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BBC MUNDO RADIO
"We know we are in danger," Zelaya said in interviews with media outlets yesterday. "We are ready to risk everything, to sacrifice."
Armed soldiers stood guard on neighboring rooftops and helicopters buzzed overhead.
Zelaya, ousted at gunpoint in June, popped up in the capital Monday, telling captivated supporters that after three months of international exile and a secretive 15-hour cross-country journey, he was ready to lead again.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti's response was terse:
Initially he said Zelaya was lying about being there, and then - after Zelaya appeared on national TV - Micheletti pressed Brazil to hand Zelaya over so he could be arrested under a warrant issued by the Supreme Court charging treason and abuse of authority.
Some officials suggested the embassy would be no haven. "The inviolability of a diplomatic mission does not imply the protection of delinquents or fugitives from justice," said Micheletti's foreign ministry adviser, Mario Fortinthe.
Police and soldiers set up a ring of security in a three-mile perimeter around the Brazilian Embassy.
The government denied local media reports that three people were killed outside the embassy.
Security Ministry spokesman Orlin Cerrato said two policemen were beaten and 174 people were being held on charges of disorderly conduct and vandalism.
A doctor interviewed by Radio Globo said 18 people had been treated at the public hospital for injuries.
Micheletti repeated his insistence that there had never been a coup - just a "constitutional succession" ordered by the courts and approved by Congress.
"Coups do not allow freedom of assembly," he wrote in a column published yesterday in the Washington Post. "They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights. In Honduras, these freedoms remain intact and vibrant."
Micheletti shut airports and borders, and baton-wielding police fired tear gas to chase thousands of Zelaya backers from the embassy.
Some gas canisters fell inside the walls of the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya, his wife, some of their children, cabinet members, and journalists held hushed conversations, napped on couches, and curled up on the floor.
Zelaya repeatedly asked to speak with Micheletti.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Zelaya and pressed him not to do anything that might provoke an invasion of the diplomatic mission.
Lula's government decided yesterday to ask for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Brazil's private Agencia Estado news agency reported.
Embassy staff were told to stay home, and most did. Embassy charge d'affaires Francisco Catunda Resende said water, phone, and electricity services had been cut, leaving the mission with a diesel-powered generator.
Diplomats around the world, from the European Union to the U.S. State Department, were urging calm while repeating their recognition of Zelaya as Honduras' legitimate president.
The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who is trying to persuade Micheletti to step down and return Zelaya to power, said he was "very concerned" the situation could turn violent.
A 26-hour curfew imposed Monday afternoon closed businesses and schools.
Zelaya loyalists ignored the decree and surrounded the embassy, dancing and cheering and using cell phones to light up the streets after electricity to the block was cut.
Early yesterday, police cleared them away with clubs, tear gas, jets of water, and deafening music.
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