Liberty At Risk in Honduras

I've decided to take this blog in a slightly different direction. My original goal was to focus on U.S. political and economic policy in Latin America, but the events of the past few months have led me elsewhere. I'm still going to include these matters, but they are part of a much larger issue: the fight for liberty. Entries are going to take on a much different format than the last two in hopes that I can shed some light on the dangrous impact anti-neoliberal sentiments have on development in Central and South America.

Honduras has historically been a politically stable and peaceful nation - a startling rarity in dictator-ridden part of the globe often faced with paramilitary uprisings and peasant revolts. However, events of this week may change all that. (in Spanish)

Honduras is scheduled to have a presidential election in November to elect its 8th president since becoming a democratic nation in 1981 following 20 years of military dictatorships. Last week, current President Manuel (Mel) Zelaya ordered a referendum be conducted on Sunday to allow voters to decide whether or not to approve a ballot initaitive for the November election that would allow voters to call for a special assembly. This special assembly would have the power to eliminate presidential office term limits and allow Zelaya to run for re-election.
...Sound familiar? Chavez Wins Referendum to End Term Limits (February 2009)

This is a sad week for the history of Honduras, and an even more troubling event for the liberty movement and our fight for freedom.

Zelaya and Chavez have been playing BFF's (best-friends-forever) for a while, signing agreements that did nothing but prove their mutual debilitating thirst for power.

Luckily, the Legislative and Judicial branches of the Honduran government seem to be providing notable internal resistance Zelaya's moves - something from which the U.S. Congress and Supreme Courts could stand to take a few pointers. The Honduran Congress quickly passed a bill on Tuesday declaring the referendum illegal. However, in the meantime Zelaya fired the military’s top commander (no doubt in preparation to avoid a coup), which the Honduran Supreme Court has deemed illegal by claiming the commander was fired without "just cause". The Supreme Court also ordered that the referendum ballots be destroyed as a result of the Congressional statute passed on Tuesday, but Zelaya and his cronies have since stolen the referendum ballots from an airport storage facility before they could be disposed of per the court order.

This all comes about a month after an earthquake caused serious infrastructure damage to a large portion of Honduras, collapsing a portion of a bridge along the main thoroughfare in Honduras' industrial central and second largest city. While many Honduran citizens struggle to recover, the president is more focused on his own power-groping than in guiding the recovery process.

I'll be keeping a close eye on this over the weekend and give an update on Monday once the proposed referendum period has passed.

The liberty movement continues...