What kind of “coup” is authorized by the Supreme Court?
The NYT has a story on Honduras that makes for an odd read:
Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But he is a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest. His term was to end in January.
The Honduran military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the country’s Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law against “those who had publicly spoken out and acted against the Constitution’s provisions.”
Mr. Zelaya’s ouster capped a showdown with other branches of government over his efforts to lift presidential term limits in a referendum that was to have taken place Sunday. Critics said the vote was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the Constitution’s limit of a single four-year term for the president.
Early this month, the Supreme Court declared the referendum unconstitutional, and Congress followed suit last week. In the last few weeks, supporters and opponents of the president have held competing demonstrations. The prosecutor’s office and the electoral tribunal issued orders for the referendum ballots to be confiscated, but on Thursday, Mr. Zelaya led a group of protesters to an air force base and seized the ballots.
When the army refused to help organize the vote, he fired the armed forces commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez. The Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal and reinstated General Vásquez.
Even the NYT kind of makes it clear which side the US should be on.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 am
For a change a Latin American nation does the right thing and insists on rule of law and our President gets it wrong. This guy is batting .000. When does he get called out?
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Obama sees what the courts and military did in Honduras as a bad omen for his own chances of an eternal presidency.
He’s publicly stated in the past that he considers the consitution a troublesome thing that prevents him from doing what he wants, and his actions show that clearly as he blatantly ignores it at every turn.
Sadly in the US the suppreme court and congress let Obama get away with it, in Honduras they apparently still have some cojones.