Honduras - Zelaya at the frontier (2)

One man found dead as Zelaya returns to the border

Article published on the 2009-07-26 Latest update 2009-07-26 10:15 TU

Nicaraguan police escort President Manuel Zelaya to the frontier
(Photo: Reuters)

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned to his country's border with Nicaragua for the second day running on Saturday and set up camp, vowing to stay at least until Sunday evening. As thousands of police massed on the Honduran side to prevent Zelaya's supporters meeting their leader, the body of a man was found, stabbed and beaten, near the frontier.

Zelaya's supporters have accused the police of being responsible for the death of 23-year-old Pedro Madriel Munoz Alvarado, whose corpse was found on a road next to a coffee field.

"We are organising the resistance," Zelaya declared, adding that he has set up camp about 100 metres from the border with his country, but inside Nicaragua.

"Let us not be afraid. We are going for social reform, we are doing this for the presidency of Honduras and to see the coup plotters expelled," he said.

The Honduran Embassy in Washington on Saturday announced that Zelaya had asked US President Barack Obama to slap sanctions on the government which kicked him out of office.

A letter asked for the banning of bank transactions and cancel the US visas for people "directly responsible for my abduction and the interruption of constitutional order in my country", including de facto President Roberto Micheletti and military and judicial chiefs.

But Honduras's military appeared to make a compromise Saturday when it declared its "unrestricted support" for Costa Rica-mediated negotiations.

The communiqué, which is posted on the Honduran Armed Forces website, was drafted in Washington after days of talks between mid-level Honduran officers and American Congressional aides, according to the New York Times.