A majority voted in favor of following the model of Mexican President Felipe Calderon who unleashed the Mexican army on the streets to battle powerful drug gangs back in 2006. That model has failed, increasing violence overall and bolstering the power of the drug cartels.

Flush with U.S. money, weapons, and support, though, the Honduran government has decided to follow that failed strategy.

Almost half of the cocaine imported to the United States now passes through Honduras — a total of 20 to 25 tons each month, according to U.S. and Honduran estimates. The tiny country has become a hub of the drug trade and of Mexican drug gangs seeking haven from the militarized response to the drug war from President Calderon.

Violence has thus spiked in Honduras, with 82 murders per 100,000 people last year according to the United Nations. Around 20 people per day are killed in Honduras.

The United States has been pushing a hyper-militarized approach to the drug war for some time now. And the consequences of Mexico’s battle as well as a military coup that ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya have presented prime opportunities to push for that approach in Honduras too.

U.S. aid to the essentially military regime in Honduras has increased every single year since the coup in 2009, with $68 million allocated for 2012. As Dana Frank at Nation magazine has documented, Obama has “allocated $45 million in new funds for military construction, including expansion and improvement of the jointly operated Soto Cano Air Force Base at Palmerola (supplied now with US drones) and has opened three new military bases.”

The “Honduran police and military have launched successive waves of repression against entire campesino communities,” Frank explained, and funding “rose dramatically in June with $40 million more under the new $200 million Central American Regional Security Initiative, supposedly to combat drug trafficking in Central America.”

More than 45,000 people have died since President Calderon started using the military to fight the drug gangs. Human Rights Watch recently released a report providing evidence that Mexico’s security forces participated in “more than 170 cases of torture, 39 ‘disappearances,’ and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderón took office in December 2006.” And the drug cartels are more powerful than ever.

Despite the overwhelming support for similar policies in Honduras, most observers expect similar results.

The drug trade in Honduras is changing the country in various ways, enriching wealthy landowners along the Atlantic coast and increasing violence in the north as local gangs transporting drugs develop armies of street dealers, contributing to a homicide rate that rivals Kabul, Afghanistan.

The illegal military coup in June of 2009 was supported by the Obama administration despite having recognized it as unconstitutional and illegitimate, according to WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. The military basically kidnapped the former President and forcibly removed him from power.

What followed were a whole host of human rights violations – including 3,000 people killed in Honduras including journalists, lawyers, and leaders of popular organizations – most of which were never investigated. Nevertheless, Obama administration had “representatives from the U.S. Department of State [meet] with de facto president Porfirio Lobo Sosa,” who continues to benefit from US aid, which has increased every single year since the coup in 2009, with $68 million allocated for 2012.

Dana Frank at Nation magazine recently uncovered a close relationship between the corporate drug lords and private paramilitaries and the Obama administration. Wealthy landowners with ties to the cocaine trade, like Miguel Facussé, have been orchestrating illegal land grabs and murders of peasant farmers in the countryside. Facussé supported the 2009 military coup, has met with the State Department numerous times, and met with Obama in Washington DC in the first week of October.

As Frank documents, Obama has “allocated $45 million in new funds for military construction, including expansion and improvement of the jointly operated Soto Cano Air Force Base at Palmerola (supplied now with US drones) and has opened three new military bases.” “Police and military funding,” Frank continues, “almost $10 million for 2011, rose dramatically in June with $40 million more under the new $200 million Central American Regional Security Initiative, supposedly to combat drug trafficking in Central America.”

As the intensifying drug trade and its associated violence continue to wreck Honduras, the Obama administration has stubbornly chosen to carry on supporting the Honduran regime, its violent drug lords, and the destruction prohibitionist drug war that drives the entire scene. Despite public statements by various Latin American leaders expressing openness to decriminalization as a solution, the US has sided with the status quo.

The Honduran military expelled Zelaya from the nation in June, following a growing dispute between the president and the nation’s Supreme Court over a referendum and installed Micheletti, the head of parliament and a member of Zelaya’s party, in his place.

Though members of Zelaya’s government have accused the Obama Administration of playing a role in the coup d’etat and the US has a long history of meddling in the nation’s affairs, the US has denied any part in this particular coup and has stood with other Western Hemisphere nations in demanding the restoring of Zelaya.

The exact details of the deal signed today have not been released, but they appear poised to return Zelaya conditionally to power for the few months remaining in his term, which would be followed by a new election in which neither he nor Micheletti could run for president. The US has threatened not to recognize the election if Zelaya remained in exile.

But now Patricia Valle, the ousted government’s deputy foreign minister, says that the US did in fact play a role in Zelaya’s ouster, saying that when the military flew Zelaya into exile they stopped off at an airfield at which hundreds of US troops are stationed. The US military insists it had no idea the plane contained the deposed president.

