From the AP:
President Barack Obama on Monday declared that the United States still considers Manuel Zelaya to be the president of Honduras and assailed the coup that forced him into exile as “not legal,” widening the chasm between the Central American nation and much of the rest of the world.
“It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections,” Obama said in the Oval Office after meeting with Colombian President Alviro Uribe. “The region has made enormous progress over the last 20 years in establishing democratic traditions in Central America and Latin America. We don’t want to go back to a dark past.”
I am not an expert at Honduran law but I am seriously wondering if the Obama administration is either. It seems the Honduran Supreme Court told their President it was “not legal” to try to hold onto power; he decided to move ahead anyway. It doesn’t appear that the military was necessarily acting on its own accord, in fact it seems the opposite, that the Supreme Court asked the military to bring order and defend Constitutional rule.
So why are we wading into this & deciding the course of action for the Honduran government which seems to have deposed of a leader hell bent on clinging to power? A move his own party said he should not seek! Frankly if President Obama or any President chose to disregard the law and his oath, I don’t see why we would be against the Congress, the Supreme Court and the military deposing of him in a similar fashion with the backing of a lot of freedom loving Americans.
Again, all I know is that it appears the government of Honduras and the military were acting within the laws of their country and attempting to prevent the endless reign of a socialist leader who was doing the opposite in ignoring those laws. This is much different than a stolen election in Iran where the government was betraying the will of the people and their own legal system in what may well be a coup by the military in that country, for all we know.
What in the world are we doing? Why did we spend weeks wading into Honduran internal affairs? Why were we so quick to not accept this action and why are we now interpreting Honduran law. Is the Obama administration going to provide its legal defense? I am looking for any specific explanation of how, using the Constitution & law of Honduras, the President is coming to this conclusion.
Hopefully more answers to come. For the latest news on this keep checking Fausta’s blog.
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