Military rule, corruption, a huge wealth gap, crime and natural disasters have rendered Honduras one of the least developed and least secure countries in Central America.
Until the mid-1980s Honduras was dominated by the military, which enthusiastically supported US efforts to stem revolutionary movements in the region.
Since then, civilian leaders have sought to curb the power of the military - with varying degrees of success.
Some army officers have been charged with human rights abuses, but many have still to be prosecuted for violations committed in the 1980s.
Honduran society is rife with economic inequality. Malnutrition, poor housing and infant diseases are widespread.
The country has a youthful population; 50% of Hondurans are under the age of 19. But endemic poverty, chronic unemployment and the prospects offered by drug trafficking have contributed to a virulent crime wave conducted mainly by youth gangs known as "maras".
The maras are said to have tens of thousands of members and use threats and violence to control poorer districts in towns and cities.
Meanwhile, police officers have been implicated in high-profile crimes, and the police are thought to have been involved in the murders by death squads of youths and street children.
Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. At least 5,000 people were killed and 70% of the country's crops were destroyed. The damage was estimated at $3bn, setting development back by decades.
Thousands of Hondurans leave the country each year, most of them for the US. The money sent home by the overseas workers is an important source of income for many families.
Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa of the right-wing National Party won a November 2009 election organised by the interim authorities in place since the military-backed deposition of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales in June.
Mr Zelaya, who had since then returned from exile and sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy, refused to recognise the election and called for its annulment.
He was joined in his stance by several left-leaning Latin American governments, including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. The United States - by far Honduras' biggest trading partner - had defended the election as a way to overcome the country's political crisis.
Mr Lobo won 56% against 38% for Elvin Santos, the candidate of the Liberal Party, which was deeply split between supporters of Mr Zelaya and his coup-backed interim replacement, Roberto Micheletti. The turnout was given as 60%.
After the election, Mr Lobo promised to form a unity government and launch a national dialogue aimed at overcoming the crisis. His campaign included promises to boost investment, jobs and security.
Born in 1948, Porfirio Lobo Sosa is a wealthy rancher who was once viewed as left-leaning after studies in Soviet Moscow in the 1980s, but since then has moved to the right. He was elected to Congress in 1990, and only narrowly lost the 2005 presidential election to Manuel Zelaya.
President (acting): Roberto Micheletti
Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as interim president after the ousting of elected President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009. He said Mr Zelaya had been removed constitutionally and that presidential elections would go ahead as scheduled on 29 November.
President (ousted): Manuel Zelaya Rosales
President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from office on 28 June 2009 when soldiers seized him overnight in his presidential palace and put him on a plane to exile in Costa Rica.
Manuel Zelaya says he remains the country's legitimate president
He was arrested shortly before polls were due to open in a constitutional referendum asking Hondurans to sanction another referendum to allow him to stand again for president. The plan had been ruled illegal by Honduras' Supreme Court and was opposed by the military.
His ousting drew widespread criticism across Latin America. The US condemned the coup, but called for dialogue.
In a surprise move, Mr Zelaya returned to Honduras on 21 September, taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. The interim president, Roberto Micheletti, said he was prepared for dialogue, but only if Mr Zelaya appealed for calm and accepted elections scheduled for November.
Mr Zelaya, of the Liberal Party, was elected for a non-renewable four-year term in a hotly-contested presidential election in November 2005, defeating the National Party's Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa by a narrow margin. Mr Zelaya came to office promising to curb gang violence and tackle corruption.
Media freedom in Honduras is restricted by punitive defamation laws. These require journalists to reveal sources in certain cases.
Journalists tend to exercise self-censorship to avoid offending the political or economic interests of media owners and there have been cases of journalists accepting bribes from officials.
The level of violence against journalists is "alarmingly high", Reporters Without Borders said in 2007.
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