Sunday, June 28, 2009

Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras

On Saturday, Manuel Zelaya was overthrown as President of Honduras by the military in a bloodless coup.

An ally of Hugo Chavez, Zelaya is safely in Costa Rica.

Under Hondura's constitution, its President can only serve a single term in office.

But Zelaya put forward a referendum that would have allowed him to serve additional terms a la Chavez. However, both the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court declared the referendum illegal.

It is interesting how President Obama who was so eager not to be seen as meddling in Iran's affairs after its "election" was quick to "meddle" where it concerned Honduras. Obama told Honduras "to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic charter." It sounds like President Obama is suggesting the pronouncements of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court were illegitimate. Could that be because President Obama sympathizes with the socialist ideology put forward by Zelaya? Whatever the case not only was there no such admonition against Iran's leaders they still intend to talk with them as if nothing had happened.

Complicating matters is Chavez threatening military action against Honduras.

Curious that President Obama has thus far remained mum on Chavez's threats against Honduras. I guess socialists and Islamists don't need to respect democratic norms and the rule of law in Obama's world.

That said the military coup leaders should take swift measures to restore civilian rule in Honduras as soon as possible.

2 comments:

Anderson said...

I am particularly close to the situation as I have two close friends who both have family in Honduras. In fact, he kept me up to date with all information relating to the coup.

The military acted on command of the Honduran Supreme Court. In fact, the country is already working towards having elections to replace the disposed leader. They did everything legitimately, swiftly, and smoothly.

Zelaya is a Chavez puppet and was only trying to get himself deeply entrenched in the government to give Chavez more strings to pull around Latin America. Fortunately, the other elements of Honduran government knew what was going on and weren't about to let history repeat itself.

As for Chavez, he is making idle threats. If he goes after Honduras, Colombia would probably be moved to get involved on the side of Honduras and things could get ugly quick.

Mr. Obama all of a sudden is getting tough on a country that poses no military threat to the United States. Imagine that! But of course, he would call the actions of the Honduran military illegal, even though I am 100% certain he has not studied Honduran law nor does he care that the Supreme Court mandated the removal of Zelaya. Obama might be kissing Chavez's rear now trying to be friends, but if he keeps up this attitude, it won't be voluntary.

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