Sunday, June 28, 2009

Coup in Honduras

Honduran President Zelaya was arrested by the military, apparently by a court order (it is not clear what court or what judge) and is now in Costa Rica. If it was a regular court order, it makes no sense for him to be removed from the country, which is one reason why I am already using the term "coup." I have not yet seen who is currently chief executive.

There are many troubling aspects to this situation, but in particular it is discouraging that the Honduran courts, legislators, etc. still turn to the armed forces to act as political arbiters.

This is going to make the situation far, far worse than any other solution the opposition could have devised.

4 comments:

Gabriel,  1:43 PM  

Sad, isn't it?

It's also like something out of a bad soap opera. Zelaya, who started this mess by ignoring rulings of his country's Supreme Court, turns to Chavez and Ortega for support! Is that ironic or what?

But as Costa Rica's Arias pointed out, this simply shows how weak democracy still is in the region.

Anonymous,  4:30 PM  

all wish is peace for honduras...

Steven Taylor 5:23 PM  

I think that coup is the appropriate term, even though I have seen some commentators argue that the fact that SCJ was involved somehow makes it something other than a coup.

Stopping the plebiscite is one thing, arresting and exiling the president is another. Extralegal is extralegal.

Some more thought here.

Gabriel,  6:53 PM  

It may be a coup, but only a specialist in Honduras constitutional law could say.

Zelaya's attempt to push for the ilegal plebiscite, despite clear orders to the contrary from the other powers, was also a coup attempt of sorts.

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