Honduran Coup

Boz (in particular), Adam, Greg, Steven Taylor and Matthew Shugart all have the latest on the Honduran coup, including legal analysis (by Shugart) and Boz's Twitter feed is a great source for updates.

Adam tips me to the OAS's official response, which is spot on. They are acknowledging their responsibilities under the terms of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Good for them. So is the Obama administration. Even better.

There appears to be unanimous condemnation of the coup.

Adam also tips me to this disproving of a long-held belief (at least in this instance). Perhaps what we'll learn from this is that what should be encouraged in Latin America is disarmament.

What I can gather about Zelaya is that he may very well have overreached and that he had made a lot of enemies. There is, however, a solution for this: laws. Given the region's literally tortured history, the military should never ever take a role in deciding who is in power except to restore a legitimately elected government.

Comments

[Tambopaxi]

Randy, I gotta go against conventional wisdom pronounced by all, including Obama (whom I support on most other things), the OAS, you, Boz, Greg, at al, on the Honduran coup. References to rule of law, due process, and so on, are all well and good, and valid only so far as all parties to a given dispute are willing to adhere to said rules, processes, and so on. Zelaya violated several Constitutional articles expressly written to prevent his kind of referendum initiative. As well, he ignored Constitutional and legal actions taken by the Honduran Supreme Court, the Electoral Tribunal and the Congress there to force him to comply with the Constitution and the law. In short, Zelaya went rogue and went off the legal reservation in his push to keep himself in office. Absolutely no one, including the OAS, or the USG (Obama) can assert that Zelaya would have submitted himself to the due process of impeachment, which he certainly deserved. On the contrary, had the other branches of government been foolish enough to play by the rules that Zelaya flaunted, they would very soon have been subjugated to executive authority as has happened in Venezuela (and will happen soon in Ecuador, I'm afraid).

I lived in Honduras two times for a total of seven years. While I wouldn't qualify Honduran politicians as the most honest or visionary of their kind, I think they got it right this time in 1) establishing rules to prevent Presidential dictatorships we see springing up elsewher in the region; 2) acting on those rules to try and head off Zelaya's move toward continuance (and almost assuredly consolidation) of power; and 3) having the courage to act swiftly and decisively - and by exactly the same rules used by Zelaya - to get this rogue out of the country.

I know none of the above is politically correct in this day and age, but unfortunately, Chavez, Correa, Morales, Ortega - and pretty quick here, Uribe - are all using politically correct rules (Constitutions) to keep themselves in power indefinitely, suborn democratic institutions, and abuse the democratic rights of their countrymen. This is morally and politically wrong, and it's injurious to long term development interests of the region. Somehow, in contrast, little backward Honduras got it right both in terms of its Constitution and in terms of being willing to get down and play dirty just like the bad guys. It ain't pretty, it ain't clean, but Honduras showed someone like Chavez that if you play by the very same rules, you can whip them at their nefarious game... regards, T

[xavier]

Tambopaxi:
You articulates my exact sentiments. Zayala deliberately gave the finger to the various institutions charged with safeguarding the constitution. So he violated the very laws he'd sworn to uphold and protect.

It's good that Zayala was kicked out but regret that the Honduran example won't be influential enough to influence other Latin Amercan countries like Venezuela, Ecuador or Nicaragua

[Jim Naureckas]

Yeah, too bad we can't have a string of military dictatorships across Latin America to protect democracy. Jeez.

[Vigilante]

I linked Tambopaxi's comments with approval!