By Daniel Trotta
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' interim government on Sunday lifted a curfew imposed on the country since the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, saying it had succeeded in restoring calm to the nation.
The caretaker administration of President Roberto Micheletti, installed by Honduras' Congress after the coup, announced the ending of the curfew on television and radio.
"The government was able not only to reduce crime in the whole country, but also to restore calm to the people of Honduras," the government said in its broadcast.
Isolated by the international community after Zelaya's ouster, Honduras is bracing for months of austerity under the weight of economic sanctions imposed after the coup.
But the announcement of the lifting of the curfew indicated Micheletti's government felt it could control the situation in the Central American state, despite almost daily demonstrations by pro-Zelaya supporters.
The interim government, installed by Congress after widely unpopular Zelaya was booted out of the country in his pyjamas last month by soldiers, has resisted international pressure and says Zelaya's reinstatement is not negotiable.
It accuses Zelaya, who ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist President Hugo Chavez, of contravening the constitution and seeking to illegally extend his rule.
The impasse over Zelaya's return has left little wriggle room for talks brokered by Costa Rica aimed at defusing one of the worst crises in Central America since the Cold War. The talks have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.
Micheletti's interim government has warned Chavez and other left-wing allies of Zelaya, such as Cuba and Nicaragua, not to meddle by trying to put him back in power. Chavez has vowed to do everything possible to help Zelaya return to office.
In a sign that tensions still remained, Honduran police on Saturday detained for several hours members of TV crews of the Venezuelan state channel VTV and Caracas-based Telesur, which have been extensively covering pro-Zelaya protests in Tegucigalpa, as well as other news developments.
Venezuela's ambassador in Tegucigalpa Jose Laguna protested at the detention, accusing the Honduran interim authorities of "constant harassment" against the Venezuelan journalists. He said the journalists were taken to their hotel.
VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ PROTESTS
A spokesman for Micheletti, Mario Saldana, told Reuters a number of Venezuelans were arrested for "causing vandalism and travelling in a stolen vehicle." But he said there was "no restrictions on Venezuelan journalists."
Speaking in Caracas, Venezuelan President Chavez angrily condemned the detention of the Venezuelan journalists.
"Is this the path they want to take?" Chavez said, adding he was convinced it was the "Yankee empire" (United States) behind Zelaya's ouster in Honduras.
But U.S. President Barack Obama's administration was quick to firmly condemn the coup and has thrown its weight, along with the Organisation of American States, behind a mediation effort by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Zelaya, in contrast to Chavez, has praised the behaviour of the Obama administration over the coup, saying it marks a clear break with Washington's past record of supporting sometimes violent military coups and regimes that served U.S. interests.
Zelaya, bolstered by widespread international condemnation of the coup, has vowed "actions" at home and abroad to support his return, but says he will use nonviolent methods, although he also says Hondurans have the "right to insurrection".
At least one pro-Zelaya protester was killed in clashes at Tegucigalpa's airport a week ago when Honduran troops blocked an attempt by Zelaya to return in a plane provided by Chavez.
Micheletti, who says previously scheduled elections will be held as planned in Honduras in November, has asked citizens to prepare for several months of austerity after foreign donors and creditors suspended funds to the country after the coup.
His government estimates it already has been denied about $200 million in suspended credits.
The United States, Honduras' biggest economic partner, has cut $16.5 million in military assistance and warned a further $180 million in other aid is at risk.
(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner, Enrique Andres Pretel, Juana Casas in Tegucigalpa, Patricia Zengerle in Caracas; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Vicki Allen)
