The Honduran regime silenced opposition media outlets and clamped down Monday on protests by supporters of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, holed up for a week in the Brazilian embassy here.
But while Latin American countries repeated calls to restore Zelaya to the presidency, a senior US representative to the Organization of American States broke ranks and criticized Zelaya's return, branding it "irresponsible".
"The return of President Zelaya to Honduras, absent an agreement, is irresponsible and serves neither the interests of the Honduran people nor those seeking a peaceful re-establishment of a democratic order in Honduras," said the US official, Lewis Amselem.
In Tegucigalpa, a cordon of riot police prevented hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a university from marching across the capital to the embassy, where Zelaya took refuge following his surprise return last Monday.
Some 60 people remain inside the compound, including Zelaya, journalists and Brazilian diplomatic staff, who have suffered power and water cuts and an alleged gas attack.
Protesters stuck tape over their mouths to symbolize the loss of their right to express themselves as they were impeded from answering Zelaya's call to converge for a mass protest exactly three months after his June 28 ouster.
Union leaders said they had kept the group inside the university campus to avoid violent clashes with the police and vowed to find new ways to protest in the face of the crackdown.
Around 20 anti-riot police and soldiers stormed the Globo de Tegucigalpa radio at dawn and took it off the air. Soldiers also surrounded TV satellite channel Cholusat, which had already lost its signal.
It was "a blow to the resistance because we can't communicate," union leader Juan Barahona told AFP. "We're going to meet with the leadership to see if we can find a different way to demonstrate."
Zelaya issued a cry for help, telling AFP by telephone: "The international community has to react immediately."
Human Rights Watch was one of several groups to criticize the censorship by the Honduran authorities, and was particularly damning of a decree banning public statements deemed to offend officials or the government.
De facto president "Roberto Micheletti has effectively outlawed public criticism," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW's Americas director.
"This kind of decree has been the norm for authoritarian rulers, from Chile?s Pinochet to Cuba?s Castros, who tolerate freedom of speech only when it favors the government."
Brazil ruled out the possibility of dispatching troops to protect its embassy in Honduras, while former Honduras conflict mediator, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, called again for both sides to sign his San Jose accord, which includes the restoration of Zelaya to the presidency.
The interim leaders, who took power after a June 28 military-backed coup, upped the ante on Sunday, threatening to close Brazil's embassy for harboring Zelaya if there was no resolution within 10 days and denying entry to four mediators from an OAS delegation.
"Things are going to get worse before they get better," Chilean John Biehl, the only member of the OAS delegation who managed to enter the country, told AFP.
Biehl said OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza may visit Honduras with six or seven regional foreign ministers towards the middle of the week but held out no expectation of an immediate end to the stand-off.
The possibility of November presidential elections serving as a way out of the crisis appeared increasingly unlikely, observers said, after the United Nations last week froze its technical support for the poll.
The de facto leaders are seeking to arrest Zelaya, known for his trademark white cowboy hat, on charges of treason and abuse of authority.
They allege Zelaya, who veered to the left after his election and forged an alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, ignored court orders to drop plans for a constitutional referendum that could have given him another term.
Two people have been killed in pro-Zelaya protests since the start of last week, according to police.
Source: AFP Global Edition
