Honduran Coup

Honduran Coup

There’s been a coup this morning in Honduras against one of Hugo Chavez’s allies, President Zelaya. Normally I don’t care for military coups, but this one appears to be enforcing current court decisions and their constitution over a Chavez style referendum to rewrite said constitution. The best coverage and round up of the ongoing change is found at Fausta’s Blog.

6 thoughts on “Honduran Coup”

  1. I am an American that has lived in Honduras since 1977. I have seen this country when it was run by the military. I saw it form the constitution on which it currently stands. I saw the civilian police force be reformed and watch the judicial system grow and come into its own. I have watched the maturing of Honduras into a grounded solid representational democracy.

    Venezuela and Ecuador are run by left wing dictators. Venezuela in particular was supporting a move by the president of Honduras to basically take over the country. This has resulted in a crisis pitting the executive branch against the congress and the Supreme Court. The president was attempting to place himself in a position where by he could force a rewriting of the constitution to remove the clause on term limits there by allowing him to remain in office indefinitely. The illegal move toward the “cuarta urna” had created massive unrest across the country and Honduras was heading toward a confrontation which puts at risk the representational democracy on which this country stands.

    Contrary to news reports this was neither military coup nor conspiracy. This was two branches of government (Supreme Court and Congress) moving to oust a president that was abusing his power and flaunting the law. Honduras correctly identified the president’s actions as an overt, aggressive and illegal attempt to install a Chavez style dictatorship in Honduras and rejected that attempt in a lawful constitutional manner that resulted in the president’s removal from office. The president of Honduras is a democratically elected official but so also is the congress and the Supreme Court. The division of powers in a representational democracy exists precisely so that one of the branches will not be allowed to abuse power and also allows for the removal of that representative if the law is broken. This is what has happened to president Zelaya. Hugo Chavez is an ego maniac that has attempted to spread his socialist/dictatorship philosophy to many countries. He thought that he had obtained a foothold in Central America by way of Honduras. He was wrong.

    The events of the last few weeks have shown me that my faith in Honduras and its people is not in vain. Honduras, you should be very proud of yourselves.

  2. “Normally I don’t care for military coups, but this one appears to be enforcing current court decisions and their constitution over a Chavez style referendum to rewrite said constitution.”

    So, normally you don’t care for coups, but this one is against a leader you don’t like, so it’s all good?

    There were, believe it or not, legal mechanisms to handle the removal of an unpopular executive. The National Congress had the authority to do that.

    We should be concerned that the U.S. government is funding an unelected president, who has silenced media outlets and cracked down on Honduran protesters.

  3. This prevented the president from committing a crime. I think they should have let him proceed to the point of putting the ballots out then arrested, tried, deposed, and deported him. They didn’t do it pro-forma but there are specific injunctions against a president or anyone else doing exactly what Zelaya and Chavez were planning to do which are pretty damned explicit in the Honduran constitution. So one of your pet cult of personality dictators got thwarted but not pro forma. Tsk tsk.

  4. “So one of your pet cult of personality dictators got thwarted”

    Unlike Colombia’s Uribe, trusted friend of the U.S., who is getting away with it.

  5. Why are you changing the subject? We are talking about Honduras, not Columbia, n’est ce pas? Perhaps you find your position untenable?

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