Honduras regime uses noise attack as U.S. cuts visas
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' de facto leaders blasted loud music outside the embassy where Manuel Zelaya is sheltering on Wednesday and refused to buckle under increased pressure from Washington for the ousted president's return.
Talks to resolve the political crisis in Honduras sparked by a June 28 coup are deadlocked over whether leftist Zelaya can be reinstated to power.
"One side of the dialogue has all the privileges and advantages and the other legitimately elected side is totally repressed," Zelaya told local radio station from inside the Brazilian Embassy where he took refuge last month after returning from exile.
Police said they found two unexploded grenades in a shopping center near the hotel in Tegucigalpa where the crisis talks are being held. The grenades were safely removed and no one was injured.
Overnight, the caretaker government sent the army to play loud rock music, military band tunes, church bells and recordings of pig grunts over loudspeakers outside the embassy, a Reuters photographer inside the embassy said.
Zelaya called it "torture."
The crisis in Honduras has become a headache for President Barack Obama, who had pledged better relations with Latin America.
Regional governments worry Obama is not doing enough to pressure Honduras' de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, appointed by Congress after the coup.
The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's ouster, saying he violated the constitution by seeking support for re-election. Zelaya denies the charge.
VISAS PULLED
The U.S. State Department suspended the visas of more senior figures that backed the coup on Wednesday. It marked the second time Washington pulled diplomatic and tourist visas over the crisis.
"We just urge the two sides to stick to it. We urge the de facto regime in particular to help open a pathway for international support of the election by concluding the agreement," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
But both sides were far from a deal on Wednesday.
The United States has warned it might not recognize the results of the November 29 elections if Zelaya is not allowed to return to power first, but Micheletti continued to resist.
"We obviously believe that (Zelaya's return) is not possible. We believe he violated the law," Arturo Corrales, a lead negotiator for Micheletti, said. The team said they had heard nothing from Zelaya's camp in 48 hours.
Zelaya angered Honduras' business leaders by moving the country closer to Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez. Micheletti's government accused Chavez and Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega of fomenting violence in Honduras with inflammatory rhetoric.
On Wednesday, Honduran police announced further restrictions on protests, saying they must be authorized by the government 24 hours in advance with a request detailing the people in charge and the time and route the march will take, in an effort to quell near daily rallies in favor of Zelaya.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Anthony Boadle in Washington and Adriana Barrera, Ines Guzman and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Mica Rosenberg)
