The 2009 Honduran coup d'état, which took place during the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, occurred when the Honduran Army, following orders from the Honduran Supreme Court, ousted President Manuel Zelaya on 28 June 2009 and sent him into exile. Zelaya had attempted to schedule a non-binding poll to hold a referendum on convening a constituent assembly for writing a new constitution. Despite court orders to cease, Zelaya refused to comply, and the Honduran Supreme Court issued a secret arrest warrant dated 26 June. Two days later, Honduran soldiers stormed the president's house in the middle of the night, detained him, and thwarted the poll. Instead of putting him on trial, the army put him on a military plane and flew him to Costa Rica. Later that day, after reading a resignation letter of disputed authenticity, the Honduran Congress voted to remove Zelaya from office and appointed Head of Congress Roberto Micheletti, his constitutional successor, to complete his term. This was the first coup to occur in the country since 1978.

San Pedro Sula is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 701,200 in the central urban area and a population of 1,445,598 in its metropolitan area in 2023, it is the nation's primary industrial center and second largest city after the capital Tegucigalpa, and the largest city in Central America that is not a capital city.