Post-coup Honduran interim minister ruffles feathers

By Anahi Rama

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - As Honduras struggles for international legitimacy, its interim top diplomat has been anything but diplomatic, insulting U.S. President Barack Obama, neighboring El Salvador and his own boss.

Enrique Ortez, foreign minister in an internationally shunned new government sworn in after President Manuel Zelaya's June 28 ouster, had to apologize to the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa this week after he referred to Obama as "el negrito" (the little black guy).

While criticizing U.S. plans to suspend aid to the Central American nation, the veteran politician and diplomat quipped on Honduran television that Obama didn't even know where the capital Tegucigalpa was located.

Ortez, 77, later told reporters he had not meant to cause offense. But his remarks sparked an angry response from the U.S. Embassy and will not help relations already strained over the coup. Washington, a former ally, has halted $16.5 million in military aid and a further $180 million could be at risk.

The military coup, triggered by Zelaya's bid to lift presidential term limits, has created Obama's first big test in Latin America and stoked tensions across the region.

Last week, Ortez insulted neighbor El Salvador, with which Honduras fought a bloody four-day war over border issues in 1969 dubbed the "Football War" as it coincided with clashes between fans during a World Cup qualifying round.

"There's no point talking about such a tiny country, one where you can't even play football because the ball would land in another country," Ortez joked to reporters.

Ortez was part of a government commission that helped settle the Football War over a long period.

Ortez has even been rude about interim President Roberto Micheletti, his current boss, saying Micheletti should "attend to his own affairs" while explaining a foreign policy disagreement during a Reuters interview.

A member of Zelaya's Liberal Party, Ortez has been the Honduran ambassador to France, head of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, an interior minister and once ran for his party's presidential nomination.

Zelaya and Micheletti were in Costa Rica on Thursday for talks with Nobel Peace Prize-winning mediator Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president, over the crisis.

(Reporting by Anahi Rama; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Doina Chiacu)