Shit is going down. (The best summary I've found so far is at the Huffington Post.)

One president (Manuel Zelaya) was elected and served for a few years. A constitutional crisis came to a head and the Supreme Court secretly ordered the military to arrest the president and force him out of the country at gunpoint. (Coup? Most say yes.) The new president (Roberto Micheletti Bain) asked Interpol to arrest Zelaya on charges of drug trafficking and constitutional infringements.

Meanwhile, Bain's name turns up on a list of drug traffickers from both Cuban and Honduran government sources.

This is also tied up in U.S. military interests—the Drug War, continued use of a base in Soto Cano (which Zelaya wants to turn into a civilian airport), and the militarization of the Mosquito Coast¹ (which is popular with drug boats and near the Nicaraguan border, where an old Sandinista is back in charge).

The drug situation is dire. The Honduran MS-13 gang—formed by mercenaries from El Salvador's civil war—is cutting off heads and gouging out eyeballs and generally freaking out people at home and abroad:

Their penchant for violence is renowned. Members often arrive in the United States with fighting skills gained in military training and are particularly adept with machetes. In March 2004, the Maldon Institute, a Washington DC based think tank, released a report detailing the violent methods MS-13 used, including their increasingly typical (and disturbing) calling card. MS-13 often leaves behind dismembered corpses, complete with the decapitated head, at the scene of their murders. Often a grim note is attached to the body.

In a recent Texas incident, a MS-13 gang member admitted that he had led the gang rape of a 24 year-old woman and then kicked her in the neck with such force that it killed her. During questioning, the MS-13 member further acknowledged robbing and beating a small child in Houston and to stabbing an Alexander, Texas man three times in an attempt to kill him. When asked if he though murdering someone elevated his status within the gang he replied:

"Hell Yeah. The crazier you are known to be, the more respect the gang gives you. In my gang, my street name is 'psycho.'"

Honduran-affiliated drug busts are increasing across the country—and perhaps in Seattle. There was the big Belltown crack bust from last April, in which Honduran men said they were lured to the U.S. for work, then ordered to sell crack on the street. They were reluctant to flee because the gangs know where their families live back home. (It very much resembles this case down in San Francisco.)

And a high-profile coke/meth bust two months later that involved the (alleged) proprietor of a popular Capitol Hill card room and speakeasy² also involved three (alleged) mid- to high-level Honduran drug contacts. (The Stranger's story on it is here.)

The three other men in the parking lot outside Joeys Restaurant and Daniel's Broiler on June 10 were Hondurans: Carlos A. Zavala- Bustillo, whom Reinsch identified as his supplier; Edwan Porfirio Fletes, who sat in a black car; and Cesar A. Canterero-Arteaga, who sat in a white truck with the drugs. The meeting was tense. Owens, the undercover officer, had not been expecting anyone else to be with Reinsch.

As Zavala-Bustillo showed off the Honda, Owens joked about the used car dying on him. No one laughed. Then Owens was shown the drugs and asked for the money. "My guy wants out of here," court records say Reinsch told Owens, referring to Zavala-Bustillo. "He's not digging this."

Now former-president Zelaya, per the Morning News, has returned to Honduras and is in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of Zelaya's supporters and the embassy's power and water were quickly shut off.

It's a small siege with mammoth implications.

1. Quick family story: When I was a kid and living in Texas, my father was the captain of a Coast Guard boat that patrolled the Caribbean. He tells a story about approaching a suspicious-looking vessel—all ratty, oddly marked, and out of place. They boarded the vessel, which turned out to be a Hollywood set piece for The Mosquito Coast. Harrison Ford was not aboard at the time. (The boat in question, I think, makes an appearance around 5:13.)

2. Rick Wilson, the lead singer of the theatrical industrial/folk band !Tchkung!, one of whose eeriest songs was titled "Tegucigalpa."