On June 12, the military high command met secretly, pointedly leaving Zelaya out of the loop. Coup rumors that had ricocheted around the capital for weeks grew stronger. Five days later, Zelaya's defense minister quit, though this development would not be revealed for a week.
Ignoring an appeals court ruling that again declared the June 28 vote illegal, Zelaya announced that the army would help with the election by distributing and collecting ballot boxes.
This threw the army command into turmoil: It was being tasked to carry out an operation that had been judged illegal.
On Thursday, June 25, troops deployed throughout the capital as Congress met to depose Zelaya. Politicians, including Micheletti, worked to put together the legal and constitutional cover to remove a president who was breaking the law.
The next day, La Gaceta, the government's official register of laws, published the decree convoking the following Sunday's vote. Zelaya's enemies contend that the wording of the final decree had been changed in a way that would allow hasty revision of the constitution through a constituent assembly. Non-Honduran analysts say a series of legislative steps would still have been required.
But logic really didn't matter at this point; the die was cast.
U.S. officials apparently underestimated how serious and how advanced the crisis was. In the final weekend before the coup, they were frantically telephoning Honduran contacts in an attempt to avert it. They spoke on several occasions to commanders of the Honduran army, with which the United States has had a long relationship.
But in the hours before the coup, U.S. officials found they could no longer reach the officers.
A defining move
Juan Ramon Martinez likes to get up early on Sundays. Quiet time to write and think. About dawn on June 28, he was sitting at his computer in his home a block or two from one of President Zelaya's residences.
Suddenly he heard gunfire. He stepped gingerly out the front door to ask the young watchman what was happening. "Golpe de estado!" the man answered in a loud whisper. A coup. Martinez turned to see a huge soldier in battle dress standing in the street a few feet away. "Get back in your house!" the soldier barked.
Fifteen minutes later, it was over. An army team, under the command of a general and two colonels, had seized Zelaya.
