Honduras to restore liberties; standoff at protest

AP via Yahoo ^ | 9/28/2009 | Mark Stevenson

[normanpubbie]

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The coup-installed president of Honduras backed down Monday from an escalating standoff with protesters and suggested he would restore civil liberties and reopen dissident television and radio stations by the end of the week.

Riot police ringed supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who gathered for a large-scale protest march, setting off a daylong standoff. The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti declared the march illegal, sent soldiers to silence dissident broadcasters, and suspended civil liberties for 45 days.

But in a sudden reversal, Micheletti said Monday afternoon that he wanted to "ask the Honduran people for forgiveness" for the measures and said he would lift them in accordance with demands from the same Congress that installed him after a June 28 coup. He said he would discuss lifting the measures with court officials "as soon as possible," adding: "By the end of this week we'll have this resolved."

[infowarrior]

interim President Roberto Micheletti”? Excuse me?

What else could you logically label him? He *is* interim, between the time that adherence to the Honduran Constitution required the removal of Zalaya, and the elections to be held in November...

the infowarrior

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Pretty much the entire Honduran government — Supreme Court, Congress, Attorney General, etc — agreed that Zelaya’s actions warranted constitutional removal from office, and they did so.

Doesn’t matter. It’s still a coup. Nyaah.

By this logic, if the impeachment of Clinton had resulted in a conviction and removal, that would have been called a coup as well.

Come to think of it, I think I remember Clinton’s supporters calling it just that.

[normanpubbie]

Presidential terms in Honduras run from January 27 every fourth year to January 27th four years later. For this cyle, Zelaya became President on January 27, 2006 and the new president will enter office on January 27, 2010. So even though the election is scheduled for November 29, Micheletti will remain interim President until next January.

Of course, the Micheletti regime hasn't been real good at adhering to the Constitution. They deported Zelaya in violation of Article 102 and just this past Sunday they suspended several Constitutional articles.

Heck, they could suspend the election and declare someone President for Life and that would apparently be OK with most of the people commenting here.

Because Zelaya is a Communist /sarcasm.