At the time of going to press, Honduras has two presidents: Manuel Zelaya, overthrown by a military coup last Sunday, and Roberto Micheletti, also a member of the official party, who was sworn in this week but has not been acknowledged as a head of state by any of the region's leaders, the Organization of American States (OAS) or the United Nations. The coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya occurs in the context of other crises in neighboring countries that have threatened the survival of the isthmus' fragile democratic order. Zelaya's removal from office has highlighted the fact that Honduras is yet another “failed state” that has more in common with its regional neighbors than is commonly thought.

According to President Álvaro Colom, the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg was used to orchestrate a failed coup against his administration. Colom sees shady business deals as part of the background of the Musa and Rosenberg murders. Today, amid “a lull in the storm” as Colom has described the present situation, a number of media reports have lent credibility to the idea that behind the Rosenberg case is a plan to destabilize the UNE administration. The power struggles to control state-run business deals and financial institutions dominated the headlines of this week's newspapers, in particular the dispute to control personal information on Guatemalan citizens, a lucrative business of strategic importance at the service of people traffickers and drug cartels.