Three months after the 2009 coup d’état in Honduras and the forcible exile of Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president sneaked back into the country and took up residence at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

The Honduran military deployed around the perimeter of the compound and busied itself preventing the entrance of potential dual-use items such as ballpoint pens, peanuts, shoelaces, tamales, and the Bible. Nighttime activities included shining lights into the embassy and blasting rock music, army songs, and recordings of pig grunts.

When I asked Honduran General Romeo Vásquez — ringleader of the coup and a former pupil at the notorious School of the Americas — about the midnight noise-fests, he laughed and claimed that the only musical performances ever to take place in the vicinity of the embassy were guitar serenades in honor of soldiers’ birthdays.