SAN JOSE (Costa Rica) - THE United States said on Wednesday it had suspended US$16.5 million (S$24.1 million) in military aid to Honduras following last month's coup, and ousted President Manuel Zelaya demanded his rivals hand power back to him in 24 hours.
Quick solution not likely
Venezuela, whose firebrand leftist president, Mr Hugo Chavez, is an ally of Mr Zelaya, said it was halting oil supplies to Honduras until the toppled president was reinstated.
Mr Micheletti, a former Zelaya ally, has said he will not negotiate the ousted president's return to power, insisting his removal was a defense of the constitution and that Mr Zelaya was acting illegally by trying to remove presidential term limits.
The announcements came on the eve of talks scheduled for Thursday in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, where Mr Zelaya was due to meet leaders of the coup that toppled him on June 28.
Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was due to mediate the attempt at a dialogue to solve the Honduran political crisis, which has stoked tensions in Central America.
Arriving in Costa Rica on Wednesday, Mr Zelaya repeated his position he would only discuss his return to office in the poor Central American country.
'My presence here is not a negotiation,' Mr Zelaya, wearing his trademark white cowboy hat, told reporters. He noted that the world had widely condemned his ouster, which installed Mr Roberto Micheletti as a caretaker president. Mr Micheletti was appointed by the Honduran Congress after the coup.
The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa said Washington suspended US$16.5 million in military assistance programs to Honduras following the coup, in a move that appeared aimed at putting pressure on Micheletti's interim government.
It added that a further US$180 million in US aid for Honduras could also be at risk, but said humanitarian assistance to the Honduran people such as food aid, AIDS prevention and help for children, would continue.
'There's not a lot of risk to cutting military aid. ... It might give Arias a little bit of play for tomorrow,' said Ms Christine Wade, a Central America specialist at Washington College in Maryland.
Mr Zelaya, who insists only his immediate return to office can restore order in his coffee- and textile-exporting nation, called Mr Micheletti a 'coup-mongerer' and said he expected his rivals to announce they were surrendering power within a day.
He said doing so would be 'the most honorable thing for democracy in Latin America.' Late on Wednesday, a spokesman for Mr Micheletti accused authorities in Nicaragua, a leftist ally of Mr Zelaya, of refusing permission for Micheletti's plane to fly over Nicaraguan territory on the way to Costa Rica. A senior military official in Managua denied the accusation as 'totally false.' Both the United States, facing a major test of President Barack Obama's promise to improve US ties with Latin America, and the Organization of American States are backing Arias' mediation. -- REUTERS
