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Honduras Defends Its Democracy!

POSTED BY: Skywalken
UPDATED: Sunday, July 5, 2009 04:15
VIEWED: 13327
PAGE 1 of 6

SKYWALKEN

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:10 PM

Here's a great article on the overthrow of the marxist narcoterrorist dictator Manuel Zelaya:

Quote:
Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.

Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.

Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.

Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. "We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development."

Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.

For Hondurans who still remember military dictators

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SIGNYM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:57 PM

HONDURAS DEFENDS ITS DEMOCRACY WITH A MILITARY COUP TO PREVENT A VOTE!

Kinda ironic, innit?

FIVVER

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:06 PM

Not at all. By Honduran law the vote can only be called by congress, not the president. In this situation you have the legislative and judicial branches of the government acting within the law to regin in an out of control executive. All the military did was to follow the mandate of the congress and the courts. The constitutionally prescribed successor has been sworn in and the scheduled elections will go forward. In no way is that a military coup. But, of course, since our Dear Leader (peace be upon him) calls it a coup, you have to mindlessly parrot Him.

Personally, I think Barry's upset that the precident might interfere with his plans for 2012 (maybe) or 2016 (definitely).

SIGNYM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:11 PM

That's OK. We can invade a nation and kill tens - if not hundreds- of thousands of people WITHOUT legal cover, so WTF are we complaining about?

BADKARMA00

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
HONDURAS DEFENDS ITS DEMOCRACY WITH A MILITARY COUP TO PREVENT A VOTE!

Kinda ironic, innit?

-----------------

Doesn't a 'military coup' usually end with the military being in charge? If I read this correctly, the Honduran congress is in charge, and have appointed an interim president, with normal elections in November, which were already scheduled.

I don't see where everyone is getting the 'military coup' part, when the civilian government is, apparently, still in charge.

Bad_karma
Great and Exalted Grand Pooba, International Brotherhood of Moonshiners, Rednecks, and Good Old Boys.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:55 PM

I'm calling it a coup because that's what the press is calling it

Quote:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power.

The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world, and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country's apparent new leader.

President Manuel Zelaya was awakened Sunday by gunfire and detained while still in his pajamas, hours before an unpopular constitutional referendum many saw as a power grab. An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_refe
rendum

SIGNYM

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 12:06 AM

On the nature of the propsed referenudm, which the miliary aborted:

Quote:
Caracas, Venezuela – The text message that beeped on my cell phone this morning read “Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d’etat underway in Honduras, spread the word.” It’s a rude awakening for a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today’s scheduled referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.... Zelaya, elected in November 2005 on the platform of Honduras’ Liberal Party, had proposed the opinion poll be conducted to determine if a majority of citizens agreed that constitutional reform was necessary. He was backed by a majority of labor unions and social movements in the country. If the poll had occured, depending on the results, a referendum would have been conducted during the upcoming elections in November to vote on convening a constitutional assembly. Nevertheless, today’s scheduled poll was not binding by law. In fact, several days before the poll was to occur, Honduras’ Supreme Court ruled it illegal, upon request by the Congress, both of which are led by anti-Zelaya majorities and members of the ultra-conservative party, National Party of Honduras (PNH). This move led to massive protests in the streets in favor of President Zelaya.

BADKARMA00

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
I'm calling it a coup because that's what the press is calling it
Quote:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power.

The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world, and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country's apparent new leader.

President Manuel Zelaya was awakened Sunday by gunfire and detained while still in his pajamas, hours before an unpopular constitutional referendum many saw as a power grab. An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_refe
rendum

--------------

Yeah, I noticed that after I posted this. In the story I read on CNN though, they reported that the Honduran Congress is in charge, though stil calling it a 'coup'.

If what I read is factual, and with CNN who knows? then Zelaya was trying to changet the law so that he could remain in power. As I understand it, the law COULD be changed, but only by a voter referendum (sp?) which Zelaya apparently wasn't willing to wait for.

The story says that the Supreme Court ruled Zelaya's actions unconstitutional, and that the military refused to act on Zelaya's orders.

And the Congress has appointed it's own president, whose name I think is Michetti, as interim President, until the scheduled elections, (which Zelaya was allegedly trying to circumvent) this fall.

I can't understand why the press, or the Obama Administration, or the ever useless UN are all calling this a coup and condemning it, let alone demanding that Zelaya be returned to power. If CNN's story is correct, then all that's happened is that Zelaya tried a Hugo Chavez type 'President for Life' move, and got smacked for it.

Seems to me that the Honduran constitution has been upheld, and that the civilian government, sans crooked President-Want to Be Dictator, is in charge.

I just don't see where 'coup' should be used, except maybe in reference to Zelaya himself.

But I do see why you were using it after I saw the press calling it that.

Bad_karma
Great and Exalted Grand Pooba, International Brotherhood of Moonshiners, Rednecks, and Good Old Boys.

PIRATENEWS

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:03 AM

I'd buy that for a dollar in USA.

KWICKO

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:41 AM

Quote:

I can't understand why the press, or the Obama Administration, or the ever useless UN are all calling this a coup and condemning it, let alone demanding that Zelaya be returned to power. If CNN's story is correct, then all that's happened is that Zelaya tried a Hugo Chavez type 'President for Life' move, and got smacked for it.

They're calling it a military coup because that's typically what you call it when the military deposes a leader and either takes over the country itself or installs a new leader. The term "military coup" has negative connotations, but that doesn't mean it's ALWAYS a bad thing - occasionally the country is better off for it, especially if the military clears out a corrupt government and paves the way for legitimate elections to take place.

'Course, Obama's not playing ball because he realizes that something similar could happen here, and he doesn't want any part of seeming to support such actions. :)

Quote:

The story says that the Supreme Court ruled Zelaya's actions unconstitutional, and that the military refused to act on Zelaya's orders.

If only we could have been so lucky at some point in the last 8 years...

Mike

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.