Zelaya will leave Brazil Embassy by Jan. 27

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he will leave the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras by Jan. 27, when his presidential term ends, according to an interview broadcast Friday.

Zelaya said in the telephone interview with Globo TV that he wants to leave soon but did not say where he will go. He has been holed up in the embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa for three months under threat of arrest if he sets foot outside the building.

Zelaya’s comments aired a day after Honduras’ coup-installed government said he is free to leave the country, but not as president.

The top-ranking Brazilian official at the embassy also told Globo TV that Zelaya must leave by Jan. 27. Francisco Catunda did not say where Zelaya might go, saying only that it would be “another destination.”

Officials at Brazil’s presidency and at the nation’s foreign ministry did not immediately return telephone messages left Friday seeking comment.