Honduras reimposed a curfew yesterday after a peasant protest leader close to deposed president Manuel Zelaya vowed nationwide demonstrations to demand his reinstatement after last month's coup.
The interim government said the curfew would run from midnight to 5am, given "continued, open threats by groups who seek to provoke disturbances and disorder . . . and to protect the people and their goods."
The measure came after Rafael Alegria, who led protests in the wake of Mr Zelaya's June 28 ouster, said followers would choke access routes to the capital, Tegucigalpa, today and Friday before fresh mediation talks in Costa Rica on Saturday.
The coup and impasse in Honduras, an impoverished exporter of bananas, coffee and textiles, is the worst crisis in Central America since the Cold War.
"(Zelaya) has called on the Honduran people to mobilise, and the people are responding," said Mr Alegria, a leader of the National Front for Resistance Against the Coup formed after Mr Zelaya was detained at gunpoint by the military and expelled from the country in the middle of the night.
"We are calling from the urgent restoration of institutions, of the constitution and of President Zelaya."
Roberto Micheletti, installed as president by Congress after the coup, yesterday repeated an offer to step down as part of an eventual solution "for the sake of peace in the country, but only as long as Mr Zelaya does not return."
Mr Micheletti said he was concerned by Mr Zelaya's threat to take unspecified measures at home and abroad. The deposed leader has said his supporters have the right to stage an insurrection.
The Organization of American States said yesterday it would keep up pressure on the coup leaders, while supporting dialogue to end the crisis.
Reuters