Manual Zelaya, ousted by a military coup, is a bad president of Honduras, but he was elected fair and square in 2005, and his term doesn’t run out until next year. (Elections are scheduled for this Nov. 29. )

The military renewed the bad Latin American tradition of government by coup.

You can understand why a lot of people would want Mr. Zelaya, a pal of Venzuelan President (and increasingly dictator) Hugo Chávez, gone. After all, he had fired the head of the country’s armed forces for refusing to provide “support” for his referendum abolishing term limits, so that he could stay in office. The Honduran constitution now calls for one term only.

The president also insulted the congress and the supreme court, which ruled the firing of the military chief unconstitutional and authorized the military, with the backing of the attorney general, to remove Mr. Zelaya. In an emergency session, the congress quickly elected a new leader from the president’s own party.

Clearly, this was not a standard coup, and Mr. Zelaya showed himself unsuited for leading a democracy.

But again, he was fairly elected.

The military should let Mr. Zelaya return to office and let the elections take place as scheduled. The credibility of Honduas as a democracy is at stake. As it is, the military action has revived the international perception of Central America as an unstable, coup-ridden region. That’s not good for the region in any way, including economically.

Meanwhile, the United States should make it clear to Hugo Chávez, who has threatened military action to return Mr. Zelaya to power, that it will not accept Venezuelan meddling in Honduran affairs.