TEGUCIGALPA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday applauded a U.S. decision to revoke the visas held by four post-coup government officials.
"This is a message for all the nations in the world," Zelaya told broadcaster Canal 36 from his base in Nicaragua, near the Honduran border.
Former legislature leader Roberto Micheletti came to power on June 28 just hours after troops seized Zelaya at the presidential palace and forced him into exile.
"This is a terrible defeat for the dictatorship that is seeking to establish itself in Honduras," Zelaya said.
"If they cancel Micheletti's visa, I will party," he added.
The U.S. embassy in Honduras has revoked the diplomatic visas of four interim Honduran government members to show it recognizes ousted president Zelaya rather than the new leadership, the State Department said Tuesday.
"We don't recognize Roberto Micheletti as the president of Honduras," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said when asked why the U.S. government decided to revoke diplomatic visas of interim Honduran government members.
In Honduras, Micheletti's Deputy Foreign Minister, Martha Lorena Alvarado, told press that Jose Alfredo Savedra, who became legislature leader when Micheletti became interim president, had lost his visa alongside Judge Tomas Arita Valle from the nation's Supreme Court. Alvarado did not name the other two officials.
The U.S. move came after Zelaya sent a letter to President Barak Obama urging him to step up diplomatic and economic pressure on the Micheletti regime. This included canceling visas of interim government members and freezing their bank accounts.
Washington has suspended 16.5 million U.S. dollars in military assistance programs to Honduras following the coup. However, it has not yet instituted a full suspension of aid pending a review of the situation.
Kelly said the United States is currently "reviewing all of our bilateral programs with Honduras."
Tuesday marks a month since Zelaya's ousting. The deposed leader visited his followers' camps in the Nicaraguan city of Ocotal on Tuesday, urging them to organize "pacific resistance" against the coup government.
Zelaya also expects to soon meet with relatives, who have been given a special permit to cross the border.
The deposed president tried to return to Honduras by crossing the Honduran-Nicaraguan border on Friday, but had to return to the Nicaraguan side after making a brief entry into Honduras at the border town of Las Manos.
Zelaya made his first attempt to return aboard a Venezuelan plane on July 5, but failed to land in the capital as the runways of the airport were blocked with military vehicles.
Although political tension is still mounting in Honduras, the country's police chief told media on Tuesday that a civil war was unlikely to occur.
"We must be clear that there are no guerrilla groups that could kick off warlike activity here," said Salvador Escoto, director of the national police. "There is always a risk, but worries about a civil war are not that great."
Backgrounder: Timeline of political
crisis in Honduras
