Ousted Honduran seeks to return after OAS suspension

By Patrick Markey

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya prepared to fly back home on Sunday, setting the stage for a possible confrontation as the interim government that has defied internation pressure said it would not let him enter the country.

Honduras' interim government, slapped with suspension from the Organization of American States over its refusal to reinstate Zelaya, said it would refuse Zelaya permission to land.

Zelaya, a leftist who had been due to leave power in 2010, was bundled out of office by troops and into exile a week ago in a military coup that has been widely condemned abroad.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a leftist ally of Zelaya's, said U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto would accompany the ousted president on his planned return to Honduras.

"There is a great mobilization of people in Tegucigalpa and we don't know if the interim government or the top brass of the military will dare repress those people. So we decided that the most prudent thing to do was that the president of the U.N. General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto accompanies President Zelaya back to Tegucigalpa," Correa told a news conference in Washington.

OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo and Correa will travel to El Salvador to monitor Zelaya's return, Correa said.

Zelaya's plan to try to go home followed the strongest move yet by foreign governments to isolate the caretaker government since last Sunday's coup -- which was the first in Central America since the Cold War era and was triggered by a dispute over presidential term limits.

The OAS met into the early hours of Sunday in Washington and took the rare step to suspend Honduras after the interim authorities ignored an ultimatum by the 34-member body to reinstate Zelaya.