Pat Dollard

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FOX News:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya stepped Friday across the border into Honduras in a symbolic return home despite the threat of arrest.

Zelaya arrived Friday at the land border of Nicaragua and Honduras in an attempt to retake power after he was overthrown in a military coup.

Meanwhile security forces clashed with supporters of Honduras’ ousted president on Friday as the government ordered everyone along the border off the streets in an attempt to block his return.

Thousands of Hondurans flocked to the remote border between Honduras and Nicaragua to support Manuel Zelaya’s bid to reclaim the presidency from the government that ousted him in a June 28 coup.

Soldiers and police fired tear gas at the crowd near the El Paraiso crossing as a noon curfew went into effect — just minutes after it was announced in a national broadcast.

Witnesses told local Radio Globo that police also fired live ammunition at the crowd and that there were an unspecified number of injuries. Police spokesman Daniel Molina confirmed tear gas was fired but said he had no word of injuries.

The administration of Roberto Micheletti said all people in the border area must stay indoors until Saturday dawn “to keep the peace.”

Zelaya was en route to the Nicaraguan side of the same border crossing and said he might attempt to return to Honduras within hours.

Zelaya, wearing his trademark white cowboy hat, held a news conference along the way and said he was considering entering by land, sea or air from any of the three neighboring countries.

“Let me return in peace, let calm return to Honduras,” Zelaya said, directly addressing the government that ousted him.

Micheletti’s government insisted it will arrest Zelaya once he sets foot in the country, ignoring threats of sanctions from nations worldwide if he is not reinstated.

In the province of El Paraiso, a mountainous region near the Nicaraguan border, tractor-trailers filled with cement were parked across the road to block the international crossing and troops formed a human chain to stop anyone from coming in or out.

Zelaya said soldiers were preventing many of his supporters from reaching the border. Some of his backers made their way on foot after bus drivers refused to risk the trip.

National police director Manuel Escoto told CNN the security was to keep the peace.

Zelaya has urged soldiers to ignore orders to arrest him and lower their weapons when they see him.

All governments in the Western Hemisphere have condemned the coup, in which soldiers acting on orders from Congress and the Supreme Court arrested Zelaya and flew him into exile. Nations on both sides of the political spectrum say Zelaya’s return to power is crucial to the region’s stability.

Washington and the Organization of American States have asked Zelaya to be patient and not return on his own, fearing it could plunge the country into chaos.

Honduras’ Supreme Court ordered Zelaya’s arrest before the coup because he ignored court orders to drop plans for a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile instead.

The showdown comes after the breakdown of U.S.-mediated talks to reach a negotiated settlement of the crisis.

An initial attempt to fly home on July 5 was frustrated when officials blocked the runway of the Honduran capital’s airport.

The Honduran military said it would not be responsible for Zelaya’s security if he returns, responding to the ousted president’s warning that he would blame military chief Gen. Romeo Vasquez “if something happens to me en route to Honduras.”

The Defense Ministry suggested Zelaya might stage an assassination attempt on himself to blame Vasquez.

“We cannot be responsible for the security of people who, to foment general violence in the country, are capable of having their own sympathizers attack them,” the ministry said in a statement late Thursday.

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, held out hope that the two sides might still reach a settlement and he called Zelaya’s attempt to return “hasty.”

He said that neither delegation had officially responded to a final proposal from Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the chief mediator. He called for Zelaya’s reinstatement, amnesty for the coup leaders and early elections.