zelaya

In a news conference at the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, Mr. Zelaya said he is the victim of a coup d'etat.

Brazil has, in practice, granted diplomatic asylum to Mr Zelaya (although its foreign ministry said he was just a guest).

In defiance of the State Department they continued to look to Zelaya and his liberal party for Leadership.

The Organization of American States issued a statement calling for Mr. Zelaya's return and said it would not recognize any other government.

But the head of the country's Congress said it would not vote on whether or not to reinstate Mr Zelaya until December.

Many Hondurans worried that Mr. Zelaya was trying to turn their country into a socialist state like Cuba.

He says there is nothing to negotiate, Mr. Zelaya was elected president and he must be allowed to finish his term.

He said the de facto government "should make themselves responsible for the security of President Zelaya and of the Brazilian Embassy. "

Manuel Zelaya, president of Honduras, who was ousted by a military coup last month, made an abortive attempt to fly back to his country.

President Zelaya says Honduran troops forcibly removed him from his home in the dead of night and sent him to Costa Rica in his pajamas.

In response, Mr Zelaya led a group of supporters to an air force base where they carted off the ballots.

The lawmakers cautioned, however, that such a deal could be a hard sell, given the widespread opposition to Mr. Zelaya in Congress.

Mr. Zelaya said he wanted dialogue rather than confrontation with the government that replaced him and with the army.

Honduras's Supreme Court and Congress absolved the military officers who removed Mr Zelaya from power of any wrongdoing.

After being allowed into the embassy, Mr Zelaya gave a round of interviews in which he called on his leftist supporters to gather outside.

The deposed president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya has said the interim government that ousted him must face legal sanctions.

Mr. Zelaya aligned himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and traveled frequently to meet with him.

The ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has returned to his country nearly three months after he was expelled in a coup.

All Latin American countries and Spain (although not the United States) have withdrawn their ambassadors pending Mr Zelaya's reinstatement.

Mr Zelaya's many faults did not justify his early-morning arrest and summary deportation.

Manuel Zelaya spoke from Costa Rica, saying he was detained shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum.

Mr Zelaya would still have to face corruption charges if he were to return from exile.

Mr Zelaya is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital.

Television and radio stations that support Mr Zelaya were allowed to broadcast only intermittently.

Ramon Custodio said election officials should consider holding a referendum on whether to allow Mr. Zelaya to return to power or not.

But the Supreme Court backed the general and later ordered Mr. Zelaya's arrest for violating the constitution.

But many in Latin America saw Mr Zelaya's arrest in his pyjamas as an unacceptable throwback to the region's dark past.

Zelaya has sent a recorded message to a regional television station, indicating that he will be back in the country on Sunday.

Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor.

NEARLY two years after he was hustled onto a flight and into exile, Manuel Zelaya at last looks set to return to Honduras.

This means that under the terms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Mr Zelaya should abstain from political declarations.

Neither concession materialised, which may explain Mr Zelaya's slightly glum appearance during the signing ceremony in Colombia.

The Obama administration is now directly demanding Mr. Zelaya's restoration to office.

It allowed its embassy to become Mr Zelaya's campaign headquarters, but failed to achieve his reinstatement.

The interim government in Honduras has rejected the return of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya following two days of talks in Costa Rica.

Mr Zelaya and the Honduran President Porfirio Lobo smiled and shook hands as they signed the agreement in the Colombian city of Cartagena.

Fierce clashes erupted on Monday between thousands of soldiers and thousands of Mr. Zelaya's backers.

Congress in Honduras has been handed an agreement which could result in a return of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The shrimp trade is back in business and Mr Zelaya is back in the country, though now in opposition.

Yet few of those who voted at the elections in November 2005 imagined that Zelaya would embark on a programme of radical change.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti have begun mediated talks on the political crisis in Honduras.

In the days after the army's ousting of Manuel Zelaya, the president, a strict curfew stopped traffic circulating after dark.

The document has been signed by representatives from Mr. Zelaya's team and his political rival, the interim President Roberto Micheletti.

Mr. Zelaya would also be exempt from prosecution until after leaving office.

Zelaya pushed for more anti-poverty programs and also championed what he called "people power. "

On Sunday, the Supreme Court of Honduras said that the military had acted in accordance with the Constitution to remove Mr. Zelaya.

Mr Micheletti's regime has imposed a curfew, suspended some constitutional freedoms and shut down media that favoured Mr Zelaya.

Honduras is to hold presidential elections in November. The country's 1982 constitution bans Mr. Zelaya's re-election.

Some of Mr Zelaya's supporters claim the investigation will only serve to exonerate the coup's leaders.

It is also unlikely that, if he were triumphantly reinstated, Mr. Zelaya would give up his re-election scheme.

It was wrong to oust Mr Zelaya, but he in turn had behaved arbitrarily, defying court orders.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya has vowed to return to Honduras on Sunday, despite being threatened with arrest.

The assumption has been that the agreement carried a tacit corollary that Congress would swiftly restore Mr Zelaya.

The legislature then voted almost unanimously to install Mr Micheletti, a Liberal rival of Mr Zelaya, as his successor.

Mr Zelaya's presidency has been marked by a rise in crime, corruption scandals and economic populism.

Moreover, Mr Zelaya's legal status is yet to be determined.

But despite the boycott calls, the turnout was roughly the same as when Mr Zelaya was narrowly elected ahead of Mr Lobo five years ago.

Zelaya issues ultimatum to interim Honduran government.

In Honduras so, seemingly, did the coup in June against Manuel Zelaya, the elected president.

Theinterim government in Honduras has rejected the return of the deposedPresident Manuel Zelaya following two days of talks in Costa Rica.

But his conciliatory talk was met with scorn by many Zelaya supporters, including this man.

To many in Latin America Mr Zelaya's ousting recalled the nightmare of past military coups.

The evidence suggests that only about one Honduran in three supports Mr Zelaya.

This week Mr Zelaya was still trapped in the Brazilian embassy, where he has been since sneaking back into the country six weeks ago.

The government here is indicating that it believes that President Zelaya's convoy planes will land in neighboring El Salvador .

Mr Zelaya found refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital.

According to CID Gallup, a local pollster, support has recently grown for Mr Zelaya, but 49% still oppose his restoration (47% favour it).

A special commission in Honduras has begun investigating last year's military-backed overthrow of the then President Manuel Zelaya.

A truth commission began investigating the coup that toppled Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras, last year.

Mr Zelaya would drop his plan for a constituent assembly;

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup,