Even before it was signed on October 30th, the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough. For four months after Manuel Zelaya was roused from bed at gunpoint, flown to Costa Rica and replaced as president of Honduras by Roberto Micheletti, outsiders failed to reverse what they universally saw as a coup. Despite the withdrawal of foreign aid, the severing of diplomatic ties and the cancellation of dozens of American visas, Mr Micheletti refused to contemplate Mr Zelaya's restoration. Yet diplomats from the United States took just two days to get the two men to strike a deal that, on paper, ends Honduras's political stalemate. "I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue," said Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state.
展开▼
