July 8 (Reuters) - Honduras' interim government is defying international pressure to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a June 28 military coup. The two rivals in the Honduran crisis -- Zelaya and the interim president installed by Honduras' Congress, Roberto Micheletti -- have agreed to hold talks on Thursday in San Jose, Costa Rica, aimed at seeking a solution. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has agreed to mediate the talks. Here are brief portraits of the main players involved: OUSTED HONDURAN PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA * A wealthy logging magnate who wears a cowboy hat with his suits, Zelaya, 56, won a surprise victory as a moderate liberal in 2005 presidential elections. Originally close to Honduras' ruling elite and known as a guitar-strumming motorbike rider, he moved further left politically and sought financing and energy deals with Venezuela, forging close ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and echoing his populist rhetoric. His efforts to extend term limits for the president were considered unconstitutional by his critics and sparked the coup, when the army arrested him and sent him on a plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas on the morning of a vote seen as a step toward extending his mandate. Public support for Zelaya dropped as low as 30 percent recently and he has been accused by the interim government which replaced him with violating the constitution and treason. Zelaya has vowed to return to Honduras despite threats to arrest him if he does and he insists he must serve out his term, due to end in January. Honduran soldiers foiled his attempt on Sunday to return home in a Venezuelan plane. INTERIM PRESIDENT ROBERTO MICHELETTI * Micheletti is a veteran of Zelaya's Liberal Party who was head of Congress when he was picked by the assembly as interim president until elections scheduled for November. A centrist who mixes social programs with deep conservative beliefs, he was formerly an ally of Zelaya but opposed his shift to the left and now has the backing of the business and political elite. Micheletti has said the removal of Zelaya saved Honduras from "Chavismo," a term for the style of socialism championed by Chavez. Micheletti maintains that the ouster of Zelaya was a legal transition of power and that Zelaya cannot be allowed to resume his post as president because he violated the constitution and defied the Supreme Court. "We are not going to negotiate anything. We are going to listen," he said of the upcoming talks. COSTA RICAN PRESIDENT OSCAR ARIAS: * Arias, 68, is an experienced mediator who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to help end civil wars and insurgencies raging in several Central American countries during the Cold War, when the United States tried to counter Soviet and Cuban influence in the region. Reviving faltering internationally backed peace efforts with the so-called Arias Plan, he persuaded the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to sign the 1987 Esquipulas II Accords which played a role in helping end years of conflict. He is serving his second term as president of Costa Rica, a relatively prosperous and peaceful Central American country that abolished its army in 1948. He won a 2006 election after previously serving as president from 1986 to 1990. (Reporting by Claudia Parsons and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Eric Walsh)
A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya holds a sign as he takes part in a road blockade on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa July 8, 2009. The two rivals in ...
