i like the oed.
coup d'etat:
Quote:
5. French phrases frequent in English use. a. coup d'état (ku deta) [F. état state]: a sudden and decisive stroke of state policy; spec. a sudden and great change in the government carried out violently or illegally by the ruling power.
1646 HOWELL Lewis XIII, Life of Richelieu 157 These were the two first Coups d'estat, stroaks of State that he made. 1811 WELLINGTON in Gurw. Desp. VIII. 352, I shall be sorry to commence the era of peace by a coup d'état such as that which I had in contemplation. 1859 GEN. P. THOMPSON Audi Alt. II. xcviii. 87 A coup d'état as effectual for the time as that of Louis Napoleon [2 Dec. 1851].
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i'm not sure how helpful this is for folk because it's in french, but this is a quite good summary of the states of affairs that issued into the coup:
Retour des « gorilles » au Honduras
if you see the action in these more or less lines of force terms, it's obviously a coup d'etat.
hopefully i'll have a bit of time and can generate an outline (or someone else can--feel free)...the english version of le monde diplo works at a considerable lag with a narrower focus than do the french versions. it's still an interesting resource
Le Monde diplomatique - English edition
but the article linked above has no correlate there. search honduras, though: there's other material to read.
enjoy in the way one enjoys such things.