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.
UPDATE:
There was a court order to detain the president for insisting on holding a referendum that had already been declared unconstitutional. More at Patterico.

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