Colombian Rueda told Reuters he saw a similarity, though on a much smaller scale, with Nelson Mandela's South Africa and the Rugby World Cup in 1995 when reading the book "Playing the Enemy".
"I read that book and I thought about what we are doing here...It's a Latin American theme," Rueda said in an interview at a hotel in the capital Tegucigalpa, shaken last year by a coup.
The 53-year-old from Cali said he had come to the conclusion after taking the Honduras job in 2007 that the way to improve the national team was to break down the Central American country's racial and social prejudices.
"I think it was a coincidence," he said of his staff's work and the presidential crisis.
"We had set ourselves the goal since 2007, after analysing the regional rivalries here, that the national team...should be a unifying factor in the country and we would have to win that on the pitch," he said.
"So we were on that road, two years on, when the events of June 28 occurred and that had other connotations, not just regional rivalries but also political ones with conflict and polarisation.
"It coincided with the final straight in the World Cup qualifiers and the national team became a great cause in reuniting families, liberating tensions."
"The political divisions were still strong and there the people were able to free their tension, embrace each other, as if finding each other again," he said.
"With qualification in October, practically a month and half from the elections, Hondurans recovered their nationalistic mystique, their self esteem, motivation, their pride in their flag and their country."
"The biggest challenge will be to get through the first round and be prepared to assimilate the two situations (win or lose) in the same way," he said.
"But there's the illusion of having to play for it all on the pitch, that everything's possible in football and the important thing here is for directors, media, everyone to ensure the fans do not feel frustrated, deceived, disillusioned when there is an adverse result."
