The actions by Honduras' coup-installed rulers threw cold water on efforts to free Zelaya from the Brazilian Embassy, where he took refuge 2 1/2 months ago. 'I could be here 10 years,' Zelaya told a radio station from inside the Embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. He said he was being required to sign a letter of resignation in exchange for being allowed to leave, terms he branded 'blackmail.' At Zelaya's request, Mexico on Wednesday requested safe passage for Zelaya and dispatched a presidential jet to retrieve him. Initially, Honduran officials, who have been threatening to arrest him, agreed and issued a travel document -- but then added a caveat: Zelaya could transit only as a private citizen seeking political asylum. Zelaya refused. Accepting such terms would mean he was not traveling as president but as a refugee, and he would be barred from political activity. Honduras withdrew safe passage. The plane from Mexico was diverted to neighboring El Salvador. Mexico was not pleased. 'The status with which a foreign national is admitted to a country is exclusively a decision of the country admitting him,' Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said Thursday. She said Zelaya could enter Mexico under any of a number of categories, which had not been determined. Honduras' acting leaders said they considered the issue of Zelaya's presidency moot after the Dec. 2 vote by Congress against reinstating him. They were afraid he might attempt to set up a government-in-exile if he left the country under a status other than political refugee, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mireya Corrales. 'It could be a diplomatic fiasco,' she said. Honduras' newly elected president, Porfirio Lobo, does not take office until Jan. 27. Zelaya said his idea for going to Mexico was to find a neutral place to talk with various parties to find a solution to the crisis that has enveloped Honduras since the June 28 military-backed coup that ousted and deported him. Special correspondent Alex Renderos in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report. 