Chavez rhetoric stokes Honduras crisis before talks

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stoked Honduras' political crisis on Friday by saying ousted President Manuel Zelaya would return home imminently, complicating efforts to broker a mediated solution.

Chavez's comments that Zelaya had told him he would enter Honduras "in the coming hours" threatened to jeopardize planned talks on Saturday in Costa Rica between the rival sides that both claim legitimacy since the June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya.

Zelaya is currently in Nicaragua, which borders Honduras, and there was no immediate word from him on Friday on his plans. "He's here in Managua, in the Las Mercedes hotel, it's no secret," Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, like Chavez a leftist ally of Zelaya, told reporters late on Thursday.

A unilateral attempt by the deposed president to return home would fly in the face of threats to arrest him by the interim government that replaced Zelaya in the impoverished Central American country.

Chavez's comments appeared to be a typically incendiary expression of his support for his ally Zelaya.

The United States, which is strongly backing mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, urged states in the region to avoid actions that could push the situation into violence. The Honduras power dispute is already the worst political crisis in Central America since the Cold War.

Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as president by Honduras' Congress after the coup, has defied international calls for Zelaya to be reinstated and ruled out his return to office. He says Zelaya was removed because he violated the constitution by seeking to lift presidential term limits.

A previous attempt by Zelaya to fly home on July 5 in a Venezuelan plane provided by Chavez was thwarted by Honduran troops who prevented the plane from landing in Tegucigalpa. At least one person was killed in clashes between troops and Zelaya supporters at the airport.

On Friday, supporters of the ousted president, clamouring for his reinstatement, blocked major highways in Honduras, including the northern access into the capital Tegucigalpa.

At the southern entrance to the city, pro-Zelaya protesters lifted their roadblock after police brandishing tear gas canisters gave them an ultimatum.

"We're going to bring "Mel" (Zelaya) back," said teacher Noemi Farias as she took part in the pro-Zelaya protests.

"Zelaya said that in the coming hours he'll enter Honduras. We're behind him, we have to support him," Chavez told reporters outside the presidential palace in Bolivia.

Chavez, who had attended a meeting in Bolivia of leftist Latin American allies of Zelaya, gave no more details about how Zelaya intended to return home.

WASHINGTON SAYS CHAVEZ ROLE "NOT HELPFUL"

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has urged the rivals in the Honduran crisis to give the Costa Rica talks a chance, called for restraint. A senior State Department official, who declined to be named because his comments were sensitive, said Chavez's current role was "not helpful."

"The situation right now is of serious concern to us and there is a potential for severely aggravating tensions in the region should he (Zelaya) decide to make that trip (home) right now," said the senior official in Washington.

Zelaya accused the interim government on Thursday of sending troops to his property in the central province of Olancho to head off any bid by him to come home.

The ousted president, a logging magnate who was elected in 2005 and was due to leave power in 2010, has repeated almost daily since the coup that he intends to return home "any day."

But he had said Saturday's talks would be the last chance for Micheletti to hand power back to him.

In comments made late on Thursday and broadcast by the Caracas-based Telesur network, Zelaya appeared to be ready to give Arias' mediation an opportunity. "We think that the diplomatic alternative should always be kept open," he said.

Speaking in Bolivia, Chavez said Honduras' army would not be able to control popular pressure for Zelaya's reinstatement. "What do they want? A civil war? The people will sweep them away," he said.

The Venezuelan leader has dismissed the mediation talks in Costa Rica as "dead before they started," and has accused the United States of being behind the coup that toppled his ally Zelaya -- a charge denied by Washington.

Micheletti has accused Chavez of meddling in Honduras' affairs and of influencing Zelaya.

A U.S. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said Washington supported, but "would not impose," a peaceful negotiated solution.

Honduras is a coffee exporter but producers said on Thursday that 2008-2009 exports had not been affected by the unrest following the coup. However, blockades by protesters could complicate delivery of fertilizers to farms preparing for the upcoming harvest, they said.

(Additional reporting by Carlos Quiroga in La Paz and Sue Pleming in Washington; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Frances Kerry)