Obama Administration Wrong to Cut Off Aid to Honduras

The Senate recently confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it needn’t have bothered. The Obama Administration apparently believes Supreme Courts can be ignored.

Following the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick to condemn the move, saying it could create a “terrible precedent.”

What terrible precedent did she think might be established? A Latin American country was actually following its constitution?

Despite what you may have heard from Secretary Clinton or read in the press, there was no coup d’etat in Honduras. Manuel Zelaya, a Hugo Chavez wannabe, was legally removed from office for violating his country’s constitution to extend his power.

Zelaya had proposed a national referendum to amend Honduran constitution to permit him to serve an unlimited number of terms – much as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez proposed in 2007. But unlike Venezuela, the chief executive in Honduras is constitutionally-barred from proposing such a referendum.

Zelaya was legally removed from office in a 15-0 decision by the Honduran Supreme Court for violating Article 239 of the Constitution which states: “No citizen that has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform…will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.” Significantly, nine of the Supreme Court Justices are members of Zelaya’s party.

To the Court’s credit, its initial response to Zelaya’s referendum was very restrained. Rather than ordering his immediate removal from office, it ruled his referendum unconstitutional and ordered the military – which normally carries out balloting logistics – to refrain from distributing ballots.

But Zelaya decided to go ahead with it anyway. When his country’s top military leader, General Vasquez Velasquez, refused to violate the Court’s order, Zelaya fired him. When the Court ordered him reinstated, Zelaya refused.

Zelaya and a group of his supporters then broke into a military facility where the referendum ballots were stored, stole them and began distributing them in violation of the Court’s directive. The ballots, not surprisingly, were manufactured in Venezuela.

Zelaya shouldn’t have just been removed from office, he should have been imprisoned.

Yet, the U.S. has condemned Honduras, rescinded aid to the country and cut off an unspecified number of visas sought by Hondurans desiring to visit the United States – an unfortunate consequence of a President and Secretary of State completely out of their depth.

The Hondurans can be forgiven if they’re just a little bit protective of their Constitution. At the time Honduras adopted its current constitution in 1982, it had already gone through 15 constitutions since gaining independence from Spain – a new one, on average, every 10 years.

Previous constitutions proved ineffective in restraining executive power and led to a succession of authoritarian military regimes. This is why the current constitution requires the removal of any president who proposes extending his term.

One can’t argue with the results. President Zelaya’s election marked the seventh consecutive democratic election in Honduras, the most in its history. By removing him, Honduras was simply acting to prevent that streak from ending.

By denouncing rather than praising Honduras’ defense of its democracy, and by cutting off all aid to the Honduran government, the Obama Administration has sent the wrong message to Hondurans who have paid an enormous price for it.

It sent the wrong message to Hugo Chavez and other regional despots who now must question America’s commitment to defending democracy.

And it sent the wrong message to Americans concerned about Obama’s commitment to democratic values in the wake of “Fishygate” and the intimidation of critics of the President at town hall meetings by his union supporters.

If Barack Obama continues to put his ideology before freedom, he may fall to a kind of coup himself – something the rest of us like to call “elections.”

Here is the response I got from my representative when I asked about why the US was treating Honduras the way it is. Giffords is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee so I figure this is, for all practical purposes, a statement of the official stance Congress is taking.

August 28, 2009

Dear Mr. Bailey,

Thank you for contacting me about the situation in Honduras. Honduras remains a key ally of the United States in Latin America, and the political unrest that is occuring in Honduras is of great concern to me.

On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military detained President Manuel Zelaya and flew him to exile in Costa Rica, after his insistence in pushing ahead with a referendum that was ruled illegal and eventually could have led to changes to the Honduran constitution. The head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, was selected by the Honduran Supreme Court and National Congress to fulfill the remainder of President Zelaya's term.

It is unacceptable for a democratically elected president to be removed from office by the military. Kicking out President Zelaya was the wrong way to try and resolve a dispute over his referendum that was rejected by both Congress and the courts.

However, I recognize that President Zelaya has boldly refuted orders from the high courts that his referendum was unconstitutional. President Zelaya's bullying tactics have consistently undermined the democratic institution in Honduras.

In a few months, Hondurans will be called back to the ballot box to decide who should lead their country. This is how it should be.

I am hopeful that negotiations spearheaded by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias between President Zelaya and De Facto President Micheletti will restore the democracy that the people of Honduras so rightly deserve.

I always appreciate hearing from constituents, like you, who are informed and interested in the important issues affecting Arizona and the nation. My job as your representative is to help you connect with federal agencies, access services and get your questions answered thoroughly. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if you require assistance.

To receive regular e-mail updates on my work as your U.S. Representative, visit www.giffords.house.gov to opt-in to my e-newsletter. It allows me to keep Southern Arizonans, like you, informed about the most recent activities in the House of Representatives and upcoming public forums I am sponsoring in the district.

Sincerely Yours,

Gabrielle Giffords
Member of Congress

Notice that she refers to Zelaya's removal by the military but neglects to acknowledge that the action was taken upon orders from the Supreme Court. It almost seems like she expects the people to allow themselves to be subjected to tyrrany and abuse as long as the abuser was "democratically elected". Ladies and Gentlemen, we're are in a whole heap of trouble if this administration stays around much longer.

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