Saturday, October 10, 2009

"What I Heard In Honduras"

Unless you read a lot of blogs you may not be aware of the Obama's administration strange behavior in regards to the situation in Honduras, where they removed a sittng president in compliance with their constitution. Don't take my word for it, here is the report from the Law Library of the Congress. It says in part:
Article 313, Section 2 of the Constitution grants the Supreme Court of Justice the power to hear cases against the highest officers of the State and the Deputies.8 In harmony with this provision, the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that cases against these officers must be heard by the Supreme Court, following the procedures established in that Code.9 According to available sources, this procedure was applied in the case filed by the Chief Prosecutor (Fiscal General de la República) against President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. On June 26, 2009, the Supreme Court, upon the Chief Prosecutor’s complaint, accepted the case and unanimously voted to appoint one of its Justices to hear the complaint in the preparatory and intermediate
phases. The appointed Justice carried out the request to issue an arrest and raid warrant10.

So it has been established that the Honduran Supreme Court acted in accordance with it's constitution, and continues to act in accordance with it's constitution, so why is it that the Obama administration continues to characterize the actions taken as a coup?
In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya's ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

That is from a column written by Sen Jim Demint in the WSJ, who over the objections of the administration, went down to Honduras himself to find out what the facts on the ground were.
So far, the Obama administration has ignored these requests and instead has repeatedly doubled down. It's revoked the U.S. travel visas of President Micheletti, his government and private citizens, and refuses to talk to the government in Tegucigalpa. It's frozen desperately needed financial assistance to one of the poorest and friendliest U.S. allies in the region. It won't release the legal basis for its insistence on Mr. Zelaya's restoration to power. Nor has it explained why it's setting aside America's longstanding policy of supporting free elections to settle these kinds of disputes.

The actions of the Barack "Nobel Peace Prize Laureate" Obama are indeed troubling.

I am not sure what Honduras has done to be on the receiving of such treatment from this administration other then defy the model of most governments in South America which are based on socialism. Maybe they realize democratic capitalism is the way to emerge as a viable, economically strong country.

All that remains to be seen is what will the actions of the Obama administration be after the regularly scheduled elections are held in November.

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