TEGUCIGALPA , Honduras -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Hours after the sitting president was deposed by a military-led coup , a new president of Honduras was sworn in Sunday . Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya was detained and sent to Costa Rica , the government said . But the former president was not ready to give up his powers . The political developments that swept Honduras over the past weeks and led up to Sunday 's coup had the makings of a crisis , but the situation in the Central American nation of 8 million people was calm . Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as provisional president to the applause of members of Congress , who chanted , `` Honduras ! Honduras ! '' Outside the building , supporters of ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya protested , but their numbers were limited , and the streets remained mostly peaceful . Micheletti told CNN en Español Sunday evening that he has imposed an `` indefinite '' curfew . Micheletti , the head of Congress , became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers , with a resolution stating that Zelaya `` provoked confrontations and divisions '' within the country . A letter of resignation purported to be from Zelaya was read to members before the vote . But the deposed president , Zelaya , emphatically denied in an interview with CNN en Español that he wrote the letter . Speaking from Costa Rica , where he was taken after the coup , he said he plans to continue exercising his presidential duties with a trip to Managua , Nicaragua , to attend a summit of Central American heads-of-state . Zelaya awoke to the sound of gunfire in his residence and was still in his pajamas when the military forced him to leave the country Sunday morning , he told reporters . He was flown to Costa Rica , where he has not requested political asylum . `` This was a brutal kidnapping of me with no justification , '' Zelaya said . He called the coup an attack on Honduran democracy . `` There are ways to protest without arms , '' Zelaya said . The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal . Watch details on `` curious situation '' in Honduras '' The coup was widely criticized in the region , in strongest terms by Zelaya 's leftist allies , including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez . A statement from Venezuela 's foreign ministry said Zelaya was `` violently expelled from his country by a group of unpatriotic , coup-mongering soldiers . '' The Bolivian government also condemned the coup , accusing Honduran troops of kidnapping Zelaya and violently expelling him from his country . Elsewhere , Jose Miguel Insulza , the secretary-general of the Organization of American States , strongly condemned the coup in a statement . And in Washington , President Obama said in a statement that he was `` deeply concerned '' by the news . `` I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms , the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter , '' Obama said . `` Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference . '' The president of the General Assembly of the United Nations , Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann , called the Honduran military 's intervention a `` criminal action . '' But in Honduras , the Supreme Court said in an official statement that the military was acting in accordance with a court order to put an end to Sunday 's scheduled vote , which the court 's justices had found illegal . Micheletti addressed the issue directly in his first remarks as provisional president . `` I did not reach this position because of a coup , '' Micheletti said . `` I am here because of an absolutely legal transition process . '' No other countries immediately recognized Micheletti as president . Zelaya , a leftist elected in 2005 , had found himself pitted against the other branches of government and military leaders over the issue of Sunday 's planned referendum . It would have asked voters to place a measure on November 's ballot allowing the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation 's charter to allow the president to run for another term . In various interviews Sunday , Zelaya characterized the vote not as a referendum , but as a survey to gauge receptiveness toward a constitutional assembly . He denied that he would have been the beneficiary of any future constitutional changes . Zelaya , whose four-year term ends in January 2010 , can not run for re-election under current law . The Honduran Supreme Court had ruled the poll illegal , and Congress and the top military brass agreed , but Zelaya had remained steadfast . In the end , it appeared the opposition to Zelaya was too great . The military confiscated the ballots from the presidential residence , in effect canceling the disputed vote . In separate appearances Sunday , Zelaya , Venezuela 's Chavez and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the military had also detained Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas , further raising regional tensions . Speaking in Havana , Rodriguez said that the Cuban , Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras had tried but were unable to protect Rodas from a group of masked soldiers who forcibly took her from their grasp . Further details regarding that incident were unclear . `` If they attack our ambassadors , they will be declaring a state of war , '' Chavez said . `` If they have weapons , then we have weapons , too . ''