Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said today the Organization of American States head is traveling to Honduras to give a caretaker government there an ultimatum on reinstating him.
OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza is not planning to negotiate with the Honduran interim government over last weekend's army coup, and will suspend Honduras from the body unless it restores him as president, Mr Zelaya told a news conference in Panama.
Honduras' interim leaders dug in for a fight today after governments across the region demanded the deposed leftist be restored to power.
In the worst crisis in Central America in a decade, Zelaya was toppled by troops and whisked out of the country on the weekend in a widely condemned coup after he angered opponents with plans to amend the constitution to lift term limits.
The foreign minister of European Union president Sweden said today that all EU ambassadors had left Honduras.
"The uncertainty about the developments in Honduras remains considerable," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in his blog posted on the Internet.
"All EU ambassadors have now left the country."
The Organisation of American States issued a weekend deadline yesterday for the interim government to reinstate Zelaya, in a standoff that is testing US president Barack Obama's administration after he promised an era of better relations with the region.
"We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country," said Roberto Micheletti, who was named as caretaker president by Honduran lawmakers shortly after Zelaya's ouster.
Zelaya, a logging magnate fond of wearing cowboy hats with his suits, has promised to return, but appeared to be waiting for the outcome of the OAS ultimatum. An OAS mission will arrive this week to discuss the ouster, the caretaker government said.
Honduras, an impoverished coffee exporter of around 7 million people, has seen days of protests against Sunday's ouster, but the interim government has rallied supporters onto the streets, underlining divisions over Zelaya's return.
The Honduran Congress approved a decree to crack down on opposition during a nightly curfew imposed after the coup. The decree allows security forces to hold suspects for more than 24 hours without charge and formalises the prohibition of the right to free association at night.
But Tegucigalpa, the capital city nestled in low-lying hills, has remained mostly calm, with traffic clogging streets and most businesses open during the day, although schools remained closed.
Reuters