Understanding Democracy - Update on Situation in Honduras

Sunday’s arrest of Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, was not the result of a military coup d’etat.  Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department and the United Nations fail to recognize this and are ignoring fundamental tenants of democracy.

The situation in Honduras represents the effective use of a system of checks-and-balances.  Manuel Zelaya made an attempt to extend his term as President beyond the limits afforded him under the Honduran Constitution.  He made this attempt by trying to orchestrate a referendum that would call for a new Constitution and allow him to serve a second term.

In an effort to protect his country, and by deciding not to violate the Constitution, military commander, General Romero Vasquez Velasquez, refused to distribute the referendum ballots.  Zelaya fired Vasquez, but the Supreme Court reinstated Vasquez citing that Zelaya did not have just cause for the termination.  The court then ordered the ballots destroyed after the National Congress decreed such a referendum illegal.  Zelaya and his personal armed guards then stole the referendum ballots from a military storage facility, violating the court order to have the ballots destroyed.  Being in contempt of court in the United States will get anybody jail time, and Zelaya’s actions are no different.

Zelaya’s arrest is not the mark of a military coup d’etat for several reasons.  First, the military was never in power.  Immediate following the arrest, the national Congress convened a special session to determine who would serve as interim president until a new President could be chosen during the upcoming elections already scheduled for November 2009.  Per the succession process as outlined in the Honduran Constitution, the President of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti,  was sworn in late on Sunday as President of Honduras.  Second of all, a coup d’etat implies that the federal government was dissolved and unable to operate or prevented from doing so.  At no time has this been the case.  The Honduran Constitution remains in tact, the National Congress and the Supreme Court are still alive and well, and barely 12 hours passed by without a Head of State – time barely even noticed on a sleepy Sunday afternoon. 

A full accounting of the chronology of events can be found/checked at the website for Honduras This Week, the nation's only English media source.  

Alarmingly, the Obama Administration and the International Community are failing to recognize the obvious correlation between Zelaya’s grab for power and his recent ties with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.  Zelaya began talks with Chavez over a year ago when the two began discussing trade issues with the United States.  In October 2008, Zelaya joined Chavez’s authoritarian crusade by adding Honduras’ signature to an anti-American pact of sorts, disheartening many a Honduran citizen and even turning away much of his own party leaders.  Zelaya’s actions were just as much an effort to extend his own power as it was for Chavez to claim victory for authoritarian state rule.  Demanding that Zelaya be re-instated as President will only support Chavez’s efforts to promote oppressive socialist policies under the guise of democracy. 

The Honduran National Congress and the Supreme Court ought to be applauded for their ability to accurately interpret their nation’s Constitution and block Zelaya’s outright violation of both their nation’s primary governing document and his disrespect for the democratic system of checks-and-balances.  The Obama Administration and the U.N. Security Council should be offering their support.  Instead, they are condemning the incident as a violation of democratic principles based solely on the notion that Zelaya was democratically elected.  Checks and balances exist in a democratic society so that when power-hungry ignorant authoritarians like Zelaya, Chavez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Rafael Cabrerra (Ecuador), and Amadenijad (Iran) find it necessary to promote their political agendas instead of respecting Constitutional limits, innocent people are protected from these political monsters.  Honduras should be afforded our admiration and respect for their clear understanding of democracy, not condemnation and isolation.