Obama sides with Chavez instead of Democracy in Honduras

President Obama and  Secretary of State Clinton were unusually quick to condemn the actions of the Honduras government this week.  This against a true democratic country who was simply protecting its constitution.  It is especially odd when considering they were very slow to say anything against Iran’s crackdown.  Iran being a theocracy who has defied the wishes and demands of the world for the better part of 3 decades.  For everyone’s viewing pleasure, here are the actions that Obama’s administration are condemning.

Currently the Honduras constitution only allows one 4 year term.  President Zelaya of Honduras wanted to change their constitution in order to change these term limits much like his friend Chavez has done.  In fact this is not the only similarity between these two men, but I will leave that for another day.  To make this change he declared a vote and had Chavez send him the necessary ballots.  This is where the problem began.  This action by President Zelaya was unconstitutional and their Supreme Court instructed the military not to carry out the normal logistics for the vote.  The top military commander told President Zelaya he would have to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.  Zelaya then fired the military commander.  The Supreme Court deemed the firing illegal and told the President to reinstate him.  The President refused, but then took it a step further.  He led a mob to the military installation holding the ballots from Venezuela, broke in, and had his supporters distribute the ballots.  The Honduras Attorney General already made it very clear that he would prosecute anyone in defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision and that is why President Zelaya was arrested by the military.  Within hours of his arrest their Congress appointed an interim leader and announced the November elections would be carried out as planned.

So maybe someone can explain to me and perhaps to Obama and Clinton how what Honduras did was illegal as Obama irresponsibly stated.  How protecting their constitution from an authoritarian President eerily similar to Venezuela’s Chavez is not upholding their Democratic values?  They are calling it a military coup, but was it.  The military was carrying out an order from their judiciary branch and they are not in control.  The speaker of their congressional body, a civilian, is.  I am personally finding it hard to stomach that our President and our Secretary of State are siding with the likes of Cuba’s Castro who denounced the ‘new government’ and Chavez who is threatening to use military force to put his comrade back in power.

Maybe we should be encouraged that despite being dead wrong, Obama did at least take a stand before he checked the public opinion polls.  On the Iran issue, it was Congress who voted to make a statement against Iran’s crackdown before the President took a stand.  Well, all of Congress except Ron Paul who deemed it necessary to give his obligatory no vote.  He lives in a utopia where other countries actions have no affect on our own.  Hopefully Obama will see the error of his initial assessment and side with Democracy for a change.

Tagged as: chavez, democracy, honduras, Obama