MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization of American States has suspended Honduras from the pan-American alliance over the new leadership's refusal to reinstate President Jose Manuel Zelaya.
Zelaya was ousted in a military coup on June 28, and flown to Costa Rica. However, he plans to defy the new government by returning later on Sunday.
Thirty-three of the 34 members of the OAS voted in Washington late on Saturday to suspend Honduras, the first time the alliance has taken such a measure since Cuba was suspended in 1962.
Zelaya is expected to return home accompanied by several Latin American leaders, but the new government has threatened to arrest him on arrival. Honduran Congressional leader Roberto Micheletti is currently serving as acting president of the Central American country.
The OAS had set Saturday as a deadline for Honduras to reinstate Zelaya.
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday at Tegucigalpa's airport demanding that the president be returned to power. No violence was reported.
Zelaya's arrest by the Honduran military came hours before polls were due to open for a non-binding referendum on ending the restriction on presidents serving one four-year term.
Honduras' Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to Costa Rica in what was Central America's first coup since the end of the Cold War.
