MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The presidents of the Central American Integration System (SICA) are expected to issue a joint declaration here Monday in support of recently deposed Honduran President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, who was ousted from office Sunday morning by the Honduran military in what's being called a coup d'état.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who is scheduled to handover SICA's temporary presidency Monday to Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias, has already said his government will not recognize any other substitute government in Honduras, where Congressional President Roberto Micheletti was sworn into office Sunday as the country's interim president.

Leaders across the Americas and Europe have also spoken out in support of Zelaya.

Sunday night, more than 12 hours after the military ouster of Zelaya, the presidents of the left-leaning Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) met in Managua to give their unconditional support to Zelaya and blame the United States for backing the coup in Honduras.

The U.S. State Department, however, has come out in favor of Zelaya, calling him “the duly elected and constitutional president of Honduras. We see no other," Reuters reported.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the head of ALBA, said earlier in the day that a coup against one ALBA country is a coup against them all. He did not rule out a military response, although the “Army of ALBA” once proposed by Chávez has never come to be.

In Managua, the ruling Sandinista Front called on its faithful to take to the streets Sunday evening to protest against the coup in Honduras. Similar protests of solidarity occurred in Venezuela and other ALBA countries.

Zelaya was kidnapped from his bed early morning June 28 by masked soldiers who put him – still in his pajamas – aboard his presidential airplane, and flew him to Costa Rica's Juan Santamaría International Airport.

Reporters from Venezuelan TV channel Telesur later visited Zelaya's home in Tegucigalpa with cameras, and showed the damage to where his bedroom door had been kicked in. His bed was still unmade and disheveled.

Hours after Zelaya, in his words, was “brutally kidnapped,” Foreign Minister Patricia Rhodes, who has become Honduras' face at recent ALBA meetings, was also kidnapped at her house along with the ambassadors from fellow ALBA countries Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Rhodes was apparently taken captive to an Air Force base in the capital, while the three ambassadors were allegedly released outside of the base after being beaten, according to comments made by Venezuelan Ambassador Armando Laguna to Telesur.

The Nica Times tried unsuccessfully Sunday to reach Nicaraguan Ambassador Mario Duarte in Tegucigalpa. He did not answer his cell phone and his voicemail was full.

In San José, Costa Rica, during an emergency news conference at the airport outside the capital, a bewildered-looking Zelaya sat alongside Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in a white T-shirt and pajamas and told the press the story of his ouster. He said he was awakened before dawn by the sound of gunshots at "the house I live in with my family, with my children," he said.

"There was strong resistance by my guards for at least 10 minutes....When (the soldiers) came in, they pointed their guns at me and told me they would shoot if I didn't put down my cell phone."

President Oscar Arias welcomed his Honduran counterpart and called on the international community to continue recognizing Zelaya as Honduras' president and to condemn the military coup, Central America's first in more than 15 years.

"We thought democracy in Central America had been consolidated sufficiently enough so that this would not occur again," said Arias, whose hand in negotiating peace during the region's 1980s civil wars earned him a Nobel Peace Prize.

"I regret there are civilians, political leaders and part of the population in Honduras who applaud a coup d'état, just because they disagree with the government in office," the Tico president said.

Zelaya faced stiff opposition in Honduras for his push toward a nationwide, nonbinding popular consultation Sunday to ask Hondurans if they were in favor of including a ballot measure in November's general elections on constitutional reform that would have allowed the president seek re-election. In Honduras, re-election is illegal, as are efforts to reform the Constitution.

Zelaya's efforts were decried as illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court, and opposed by Congress, business leaders, the Attorney General's Office, the Catholic Church and – eventually – the military. When Zelaya last week ordered the military to assist in the distribution of the ballots for Sunday's vote, the Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, refused the order and was subsequently fired by Zelaya.

The Defense Minister and the heads of the other Honduran Armed Forces resigned in protest. The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya to reinstitute Vásquez, which he refused to do. The tension came to a head Sunday when, instead of waking up to vote in the popular consultation, Honduras woke up to a coup.

Analysts fear the coup in Honduras could destabilize other countries in the region.

Read further updates at www.ticotimes.net/daily.htm, and see the July 3 print or PDF edition of The Tico Times for more in-depth coverage and analysis.

Neither team played well Saturday night, but Costa Rica's “Tricolor” were able to pull out a victory in a hard-fought friendly match that, from the outset, was full of animosity.

