Friday, October 30, 2009
Zelaya returned to power
Manuel Zelaya will return as the president of Honduras due to American diplomatic pressure. This singular diplomatic triumph of President Obama's first year in office will restore to power the lawfully deposed Honduran thug and friend of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Hugh Chavez. It is contrary to the national interest of the United States and a setback for the supporters of democracy. It is also a defeat for the rule of law. The Honduran Supreme Court remains steadfast in its opinion that Zelaya was attempting to remove term limits on the President and install himself in dictator-like presidency similar to Chavez. Once Zelaya actually regains power, I suspect he will be looking for revenge against his enemies. Don't be surprised to see news of arrests and assassinations of opposition leaders. This is a boneheaded position for the US to take IMHO.
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5 comments:
I agree with you 100 percent. I do not understand the actions of the U.S. on this one at all. That state will end up like Cuba and Venezuela with that thug in office. Sure as you speak...he will seek revenge in an ugly way. These power hungry dictators are really just mafia like slugs that hold the people at gunpoint. I really feel sorry for what is happening there.
I haven't followed it since Alan's last post on this.
What has the administration stated as its reasons?
The State department says that Zelaya is the duly elected president (which he used to be), so he should be reinstated.
On the surface, that appears to be the right thing to do from an electoral perspective, but Zelaya attempted to remove term limits in a way that is not allowed by the Honduran constitution, so the Supreme Court exercised it's constitutional duty to have him removed from office. I cannot understand why the State department ignores that part of the story.
Contrary to press reports in the MSM (which is why I so distrust the MSM - they get so many things wrong), Zelaya will not be automatically returned to office by the agreement. First, there must be a vote by the entire Honduran congress on whether Zelaya is fit to return to office. Prior to that, the Honduran supreme court, which ruled against Zelaya in June by a vote of 15 to 0, must also issue an opinion on Zelaya's fitness. He failed these two tests the first time around, so he might just fail again.
In other words, Zelaya must pass two big tests which he failed before: a judicial review by the highest court in the land, and approval by the legislature.
Thank you for the info, it seems that there is considerably more underneath the surface. South American politics is a constant enigma to me. Probably because I don't spend much time on it, but as well because of a different set of social/political dynamics I just don't get.
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