Saturday, November 28, 2009

Obama, Honduras and Latin America

Ginger Thompson at the New York Times has a well-argued critique of the Obama administration's handling of the Honduran crisis and how it will likely affect its relations with Latin America.

The United States was slow to criticize human rights abuses by the de facto government, but swift to scold Mr. Zelaya for political stunts that culminated with his sneaking back into Honduras, where he remains camped inside the Brazilian Embassy.

The move that seems to have most undermined Mr. Obama’s clout came last month when the administration reversed course by signaling that it would accept the outcome of Sunday’s elections whether or not Mr. Zelaya was restored to power.

Latin American governments accused the administration of putting pragmatism over principle and of siding with Honduran military officers and business interests whose goal was to use the elections to legitimize the coup.

Very true. Then I kept reading and winced at the description of Mel Zelaya:

His critics say he crossed a line when he defied the Supreme Court and pushed a referendum to change the Constitution so that he could run for another term. The court called in the military.

It is frustrating that every news outlet keeps repeating the same falsehood about running for another term. The referendum made no mention of terms or re-election.

14 comments:

Anonymous,  11:38 AM  

I'd say it'sfrustrating there are still people who pretend not to know what Zelaya was seeking, and why he decided to ignore the judiciary.

This whole talk of the impact on "Latin America" is silly. There is no unified Latin America on this topic. Several countries have indicated they will recognize the elections. Watch for others to do so afterwards. This idea that there is some permanent damage to the US is complete nonsense.

Justin Delacour 2:11 PM  

I'd say it'sfrustrating there are still people who pretend not to know what Zelaya was seeking, and why he decided to ignore the judiciary.

Pretend not to know? How exactly do you pretend to know that Zelaya sought a second consecutive term?

You have no evidence, Gabriel. That's always been your problem.

Anonymous,  2:21 PM  

Luckily Hondurans realized what was going on. As do a growing number of people outside.

Justin Delacour 2:26 PM  

In other words, you still have no evidence to support the claim.

Anonymous,  6:38 PM  

Manuel Zelaya like the other chavista/castrista ALBA communists (Correa, Ortega, Morales, Etc.) are simply opportunists who don't follow the supposed statesman, but rather they follow the petro/narco dollars that the dictator Chavez dangles in front of their noses.

Zelaya was ousted because he attempled to trample the Honduran constitution and join the Chavez Bolivarian alliance as one more satellite country. For this treason alone, Zelaya may still end-up serving time in jail.

Communism is a failed doctrine that is repudiated around the world. In Latin America, with Venezuelan financing, the frustrated anti American communist zealots try to take advantage and use the democratic processes like a Trojan Horse to gain power and subvert the democracies from within.

It's uncanny that there isn’t even a peep of criticism of the Castro brothers 50 year communist dynasties in humiliated Cuba, or the human rights abuses and censorship of Hugo Chavez, or the electoral fraud and blatant thievery of Daniel and “La Chamuca” in Nicaragua.

As a Latin American patriot who loves our freedoms, I join the millions of compatriots who hate communism and totalitarianism in all its shapes and forms. Communism is a malignant cancerous tumor that must be combated to any and all consequences.

Congratulations to the Honduran people who have stood tall against foreign meddling and leftist interventionists.

Our country, our decision!

Justin Delacour 7:46 PM  

Communism is a malignant cancerous tumor that must be combated to any and all consequences.

Perhaps some will recall that the far right's propensity to approach these matters with total hysteria has been a source of great bloodshed in the region. If you want to see a return to the "dirty wars" of yesteryear, follow this guy.

Alabama_John 8:15 PM  

DEMOCRATIC COUP?

A democratic Congress does not forge a fake letter of resignation.

A democratic Supreme Court does not act like judge, jury and executioner by secretly in the dead of night declaring that a duly elected President be removed from office, and then secretly approve the kidnapping and exile from Honduras of the President by hooded members of the military.

A democratic military does not waste over 40 innocent civilians, put over a thousand peaceful protesters in the hospital and establish a Gestapo dictatorship for four months non-stop and most likely years to come.

A democratic Constitution is not created by a military dictatorship just after a military coup d’etat (1982), a manifesto for a dictatorship actually and notorious as the worst document to ever curse a nation.

A democratic government is not run by paid actor politicians hand picked by the ten families of rich nobility who own over 80% of all the land and wealth in Honduras.

Anonymous,  8:09 AM  

Justin, in defense of Gabriel, there is evidence that Zelaya had intentions of changing the presidential term limits with his proposed Constitutional Assembly.

Following are translated remarks that he made during a speech the week prior to June 28:

[Zelaya speaking] "Here, judges are re-elected, fiscal officers are re-elected, mayors are re-elected, congressmen are re-elected, the − the commissioners on human rights are re-elected. The only one who is not re-elected in Honduras − the only one who is not re-elected in Honduras − is the President [points with both hands to himself in the video].

"But re-election is [a/the] topic of the next National Constitutional Assembly." [Cheers from the crowd.]

Justin Delacour 11:45 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Justin Delacour 11:49 AM  

Justin, in defense of Gabriel, there is evidence that Zelaya had intentions of changing the presidential term limits with his proposed Constitutional Assembly.

First off, it was chronologically impossible for Zelaya to seek a second consecutive term by means of a constitutional assembly. Go back and look at the dates. The proposed vote on whether to have a constitutional assembly would have been simultaneous with today's presidential election, so any reform of the constitution couldn't have take place until after the election. So you and Gabriel are just plain wrong on this point.

Secondly, my understanding is that the statement to which you point is taken out of context. If you can show me the entire speech (in Spanish or English), I'll be happy to take a look at it. But a few cherry-picked phrases from a speech is not going to suffice because it doesn't give us the full context.

Anonymous,  1:24 PM  

Of course Zelaya was seeking re-election! He could have easily proposed to change any other part of the Constitution without the mess he created, if he had been seeking something else.

And anyone who claims he didn't have time to do that needs to read up on how these things are accomplished.

Justin Delacour 2:01 PM  

Of course Zelaya was seeking re-election!

Ah, yes. The old "of course." We've seen this one from Gabriel too.

Bottom line is that you fellas can't back up your claims.

Now, what are you folks gonna do if only 25% of the Honduran electorate turns out today?

Anonymous,  10:30 PM  

As I said over a month ago, there will be other countries to recognize the elections other than Panama.

And, my prediction is that the voter turnout will far surpass 25% and most likely surpass the meager turnout for Zelaya's election which was the worst in history.

Let's face it. Zelaya is a
narcissist and an ineffective leader.

If all you lefties really care about the people of Honduras, then get behind a real leader who knows how to build support within the country's democratic institutions. Not someone who wants to force his way on the country under the disguise of actually caring about his constituents.

Justin Delacour 12:27 AM  

my prediction is that the voter turnout will far surpass 25% and most likely surpass the meager turnout for Zelaya's election which was the worst in history.

I suspect you'll have to eat your last words above. The turnout of today's presidential election will probably be the worst in modern Honduran history. I imagine you're right that it will surpass 25%, but I doubt very seriously that it will even come close to the turnout of Zelaya's election, which was around 50%.

In any case, the hour of truth approaches.

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