TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 1 (UPI) -- Elected President Manuel Zelaya said he will return to Honduras, despite having been removed from the country in a coup and threats that he will be arrested should he return.
Zelaya has the support of the international community, including the United Nations and the Organization of American States. He said he would travel to Tegucigalpa accompanied by a cadre of international leaders, including Presidents Cristina Fernandez of Argentina and Rafael Correa of Ecuador.
"I am going back to Honduras on Thursday, I'm going to return as president," Zelaya said Tuesday at the United Nations.
However, the current Honduran leadership promised to arrest Zelaya and prosecute him on charges of violating the constitution and having links to organized crime and drug trafficking.
"As soon as he enters he will be captured. We have the warrants ready so that he stays in jail in Honduras and is judged according to the country's laws," Honduran interim Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez told CNN International.
Zelaya left the United Nations for Washington and meetings with U.S. State Department officials. The interim government also said it would send a delegation to Washington. It is unknown if the two sides would meet.
The ouster of Zelaya was carried out by the military but with the support of the country's legislature and courts. There have been protests in support of Zelaya, but the crowds have been relatively small. Demonstrations in support of the interim government seem to be more numerous.
Zelaya was removed from office Sunday after he had ordered a non-binding referendum on proposed constitutional changes, a formal vote on which would be in November when the country has scheduled elections.
His opponents saw the changes as a move by Zelaya to seek an additional term as president. His current term ends in January.
The Honduran Constitution expressly forbids even the proposing of a change of the document's article that limits Honduran leaders to one term as president.
Zelaya's political detractors had worried that he was leading the country on a track toward socialism, much as his strong ally Hugo Chavez has taken Venezuela. (Chavez on Sunday threatened military action unless Zelaya was returned to office.)
Honduras has generally been overseen by more conservative leaders, although five of the seven presidents since 1982 have been from Zelaya's Liberal Party.
The caretaker government is led by interim President Roberto Micheletti, the speaker of the Honduran Legislature and a bitter Zelaya political opponent. Micheletti is also a Liberal Party member, but the party was involved in legislative moves looking into how to remove Zelaya from office. Honduras has no impeachment process.
Honduras, with a per capital gross domestic product of about $4,200, is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It was granted independence from Spain in 1821 and has been governed under its current constitution since 1982.
