Obama and Honduras
There was one issue that the fawning mainstream media didn’t bring up over the weekend as President Obama did the rounds of all the Sunday talk shows – except for “Fox News Sunday” – and that was the Obama administration’s outrageous behavior toward the democratic government of Honduras.
The Obama administration has repeatedly demanded the return of wannabe strongman Manuel Zelaya to power in that country. Obama, who has lots of experience on U.S. constitutional law and none on Honduran constitutional law, decided that Honduras’ 15-person supreme court was wrong when it ruled – unanimously – that Zelaya’s “referendum” on whether he should serve a second term was not only unconstitutional, but the proscribed punishment was immediate removal from office.
In a Congressional Research Service report released last week and promoted by the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady, puts it succinctly.
"Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system," writes CRS senior foreign law specialist Norma C. Gutierrez in her report.
Honduras’ actions: legal.
The United States’ actions: illegal, unethical, immoral.
Yesterday, Zelaya snuck back into Honduras and holed up in the Brazilian embassy. From that vantage point he is fomenting violence – a situation the U.S. is at least partly responsible for. As a Wednesday, Journal editorial points out:
The U.S. has since come down solidly on the side of—Mr. Zelaya. While it has supported negotiations and called for calm, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both insisted that Honduras must ignore Mr. Zelaya's transgressions and their own legal processes and restore him as president. The U.S. has gone so far as to cut off aid, threaten Honduran assets in the U.S. and pull visas to enter the U.S. from the independent judiciary. The U.S. has even threatened not to recognize presidential elections previously scheduled for November unless Mr. Zelaya is first brought back to power—even though he couldn't run again.
The Obama administration’s behavior in this case has been odious. Frankly, most of Obama’s foreign policy has been incredibly stupid. From his demand that Israeli stop allowing existing settlements to expand due to population growth to his decision to unilaterally withdraw the missile defense shield from Poland and the Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the former’s invasion by the Soviet Union Obama has alienated our allies and demonstrated naivete and weakness to our enemies.
If you thought Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy was bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
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You're absolutely right!
--I don't bite into any wing side but it is obvious that today's democracy looks strange.Coups made by dictators and presidents ARE legal unless by somebody else. Tyrans and strong regime from the leftwing blocks are acceptable including Burma. No combats for democracy and liberty will be positively noted by UN if it's not coming from a dictatorship. UN you say? who cares? Burma do not! World sanctions? Burma don't care. Auto sufficient. Oh sorry! Obama DO cares. He will grant at will all the visas burmese torturers wants in the events they will comes to the U.S. to expose their arts of killing. One is visiting the White House now?. How about inviting a peaceful honduran? Ah! they are not in the same league. They are poor, have no money. Would consider rather Khadafi or Dinedjad. They can pay. What do you think democracy is made for? UN is made for enforcing the guys who have no power. For the rest, they seems to ignore what UN is.
Well, Zelaya is not interresting enough for the U.S. but the Chavez group is. A huge market. look like the U.S. has never been in Latin America. Like old films, remake is necessary. Can we change that?