One day after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and deported by the army, thousands of protesters continue to mass at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa—in an increasingly tense stand-off with hundreds of camouflage-clad soldiers carrying riot shields and automatic weapons. The New York Times reports June 29 that the protesters—many wearing masks and carrying wooden or metal sticks—yelled taunts at the soldiers across the fences ringing the compound and braced for an attack. Shots were heard in the Honduran capital late Sunday the 28th, after de facto President Roberto Micheletti imposed a nationwide 48-hour curfew—which protesters continue to defy. AFP reported Monday evening that police and army troops outside the presidential palace were using tear gas to scatter protesters, who fought back with rocks and bottles. More shots were heard, although no casualties have yet been reported.

According to the Venezuela-based TeleSUR television network, thousands of Hondurans took to the streets of Tegucigalpa the morning of June 28 to demonstrate against the military's removal of President José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales several hours earlier in a dispute over a non-binding referendum the president was planning to hold that day. TeleSUR showed footage of protesters at the Presidential Palace and other locations arguing with heavily armed soldiers, sometimes blocking their way or otherwise defying them. Ignoring a curfew imposed by the de facto government, the protesters said they would remain in the streets until Zelaya returns to office. (TeleSUR, June 28)

Soldiers stormed the home of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in a pre-dawn raid June 28, placing him on a plane to Costa Rica. The Honduran National Congress quickly named its leader, Roberto Micheletti, as president after voting to accept a "resignation letter" supposedly written by Zelaya. A resolution read on the floor accused Zelaya of "manifest irregular conduct" and "putting in present danger the state of law"—a reference to his refusal to obey a Supreme Court ruling against holding a referendum on constitutional reform that had been scheduled for that day. Television stations are reported to be off the air, and electricity is out in parts of the capital, Tegucigalpa. Army troops have a heavy presence in the streets. Hundreds of soldiers in riot gear have surrounded the presidential palace; tanks patrol the capital's thoroughfares and military jets streak overhead.

The Supreme Court of Honduras June 25 rejected President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's dismissal of the country's senior military officer, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, deepening a confrontation over Zelaya's proposal to reform the constitution. Zelaya vowed to push ahead with a vote scheduled for June 28 to measure public support for holding a National Constituent Assembly. At a rally in Tegucigalpa, he told supporters that the court's decision amounted to a coup. As tens of thousands of Hondurans rushed to the defense of the president, filling and surrounding the presidential palace, soldiers were ordered into the streets.

Indigenous Mam campesinos set fire to a pickup truck and an exploration drill rig on June 12 at the Marlin gold mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality in the western Guatemalan department of San Marcos, according to media reports. The protesters said the mine—operated by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc.—had illegally placed its equipment on their land, endangering their water supply, and that they had been asking for two weeks for the company to move the equipment.

A Council of Elders of the Miskito indigenous people on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, citing the central government's opening of the region to corporate exploitation with little return to local residents, have announced their secession from the country and declaration of a "Communitarian Nation of Mosquitia." But the ruling Sandinista government are charging that the US embassy has fomented the move.

Thousands of Guatemalan campesinos blocked roads at seven or more sites on June 4 in a nationwide protest organized by the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA) to demand that the government carry out agrarian reform, provide agricultural products for about 25,000 campesinos, buy land for cultivation and forgive debts that some campesinos incurred by taking out bank loans to buy land. CODECA spokesperson Mauro Bay said the campesinos had been making these requests of President Alvaro Colom's government since Feb. 5, 2008 but had received no response. Presidential spokesperson Fernando Barillas said the government had offered to meet with CODECA leaders on the demands but CODECA turned down the offer.

On May 21 Assistant US Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the administration of US president Barack Obama won't seek the approval of Congress for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Panama until the president has established a new "framework" for trade. "It's clear that trade agreements in the last few years have been much too divisive," Eissenstat said. "We want to make sure that Panama doesn't contribute to that divisiveness." This was a reversal from the administration's plan in March to push for early approval of the pact; the change followed a statement by John Sweeney, president of the main US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, opposing the Panama FTA.