Honduras lifts post-coup curfew, Zelaya vows return

By Daniel Trotta

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' interim government lifted a curfew on Sunday that it had imposed after the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, saying it had succeeded in restoring calm and reducing crime.

The announcement by the caretaker administration of President Roberto Micheletti, installed by Honduras' Congress after the coup, came as a relief for the already battered economy and for people struggling to return to normal life.

The coup has isolated this coffee-exporting, mostly Roman Catholic Central American country diplomatically and provoked multilateral lenders to suspend new credits.

Micheletti's interim government is holding talks with Zelaya's representatives under the auspices of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. But Micheletti says Zelaya's reinstatement is not negotiable because he contravened the constitution by seeking to illegally extend his rule.

The talks have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.

Ordinary Hondurans have sought to put a brave face on the coup crisis, from a village that forged ahead regardless with its annual fiesta, complete with a brass band and fireworks, to the gang-plagued slums surrounding the capital, where the poor are bracing for higher prices and unemployment.

Even the wealthy have felt the pinch. At the upscale restaurant El Patio, where Saturday nights are normally a rollicking affair of mariachi music and rum-fuelled laughter, the neon lights were dimmed early on a dining terrace that was half-filled even though the national soccer team was on TV.

"Nobody knows how this is going to turn out," El Patio manager Dolores de Jesus Ordonez said. "I have a lot of faith in the dialogue going on in Costa Rica."