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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The United States on Monday condemned violence against protesters in Honduras and called for President Manuel Zelaya's reinstatement as the Central American country faced growing isolation over last week's coup.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to meet Zelaya in Washington on Tuesday, a U.S. official said, in a sign the Obama administration wants to provide visible support after already condemning his ouster.
Honduras' interim authorities foiled Zelaya's attempt to force the issue and return home on Sunday, preventing his small private jet from landing in the capital. Zelaya ended up diverting the plane to neighboring El Salvador.
At least one person was killed and two people were badly wounded in clashes with troops after thousands of pro-Zelaya demonstrators marched to meet him at the airport in Tegucigalpa and broke through fencing near the runaway.
It was the first death in protests since the June 28 coup in the coffee and textile exporting country, the third poorest in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua.
"We deplore the use of force against demonstrators in Tegucigalpa in recent days and once again call upon the de facto regime and all actors in Honduras to refrain from all acts of violence," said U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in Washington.
Several thousand pro-Zelaya demonstrators took to the streets again on Monday, marching to the presidential palace and shouting "murderers" at soldiers.
The protest ended peacefully. A night-time curfew in still in place.
WINDOW FOR TALKS
Zelaya, whose term was due to end in 2010, was flown into exile by the military in Central America's first coup since the Cold War. His ouster has sparked wide international condemnation, especially among Zelaya's leftist Latin American allies, and is testing regional diplomacy.
The United States urged a "peaceful, constitutional and lasting solution to the serious divisions in that country through dialogue," Kelly said.
Asked what that meant, he said: "In the most immediate instance it means the return of the democratically elected president to Tegucigalpa."
Honduras' interim government has insisted Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transition that, while carried out by the army, was supported by the country's Supreme Court.
The government, which was installed by Congress soon after the coup, argues that Zelaya had illegally tried to organize a vote on changing presidential term limits.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged the Organization of American States on Monday to take the lead role in restoring constitutional order in Honduras.
Zelaya, a businessman who edged to the left after he took office in 2006, upset the country's traditional ruling elites, including members of his own Liberal Party, by seeking changes to presidential term limits and by establishing closer ties with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez.
AID AND LOANS
Washington has held off on issuing a legal determination of the ouster as a coup -- a definition that would force a cutoff of U.S. aid to the country, the third poorest in the hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua.
"We are still in the ongoing process of determining whether the law applies but we're not inclined to make a statutory decision while diplomatic initiatives are ongoing," Kelly said on Monday.
The State Department had requested $68.2 million in aid for the fiscal year 2010, an increase from $43.2 million in the current year, covering development aid, funds for U.S. arms as well as military training and counter narcotics aid.
The OAS suspension will also complicate Honduras' access to multilateral loans. The Inter-American Development Bank -- one of the region's top multilateral lenders -- has already put a hold on all new loans to Honduras after the military coup.
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