The history of Honduras, which is riddled with examples of the US military being used to enforce the claims of US fruit companies over the nation’s banana exports, will likely make such denials a tough sell.

The latest claims come as former leader of Parliament and current interim President Roberto Micheletti says his government will make a formal visit to the US by next week to seek official international recognition.

The military ousted Zelaya and installed Micheletti on the orders of the nation’s Supreme Court, the culmination of weeks of dispute between the president and the courts over the constitutionality of a referendum he had scheduled. The coup also came just days after Zelaya attempted to oust the top military commander, also in a dispute over the referendum.

Arias’ proposal, revealed yesterday, would involve returning Zelaya to power as president, but would dramatically curtail the power of his office. The interim government has opposed Zelaya’s return to the country, let alone his return to power.

Zelaya was ousted late last month by the Honduran military, acting under orders from the nation’s supreme court. The president had sought a vote to allow him to remain in office past his term limit, which many in the nation insisted was unconstitutional.

His ouster has led to violent protests and official sanctions by the Organization of American States (OAS) which has demanded Zelaya be “unconditionally” returned to power. The US has also called for Zelaya’s return, though it has declined to call his ouster a coup.

Zelaya was forced from the country and into exile in Costa Rica by military personnel acting on orders they claim came from the nation’s supreme court, and appear to have stemmed at least in part from the leftist’s attempt to revise the Constitution to allow him to remain in power beyond the existing term limits.

The ouster has sparked protests from Zelaya’s supporters domestically, including violence over the weekend when he attempted unsuccessfully to land in the airport in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. The current government has threatened him with arrest if he returns.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has expelled Honduras over the situation, and has demanded the ‘unconditional’ return of Zelaya to power. The US has also criticized Zelaya’s ouster, though they have declined to label it a coup.

The jet swooped low over the airport to cheers from the crowd Zelaya had urged to gather at the airport. The new government had deployed military vehicles at the airport to prevent the landing, and the plane was finally forced to divert to El Salvador.

Zelaya was ousted a week ago by the military at the behest of the nation’s supreme court, which has installed an interim government in his place. Honduras has been ousted from the Organization of American States (OAS) over the situation, and the OAS has threatened sanctions if the military didn’t allow Zelaya to return to power.

The post-coup leader Roberto Micheletti, has accused Zelaya of violating the constitution, and says the Nicaraguan government has been massing troops near the border as a prelude to a pro-Zelaya invasion. Nicaragua has denied the charges, and says its troops have not moved since the coup.

One of the delegation’s top members says he doesn’t expect the situation to be resolved, and that sanctions against the nation are very likely in the next few days. The interim government head Roberto Micheletti said the delegation would be welcomed, though it does not intend to meet with him.

The Honduran military captured and ousted Zelaya on Sunday, chasing the leftist president to Costa Rica. The military says it was ordered to act by the Supreme Court, and the new government says it wants to provide evidence to the OAS that Zelaya was ousted for violating the nation’s constitution.

Zelaya has been threatened with arrest if he returns to the nation, though he said that he intended to do so. The United States has denied any role in the ouster, though it has also declined to label it a coup, as this would require them to suspend all aid to the government.

On Sunday morning elements of the Honduran military stormed into Zelaya’s bed chamber, capturing him and claiming control over the country in what it said was a measure ordered by that nation’s Supreme Court.

Though two of the leaders of the coup had undergone training at the Pentagon’s controversial School of Americas, the United States has denied any role in the coup, and indeed has publicly opposed it. The day before the coup, Zelaya had credited the US with foiling a previous coup plot earlier in the week.

But while the US has criticized the move, it has stopped short of using the term “coup” to describe what was a textbook case of a military coup d’etat, because that acknowledgment would require halting US aid to the nation. Analysts say the situation underscores the inability of the US to dictate policy in Latin America as it did in years past.

However at least two of the leaders of the coup are reported to have undergone training at the Pentagon’s controversial School of Americas, which will likely continue to fuel speculation at the US, even if it didn’t directly endorse the coup, sewed the seeds for it.

Manuel Zelaya, the ousted Honduran president, seemed to concur with the administration’s denial of culpability, claiming that the United States had foiled a previous coup plot by the nation’s Congress only last week. US diplomats have reportedly been in contact with Zelaya and are trying to return him to power.

Ahead of a vote designed to keep him in power past his term limit, Zelaya was captured by Honduran soldiers who claim they were operating under the orders of the nation’s supreme court. Zelaya is now in exile in Costa Rica.

The US has dispatched military forces to Honduras several times since the nation’s independence, principally to enforce the claims of United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and Standard Fruit Company (now Dole) over the nation’s banana exports. Fruit exports remain a key part of the floundering Honduran economy.