Back on track in Honduras.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Americans could be forgiven for having stopped paying attention to Honduras - presuming they ever started - after figuring out that there was no good guy to root for in the country's long-running power struggle. The Honduran Congress gave all appearances of staging an old-fashioned Central American coup when it forcibly removed President Manuel Zelaya from office in June. Zelaya, for his part, was starting to seem like a standard-issue caudillo as he maneuvered for constitutional changes that would extend his time in office.

On Friday the two parties reached an agreement, negotiated by the United States. The Honduran Congress will decide whether to allow Zelaya to return to office until his presidential term ends in three months. Honduras will proceed with elections on Nov. 29, in accordance with the country's constitution. Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who was installed by Congress as president, came to terms after realizing that unless credible elections can be held, the political crisis in Honduras would extend indefinitely.

Zelaya has, with some success, presented himself to the world as a martyr to Honduran democracy - rousted from his bed by military forces, and flown into exile while wearing his pajamas. He snuck back into the country in September and found asylum in the Brazilian embassy.

Only the clumsiness of his removal allowed Zelaya to play such a role. He was ineligible to run for a second term as president, and even if the constitution permitted his candidacy, Zelaya's own Liberal Party was unlikely to renominate him. Zelaya's popularity had sunk: The populist rhetoric that accompanied re-established relations with Cuba and close ties to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez were unmatched by achievements at home.

Congress could have simply waited out Zelaya - the constitutional change required to permit a second term could not have been approved in a referendum, and any self-serving presidential decrees could have been ignored or overturned by the courts. Instead, Congress voted nearly unanimously to remove Zelaya, the nation's Supreme Court ratified the move and the armed forces provided the muscle. Zelaya found himself able to play the role of the victim of a right-wing coup, orchestrated by the enemies of Cuba and Chavez.

The United States and the Organization of American States, neither of which have much regard for Zelaya, were obliged to condemn his ouster because under Honduran and international law, it was illegal. Not only was it illegal, it projected an image that Latin America hopes to leave in the past - the image of elected leaders being removed from office by force.

Friday's agreement opens a path for a return to a state of legality and, eventually, political stability. After Congress overplayed its hand, it's as good an end as could be hoped for.