Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said Saturday that he would return to Honduras to try to retake office following last week's military-backed coup, and the Organization of American States kicked out the Central American nation for refusing to restore him.
At an emergency meeting in Washington, 33 nations backed the resolution suspending Honduras' membership, with none opposed and Honduras abstaining. It was the first time in nearly 20 years that the OAS took such a step due to a military coup.
"The suspension takes effect immediately," Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said, reading the resolution before the body. The move temporarily sidelines Honduras from any participation in the OAS, but obliges it to continue observing the body's rules in areas such as human rights.
It also deepens the poor Central American nation's international isolation ahead of a looming showdown on Sunday in the Honduran capital, where Zelaya plans to return despite warnings of a potentially bloody confrontation and the interim government's vow to arrest him and put him on trial.
Zelaya called on supporters to prepare to greet him at the airport, and on Saturday more than 10,000 of them gathered near the heavily guarded presidential palace and pledged they would be ready if he returned.
"We are going to show up at the Honduras International Airport in Tegucigalpa ... and on Sunday we will be in Tegucigalpa," Zelaya said in a taped statement posted on the Web sites of the Telesur and Cubadebate media outlets.
In comments to a local radio station, Zelaya said Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa, several foreign ministers and 300 journalists would accompany him.
Zelaya implored supporters to remain peaceful.
"I ask all farmers, residents, Indians, young people and all workers' groups, businessmen and friends ... to accompany me on my return to Honduras," he said earlier. "Do not bring weapons. Practice what I have always preached, which is nonviolence. Let them be the ones who use violence, weapons and repression.
"I hold the coup plotters responsible for the lives of each and every person," he added.
Zelaya's vow to return set up a showdown between supporters of the ousted president, who hail mostly from the country's poor and middle class, and largely well-to-do backers of the coup that ousted him, who have held their own daily marches in support of Roberto Micheletti, the congressional president tapped by lawmakers to finish out the six months left in Zelaya's term.
Tegucigalpa Archbishop Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez urged Zelaya to stay away, saying Saturday in a statement read on radio and television that "your return to the country could unleash a bloodbath."
The new government has imposed a nightly curfew and limited Hondurans' constitutional rights during it, but grenades have exploded almost daily outside government buildings and businesses nonetheless.
The Micheletti government has charged Zelaya with 18 criminal acts including treason and failing to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since taking office in 2006, and vows to arrest him if he returns.
The OAS had given the Honduran government until Saturday to reinstate Zelaya or face suspension, but in a letter read on state television Friday night, Micheletti's government pulled out of the group rather than meet its ultimatum.
"The OAS is a political organization, not a court, and it can't judge us," the letter said. "The government rejects the attempts of the OAS to impose unilateral resolutions."
The OAS responded that since it does not recognize the interim government, its withdrawal was also illegitimate.
In Washington, the OAS' secretary-general told the gathered foreign ministers that his efforts to return Zelaya to the presidency had failed, and asked the group to suspend Honduras.
"It is very clear that in the de facto government, there exists no willingness to change its conduct," Jose Miguel Insulza said.
The last country to suffer such a fate was Haiti in 1990, for Gen. Raoul Cedras' putsch against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Zelaya was taken from his home at gunpoint by soldiers and flown into exile June 25, after months of pushing for a constitutional referendum that Honduras' courts and Congress had called illegal. Many suspected the referendum was an attempt by Zelaya to remain in power after his term ends in January, though he denied that.
The populist son of a wealthy rancher who adopted an increasingly fiery leftist tone in recent months, Zelaya has been traveling throughout Central America since his ouster building support.
He promised to return to Honduras to retake the presidency as the international community — everyone from the United Nations and U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro — lined up to support him and condemn the military uprising.
OAS suspension could mean economic sanctions and active diplomatic encouragement to other organizations around the hemisphere
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