TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya are advocating targeted economic sanctions to pressure the interim government to allow his return rather than broader measures that might harm the Central American country's poorest citizens.

U.S. officials are considering imposing sanctions on one of the hemisphere's poorest countries if mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias fail to resolve the crisis. The European Union has already frozen euro65 million $92 million in development aid and warned of further steps.

But with Honduras' defiant leaders vowing to tough out any economic pain for months, Zelaya has begun to rethink his previous support for sweeping measures intended to isolate the interim government.

From Managua, Nicaragua, Zelaya said late Tuesday that he sent a letter to President Barack Obama naming the army officials and lawmakers who allegedly planned his ouster and asking for economic sanctions specifically targeting "those who conspired directly to execute the coup."

That's because broad sanctions hit the poorest citizens the hardest, and some question whether they even work against already-isolated regimes. Earlier this week, interim President Roberto Micheletti vowed to hang on until the scheduled end of Zelaya's term in January, saying, "We have an enormous willingness to bear up under this situation."

"When I hear them saying that they can last for months, I realize that they can get through it, " said Xiomara Castro, Zelaya's wife, who remains in Honduras. "What they aren't thinking is what a strong blow this would be for the average people."

She supports tactics such as seizing bank accounts or freezing assets of coup leaders, who have defied a resolution by the Organization of American States demanding that Zelaya be reinstated.

Micheletti sent a team to Washington this week to lobby against economic sanctions by portraying the coup backers as a bulwark against "dictatorship" and "communism."

An official at Honduras' Technical Department of International Cooperation said many projects financed by foreign governments or organizations have already been placed on hold.

Annual foreign aid of about $300 million accounts for about 10 percent of all federal spending.

But potential trade sanctions could have a far greater effect on Honduras, which relies heavily on export-assembly plants.

U.S. officials warned that such measures could be coming, even though questions remain about the effectiveness of sanctions. Historically, they have only been successful in about one-third of cases, said Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"Honduras is a pretty vulnerable country. It's small and dependent on a handful of countries for trade," Hufbauer said. He noted, however, that since Honduras is a U.S. ally it may be more likely to yield to sanctions.

Hufbauer said targeted sanctions are tough to impose, because government officials and their assets have to be identified and investigated, "and you may be assured that as you are investigating, they'll be trying to move their assets around."

On Tuesday, the interim government ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours, accusing Venezuela of meddling in the country's affairs and threatening to use its armed forces against Honduras. Venezuelan Embassy charge d'affaires Ariel Vargas vowed to defy the expulsion order from what he called "a usurper government ... that is not recognized by anyone on an international level."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been the most vociferous critic of what he calls the "gorilla" government that overthrew his ally Zelaya on June 28.

No government has recognized the Micheletti administration.

Associated Press writer Morgan Lee contributed to this story from Managua, Nicaragua.





loaded with International Space Station parts out of the shuttle. AP Photo/NASA

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