The American response to the decree on Monday was somewhat equivocal. The State Department condemned the government’s actions. “I think it’s time for the de facto regime to put down the shovel,” said a spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. “With every action, they keep on making the hole deeper.”

But at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, where diplomats met in an emergency session to discuss the Micheletti government’s expulsion of four of its diplomats on Sunday, the American envoy reserved his strongest condemnation for Mr. Zelaya.

Image Roberto Micheletti, the de facto president of Honduras, asked for forgiveness on Monday for the crackdown he imposed. Credit... Henry Romero/Reuters

W. Lewis Amselem, the acting American representative, called Mr. Zelaya “irresponsible and foolish” for returning to Honduras before a negotiated settlement was reached.

“The president should stop acting as though he were starring in an old movie,” Mr. Amselem said.

Chris Sabatini, an analyst at the Council of the Americas, said that the United States was embarrassed at being linked to Mr. Zelaya, “a dangerously capricious leader.” But he said the mixed messages, which he said have characterized the American response since the coup, could also be an attempt “to soften Micheletti’s position by showing that they are even-handed.”

“The effect is, however, that the United States looks a little weak-kneed before the de facto government,” he said.

José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch said that if the United States was trying to spread the blame, the strategy was not working. “It has the effect of defusing the pressure,” he said. “Micheletti is the one who is taking away freedoms to an outrageous degree and the United States needs to be focusing all its attention on him.”