oil to Honduras, which he said would drive up petrol prices.

All EU countries with embassies in Honduras have withdrawn their ambassadors and Central American countries and Latin American leftists have announced similar measures, as has Colombia.

The Pentagon has suspended all military activities with Tegucigalpa until further notice.
 

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya has vowed he will return to Honduras later this week after addressing the United Nations in New York to protest the coup that ousted him from power.

Honduras police and military have cracked down on demonstrators in the aftermath of his exile, as international pressure mounts for him to be restored as president.
  
Defying a government curfew, hundreds of angry Zelaya supporters erected barricades near the presidential palace, threw rocks and beat at shield-bearing riot police with sticks and metal bars, with security forces cracking down on the protesters with tear gas and gunfire, an AFP photographer said.
  
The violence, the most serious unrest in years in this Central American country, left several demonstrators and security forces wounded.  

Harsh words from Obama

US President Barack Obama said the United States believed Zelaya "remains the president of Honduras" a day after troops bundled the 57-year-old out of his bed in pajamas and whisked him away to exile in Costa Rica.
  
Obama said the coup in the Central American nation was "not legal" and called for international cooperation to solve the crisis peacefully.
  
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the international community's "immediate priority is to restore full democratic and constitutional order in that country."
  
Micheletti sworn in

Just hours after Zelaya was deposed, the Honduran Congress swore in its speaker, Roberto Micheletti, as the interim president until January.
  
In one of his first acts, Micheletti imposed a 48-hour curfew on the capital and insisted he had come to power via a legal process. He also began naming members of his cabinet on Monday.
  
But Zelaya has said he remains the elected leader, and scores of young people, many wearing scarves to cover their faces, protested in the capital, Tegucigalpa, Monday. Shots had been heard in the city late Sunday.
  
"President Mel is the only one," said Joseph, who was wielding an iron bar, and using the president's nickname.  

Zelaya 'did not resign'

"It was a coup, Mel Zelaya did not resign," agreed Amilcar Umanzo, brandishing a human rights manual in his hand. "The political and economic class united to overthrow the constitutional president," he added.
  
Zelaya's overthrow was triggered by a standoff with the military and legal institutions over his bid to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term in November elections.
  
Elected to a non-renewable four-year term in 2005, Zelaya had planned a vote Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a referendum on changing the constitution.
  
But the referendum had been ruled illegal by Honduras's top court and was opposed by the military.

Latin America rallies behind Zelaya
  
Leftwing Latin American leaders who met in Nicaragua Monday have backed Zelaya and said they were recalling its ambassadors to Honduras in protest at his removal.
  
"In the face of the dictatorial government that intends to be imposed, the countries of ALBA have decided to withdraw our ambassadors and to leave minimal diplomatic representation in Tegucigalpa," said a statement issued after talks in Nicaragua.
  
ALBA - the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas -- was founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 2004 and also includes Bolivia, Nicaragua and the Caribbean island of Dominica.
  
Rest of world calls for reinstatement

Russia and Canada also joined a growing list of nations to condemn the coup, and the European Commission called an urgent meeting with Central American ambassadors to consider the future of trade talks.
  
The United Nations held emergency talks Monday on the crisis, and Zelaya was said to be likely to address the UN General Assembly Tuesday.
  
Chavez said the international community should teach the Honduran government "a lesson" after throwing his weight behind Zelaya. And Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said leaders were determined to avoid "bloodshed."
  
Micheletti nonchalant

But in Honduras, Micheletti brushed off international condemnation of the takeover.
  
He said he "had come to the presidency not by a coup d'etat but by a completely legal process as set out in our laws."
  
The interim leader also warned Chavez his country was ready to "go to war" if there was interference by "this gentleman."
  
Micheletti said he had information that several battalions of troops were being prepared outside of Honduras for intervention.
  
Zelaya, who was elected as a conservative, has shifted dramatically to the left during his presidency.
  
He is the latest in a string of Latin American leaders, including Chavez, to seek constitutional changes to expand presidential powers and also ease term limits.