MOSCOW, July 13 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the United States to withdraw its "gringo" troops from its airbase in Honduras to protest the recent coup in the Central American state.
Honduran parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti has been acting president of the Central American state since President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup on June 28.
"If the U.S. really was against the coup it would have already withdrawn its troops from the Palmerola military base," Chavez said in his Sunday TV program, Hello President.
The U.S., which has repeatedly condemned the coup, has some 350 soldiers deployed at an airbase in Honduras.
"Obama, pull your gringo soldiers out of Honduras, deprive the rebels of aid, freeze their accounts, stop giving them visas, and you will see how their rule ends," Chavez went on.
Meanwhile, Micheletti said on Monday that Zelaya would face arrest if he returned to the country, adding however that amnesty could not be ruled out. An attempt by Zelaya to return to Honduras was blocked by coup supporters earlier in the month, with crowds forcing his plane to fly on to Nicaragua.
Honduras on Sunday lifted a curfew imposed immediately after the coup.
