A blast from the past — and an unpleasant one at that: a military coup in Latin America reminiscent of the frequent governmental overthrows staged in decades past.

This week, the victim was Honduras' Manuel Zelaya, the dashing, wealthy rancher who campaigned against fellow fat cats to win the presidency, then did what he could to make life miserable for the oligarchs of that charming but economically unbalanced land.

But, as the man says in Margaritaville, it was his own damn fault: Zelaya was trying to torpedo his country's democracy and stay in office after his regular term ends with this year. The country's courts, its congress and even his own party declared Zelaya's intended plebiscite unlawful. He wasn't deterred.

So, from the barracks came the classic Latin American response: Soldiers in the wee small hours burst in on the president, and hustled him out of the palace in his pajamas. Soon he was out of the country, perhaps by then better attired. The comic-opera events in Tegucigalpa were reminiscent of Ecuador, 1963, and a president who got drunk one time too many; he awoke in Panama as an ex-president with a hangover.

Zelaya was better behaved, and had a popular following that included student activists who've been agitating all week for his return.

Any smug smiles his tormentors might have flashed should, by now, have faded: They're catching verbal hell from Zelaya, now embraced by the weasely Daniel Ortega in neighboring Nicaragua, and celebrated by Venezuela's burgeoning dictator Hugo Chávez.

Ironically, those two demagogues have compañeros-of-sorts in Washington: President Barack Obama has declared that the military action is "not legal." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton so far is hesitant to say officially, but has hinted, that the coup is a coup — which would compel the United States to cut off millions of dollars in aid (hmm, more money for domestic stimuli?) and free-trade advantages as well.

And Zelaya had been the beneficiary of cut-rate oil from Venezuela — so the cost of gasoline might soon soar in Honduras while the price of bananas goes up on our country's shelves.

These aren't the old days when the Third World's wealthy could cry "comunista!" and gain America's blessings for ridding themselves of a red.

Add to that the condemnation of the Organization of American States, and Honduran president-for-the-moment Roberto Micheletti occupies a precarious office.

Whether or not it took the golpe militar to prod them, Honduras' legislators later Sunday voted Zelaya out of office. That would have been the proper, and face-saving, means of shedding an over-ambitious head of state. It should have happened before the coup.

The Obama administration should carry out its aid-and-trade threat. In concert with Latin American counterparts, it should bring OAS pressure to bear not only on Honduras' military, but also on a restored-to-office Zelaya to serve out his remaining half year and yield to the winner of November's election.

If it takes collaboration with the likes of Chávez and Ortega, so be it; this is the Obama-Clinton State Department's chance to assert itself en buena compañía.