Former President Zelaya has made it back into Honduras and is basing himself at the Embassy of Brazil.

Since there is no obvious prospect of his being restored to power by lawful or normal political means, he evidently plans to try a popular power push of some sort. Which, one assumes, could easily end in disaster for Honduras.

What struck me in these developments was the fact that he has ‘taken refuge’ in the Brazilian Embassy. A bit hard to imagine that he did this without the Brazilians letting him know in advance that that would be welcome?

If so, this appears to be a unique case of a country allowing and maybe even wanting its Embassy to be used for political purposes against the wishes of the host government.

Even if the argument is used that Mr Zelaya is the host government, the fact that he is using the Embassy in this way is also remarkable – whoever heard of the leader of a government skulking behind another country’s diplomatic immunity in his own country?

All in all, a handy move by Zelaya who had been drifting into irrelevance. Not obvious what Honduras might do – in that part of the world breaking diplomatic relations with Brazil and closing down the Embassy to force him out won’t be easy.

As previously reported, the Honduras Constitution had a number of measures in place designed specifically to stop the banana republicanization of the country by a reckless leader. These provisions led to Mr Zelaya’s original ouster. 

Even the toughest laws won’t deter those bent on breaking them, either to make a point – or to bring down the system.