LAS MANOS, Nicaragua – A Honduran man was found dead Saturday on a road close to Nicaragua, as ousted President Manuel Zelaya returned to the border for a second day to attempt to cross into his home country.

Zelaya supporters, who defied a daytime curfew to gather near the border hoping to welcome their president, blamed Honduran police for Saturday's death of the man identified by friends as 23-year-old Pedro Madriel Munoz Alvarado.

The body was found next to a coffee field, bearing knife gashes and signs he had been beaten. A protestor told AFP that Munoz lived in Colonia San Francisco, a working-class neighborhood of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Witnesses on Friday saw police arresting the man after he participated in pro-Zelaya demonstrations, reported Radio Globo, one of the few media outlets critical of the military-backed interim regime. But police said the man was arrested for smoking marijuana and not for political reasons.

"Others are paying for the mistake of one man," Zelaya said after learning of the man's death, in comments addressed at interim leader Roberto Micheletti.

"We are organizing the resistance," he said upon arriving in the border town of Las Manos, standing some 100 meters (yards) from Honduras. Rows of Honduran soldiers and police were visible from the Nicaraguan side of the line.

"We are not afraid. Onward with social reform, the presidency of the republic and expelling the coup leaders."

Aides would not confirm whether the deposed president would again attempt to cross into Honduras, as the interim regime tightened control on the region close to Nicaragua.

In a symbolic act of defiance US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as "reckless," Zelaya stepped briefly across the border on Friday.

Micheletti extended a curfew along the border region from 18 to 30 hours ending at 6:00 pm Saturday (0000 GMT Sunday) after Zelaya, surrounded by a throng of supporters and media, stepped into Honduras briefly before returning to Nicaragua.

Soldiers expelled Zelaya from the country at gunpoint on June 28 in a move supported by Honduras's courts and legislature as he sought to hold a referendum on changing the constitution to allow him to seek reelection.

Hundreds of Zelaya supporters, meanwhile, massed at the parking lot of the Villas del Sol mall in Tegucigalpa planning to head to La Manos, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of the capital.

"We have to go through the mountains to bypass the military checkpoints," said Jose Rafael Reyes, a doctor who tried to reach the border to meet with Zelaya.

"I don't know how we will do it, but I will go with my wife and my daughter," Reyes added, noting that soldiers may be in the mountains near Las Manos as well.

Honduran television networks made no mention of the border crossing, but late Friday, Micheletti made a television appearance to describe Zelaya's move as "irresponsible, poorly thought out and not serious," warning Zelaya would be arrested by the police and not the army if he entered Honduran territory.

The interim leader also said that he has invited representatives from Germany, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Panama and Japan "to join as observers of the dialogue that takes place in Costa Rica" under the mediation of President Oscar Arias, the 1987 Nobel Peace laureate.

The Costa Rica talks between Zelaya and the Micheletti administration -- which has not been recognized by the international community -- have failed up to now with the interim regime refusing to restore Zelaya to the presidency.

Regional powers, including the United States, have backed Zelaya's quest to return constitutional order in Honduras, but many urged him not to come back for fear of bloodshed. The State Department said the president planned to travel to Washington on Tuesday for talks.

In a first return attempt, on July 5, Zelaya tried to fly into Tegucigalpa airport, but was blocked by military units deployed on the runway. At least one of his supporters died in clashes with troops on the ground.