Zelaya planning return

ESTELI, Nicaragua – Honduras’ deposed president drove into a Nicaraguan town near his country’s border Thursday, preparing a risky return home in an attempt to reverse an ouster that is testing the vitality of democracy in Latin America.

The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras, and imposed a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew along border areas.

Zelaya said he would make a second bid to return home on Saturday, saying U.S.-backed mediation efforts had broken down.

The 56-year-old ousted president, wearing a black leather vest and his trademark white cowboy hat, drove a jeep from the Nicaraguan capital to the northern town of Esteli, about 25 miles south of the Honduran border.

Accompanied by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Zelaya went inside a hotel that shut its black gates to dozens of reporters who had followed the ousted president on his journey from Managua. He said he would spend today planning his return home.

During the trip, smatterings of supporters gathered by the highway, setting off fireworks, chanting Zelaya’s name and waving the red-and-black flags of Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista party.

It was unclear exactly how Zelaya was going to enter Honduras – spokesman Allan Fajardo said he could travel by air, sea, or land from any of three neighboring countries, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. He said Zelaya would be accompanied by family, supporters and journalists.

Zelaya said he hoped soldiers would stand down when they see him return.

Zelaya said the mediation efforts, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, failed after representatives of the interim government flatly rejected the possibility that he might return to finish his presidential term, which ends in January 2010. They say they cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding Zelaya’s reinstatement.

But Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, held out hope that the two sides might still reach a settlement – and called Zelaya’s attempt to return without an agreement “hasty.”

The United States warned of tough sanctions against Honduras if Zelaya is not reinstated, but also said Thursday it does not support Zelaya’s plan to return on his own.

“Any step that would add to the risk of violence in Honduras or in the area, we think would be unwise,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

In Honduras, Zelaya supporters turned up the pressure, blocking roads throughout the country Thursday and occupying several government buildings in peaceful protests.