It was evident even before the game started that it carried very little significance, and that both teams had stacked their starting lineups with players more accustomed to the view from the sidelines.

The crowd – usually a good sign of a game's importance – was sparse at best. However, that didn't stop the typical Tico banter from tormenting young and inexperienced Venezuelan players. In addition, neither the game clock nor the scoreboard had been turned on for the match, which ended in another Costa Rican home victory: 1-0.

The game started off at a quick pace, as the second-string Tico lineup moved the ball beautifully across the pitch within the second minute, combining a few sequenced passes along the left flank to set up what appeared to be the most inspired attack either team would have all night – though the shot slipped wide of the mark.

But that rhythm and the flow of the game were soon disrupted by a number of brazen challenges from the Venezuelans, which drew whistles but no cards from the referee. These challenges, and their seemingly malign intent, marred the rest of the game, ending in two red card ejections in the second half – one for each team.

As the first half waned, Costa Rica put together a number of passes, again focused on the left side of the field, culminating in a cross to the back post, which was headed far wide of the opposite post by Andy Herron. Luckily for Costa Rica, Alvaro Saborio was waiting, bouncing the ball off his chest and into the net just before the 40th minute.

The second half was defined by desperate attacks by Venezuela, the two red cards and a yellow – each of which led to both teams converging at the point of the foul to push a few shoulders and open their mouths – and a Costa Rican attack that proved, time and again, uneventful and unable to create decent opportunities.

Still, the Costa Ricans were the dominant side, and came out with a victory and a shutout. The trend at the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium has been more than a little impressive: over the last seven games at home, Costa Rica has outscored opponents 19 to 1 (the only goal they gave up was a penalty kick to the United States).

Currently first in the standings for World Cup qualification in front of the United States and Honduras, Costa Rica will play its next game on July 3 against El Salvador in the Gold Cup. Its next World Cup qualifying match will be played away against Honduras on Sept. 12.

A Costa Rica court ordered the release from prison of U.S. citizen Nicole Kater and struck down an extradition request from her home country, where she is accused of international kidnapping.

Judges at the criminal court ruled in favor of Kater, who claims she fled here with her daughter from the United States as a victim of abuse by her ex-partner John Gehl, the child's father.

Seven-year-old Tierra Zion Gehl Kater was reunited with her father last year.

The ruling follows pressure from women's groups, politicians and the chief prosecutor to prevent Kater's extradition to the U.S.

Police arrested Kater, 28, in April 2008, after an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Interpol and Costa Rican police. Kater fled here with her daughter three years ago during a custody dispute with the child's father in Humboldt, California.

In August 2005, the Humboldt County Superior Court ordered Kater not to leave the county until a scheduled hearing on the case could occur.

Twelve days before the hearing, however, Kater flew to Costa Rica with her daughter. The United States issued an arrest warrant in December 2005, and the California court awarded Gehl custody. A judge from the San José court for childhood and adolescence awarded Gehl custody this September.

Kater has been held in San José's Buen Pastor Prison since her arrest in 2008.

The Arias administration named a new national housing president, after former executive Jorge Arturo Sánchez resigned due to an alleged drunken driving incident June 19.

Agustín García, an architect and consultant, has been moved up from director to president of the National Institute for Housing and Urban Development (INVU).

“I am very happy to serve the country in this capacity,” said García, who worked as a private consultant in architecture and as a professor at the University of Costa Rica prior to coming to the INVU.

The former director officially resigned from the INVU on Monday in a short letter to President Oscar Arias.

“Personal situations that you are aware of ... have led me to make this decision,” he wrote.

According to newspaper reports, Sánchez registered 2.42 grams of alcohol per liter of blood, more than four times the legal limit. He was detained by police in Escazú, west of San José, after crashing into another car while driving a Nissan Pathfinder that allegedly belonged to the government.

The last Costa Rican official who made headlines for driving drunk was Libertarian Movement Party legislator Ovidio Agüero, who killed a bicyclist in the Caribbean region of Limón while driving with a blood-alcohol level of 1.39 (http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2009_01/012809.htm#story1).

Arias defended the former INVU president, offering words of praise in a press release.

“His sensitivity to the needs of the most vulnerable sectors of our society and helping them find solutions for housing is the imprint he left on this institution,” Arias said.