The end of the political crisis in Honduras went practically unnoticed: after becoming magnified in the world stage last year, the tense events of that small nation pretty much fizzled out. In an uneventful ceremony, Porfirio Lobo was sworn in while ousted President Manuel Zelaya quietly exited his Brazilian Embassy refuge into exile. Interim chief Roberto Micheletti, working with Honduras' congress, pushed through a political amnesty for Zelaya and then separated himself from the executive office.

Looking back, the most repeated commentary during that short moment when Honduras became a focus of attention was that the crisis roused darker times from decades past in the Americas. But that humdrum perspective misses a more important point about the region and its ties with the...