Honduras leader may allow Zelaya amnesty, curfew off

By Gustavo Palencia and Daniel Trotta

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' interim president held out the possibility of an amnesty for ousted President Manuel Zelaya Sunday after the lifting of a curfew that had been imposed on the country since the June 28 coup.

Caretaker President Roberto Micheletti, sworn in hours after the armed forces removed Zelaya from power and expelled him to Costa Rica, held firm in a Reuters interview to his position that Zelaya could not return to power under any circumstances.

No foreign government has recognized Micheletti as president and the United States and the Organization of American States have called for Zelaya to be restored.

Micheletti's interim government is holding talks with Zelaya's representatives through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, but the talks have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.

"If he (Zelaya) comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem (with an amnesty for him)," Micheletti told Reuters in an interview at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa.

Micheletti said Zelaya could not return to power "under any conditions" because he contravened the constitution by seeking to illegally extend his rule through the lifting of presidential term limits.

Zelaya, a logging magnate elected in 2005 who was due to leave office in 2010, has said only his restoration to office can solve Honduras' political crisis.

The ousted president, now traveling the Americas to shore up his support, ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

The lifting of the curfew, which had been in place from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. local time, came as a relief for this coffee-exporting Central American country that is the third poorest in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua.

Ordinary Hondurans have sought to put a brave face on the coup crisis, from a village that forged ahead regardless with its annual fiesta, complete with a brass band and fireworks, to the gang-plagued slums surrounding the capital, where the poor are bracing for higher prices and unemployment.

Even the wealthy have felt the pinch. At the upscale restaurant El Patio, where Saturday nights are normally a rollicking affair of mariachi music and rum-fueled laughter, the neon lights were dimmed early on a dining terrace that was half-filled even though the national soccer team was on TV.

Zelaya told Caracas-based Telesur television Sunday he intended to return "at any time, on any day, anywhere" even though the new government vows to arrest him.

SUPPORT ABROAD FOR ZELAYA

Reflecting widespread international condemnation of the coup, foreign ministers and diplomats from 50 democracies on Sunday urged the reinstatement of Zelaya and said his overthrow represented a threat to democracy.

The call came from a meeting in Portugal of the Community of Democracies, an intergovernmental organization that seeks to strengthen democratic institutions.