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E-mailThe Obama administration is playing a game of semantics in describing the military coup in Honduras against leftist President Zelaya. Whether one endorses the coup or not, it was indisputably a military coup.
But while many leaders around the world have described it as such, the Obama administration while condemning the coup and calling for the restoration of President Zelaya has nonetheless refrained from the using the words “military coup.”
That is because the United States is still clearly figuring out policy to what has just happened in Honduras. The Obama administration may want to leave the option of supporting the new government.
After all, President Zelaya was acting often in contrast to the Honduras constitution and the military was backed by the Supreme Court and by the Congress. Further, scheduled presidential elections in November will go on. The military is not the bad guy here. It intervened after Zelaya sought to circumvent the constitution and did so only to restore the rule of law:
But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
[Zelaya with Chavez.]
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.
The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.
Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.
So the coup was justified. Nonetheless, even if the Obama administration wants to endorse the events it needs to be careful as to what words it uses. That is because U.S. mandates that the United States end all financial and military aid to any Latin American nation where a military overthrows a democratic government.
The Obama administration should not. The new democratic government in Honduras epitomizes the rule of law and liberty and it deserves America’s unconditional support.
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It's the right time for Obama to show his commitment for promoting democracy. It's a coupe in Honduras and Obama should stand by all the Latin American countries.
If Zelaya was looking for a referendum there then opposition should have fought it democratically by convincing the people not to vote for him. Use of military can never be justified.