A Military Non-Coup in Honduras

"Military coup in Honduras." So proclaims our President, backed up by similar statements from our Secretary of State, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Raul Castro of Cuba. But what a strange military coup: the removal of the current President was authorized in accordance with the Constitution of Honduras as interpreted by its Supreme Court and its Congress. That's 2 out of 3 branches of the elected and properly appointed government of Honduras. These two bodies then go on to install an interim Executive to manage things until free elections can be held this Fall. As coups go, the Honduras military seems a bit confused.

Here are the facts as reported by the Wall Street Journal: the Honduras Constitution can only be amended by a proper Constitutional Convention called pursuant to a national referendum approved by the Congress. Then President, Mel Zelaya, wanted an amendment to allow him to run for office again, with the evident intent to become one of those banana republic style Presidents for Life, like his pal Hugo Chavez. When Congress refused to act on the issue, Mr. Zelaya proceeded to try and hold a national referendum on this issue, under the pretense of his own authority as President. The Supreme Court of Honduras dutifully ruled that he had no such authority, and ordered the military to refuse cooperation with Mr. Zelaya. In the face of the ruling by Honduras' highest court, the lawfully appointed Attorney General of Honduras declared that any attempt to conduct a national referendum would be illegal and would be prosecuted by him to the fullest extent of the law. With the military refusing to perform the illegal referendum in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court, Mr. Zelaya fielded his own private army, broke into a military base, stole the referendum forms, and proceeded to distribute them. He was then arrested, and Congress, following established Honduran law, designated its own President as an interim Executive, pending national elections.

Here is a quote from the people of Honduras, taking a stand against the lawlessness of Mr. Zelaya:

"We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development."

Events in Honduras are transparently a triumph of democracy and the rule of law, not a coup. That our President and Secretary of State are blind to this and can only repeat talking points oozing out of the mouths of Chavez and Castro is an indictment of the terrible ideology that clouds our own Leaders' minds.