The coup in Honduras.

This will be a test of how far the politics of the Western hemisphere have changed this decade. It is also, as many are saying, a test of how much things have changed in Washington.

Nevermind Iran: if you want to talk about a military coup, he's a real one in action. Not electoral manipulation, but the removal of a sitting president, and simply by the military, not be some putative electoral alternative. A coup is launched here not to prevent the election of the president, but to prevent the holding of a non-binding referendum on constitutional reform. Yes, elect your president, but try even to suggest that the order of this country is changeable, and your democracy is cancelled.

This is old-style shit: the military, the CIA. America's hold on Central America out of all of Latin America has long been particularly tight. This is really 'America's back yard'. It's further away from Mexico, but Mexico is large enough a polity to command some kind of respect of its sovereignty. The tiny states to its south however are not, an accident of history for which their peoples pay regularly in blood.

As I say, this is a test. As Richard Seymour has pointed out, it makes little sense to think that the coup could have gone ahead without the US go-ahead. But this is revocable. Strong enough objections from other nations, or from within the US, may lead Obama to intervene within US government to change this, to remove US support, tacit or otherwise. I'm not holding my breath, however.