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Honduran President Ousted
In the first military coup in Central America since the end of the Cold War, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army on Sunday, amid a growing crisis over his plans to seek re-election. Soldiers arrested Zelaya after storming the presidential palace in a predawn raid. “I was awakened by shots, and the yells of my guards, who resisted for about 20 minutes,” Zelaya said in an interview. The soldiers “pointed their guns at me and told me they would shoot if I didn’t put down my cell phone.” Following the coup, the country has been tense, as TV stations went off the air, electricity was out in parts of the capital, and military jets streaked overhead. The Honduran Congress has named its leader, Roberto Micheletti, to replace Zelaya, who is currently in forced exile in Costa Rica.
ChanRobt
So is Obama going to send American troops to reinstate this guy?
I believe Andrew Jackson defied the U.S. Supreme Court during his administration. But, American troops didn't intercede on behalf of the Court.
It's an interesting question which act was the unlawful one in both the instance of contemporary Honduras and Jacksonian America.
New Frontiersman, Arthur Schlessinger was a great admirer of Jackson, and wrote what was for a long time the definitive biography.
rapierwits
I think you're thinking of Andrew Johnson's removal of the Cherokee (Iv'e made that mistake before, unless you're thinking of a different instance).
Imagine if the troops had, though. would we have a society based more on law and less on executive fiat?
Those troops under Johnson actually disobeyed their oath to "uphold & defend the Constitution..."
philipjames
You realize that the army did this under a court order because the dolt wanted to change the constitution so he could serve more than the legal term, don't you.
an example would be Bill Clinton or George Bush, before their second term was over, setting in place the mechanism to have a third term...
don't think Congress or Supreme Court would allow that and this is exactly what happened in Honduras.
No problem and I assume they will hold Presidential elections and elect a new President to replace this dolt, who by the way, was a student of Chavez in how to stay in power.
squiggy
Can't hardly support a president who decides to blow off the constitution now can we! ROFLMAO.............. OK, I'm on the chair again!
I say a constitution does a much better job than any one person in office at any level. I don't care what party you are, since Eisenhower this country has had crooks for presidents, all of them to some degree, who liked that executive power thing somewhere, some pet project, somewhere down the line we figured out term limit was a good thing; the document has the staying power and a president doesn't. FDR brought that on. So, do we deny them the option to change their constitution, by majority of the people's vote, because we know the outcome is banana republic procedure, look at Chavez or do we support the constitution at all costs? Which way do we lean? Seriously, I think we have witnessed, in the last 20 years, situations which stretch our Supremes and officials to resolve extroadinarily complex issues with intent 200 years old. I feel sure the legal sense of right and wrong should be simple and yet we have made it a mess. There are limits to simple and we have busted every one of them with our banking and automobile failures as big and obvious blunders. So, how do we handle this one? To make it more juicy, since Obama and Bush seem opposites, up the uprisings on the rise because the Bush had a iron hand and Obama speaks softly, not sure about the stick yet? Just a thought and a view..
Hawnzz
Obama isn't going to do anything. This has NOTHING to do with us. (Nor should it.) Let them figure it out...
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Ritarita
And Halloween
Mustache kits.
rapierwits
wow, fairly bloodless coup against an attempted dictator?
SlaveRevolt
Right, the guy wants to change the constitution so he can run again and instead of letting the people decide the military on behalf of the Honduran ruling elite steps in and removes the president just before the referendum. Wow, I wonder which way the vote would have gone?
rapierwits
Hi SlaveRevolt,
Good question. He's got "hundreds" of supporters in the street. I repeat my question from earlier whether soldiers were "upholding and defending the constitution against enemies foreign and domestic" after a judgement by the supreme judiciary against a referendum that is against the Honduran constitution "within six months of an election".
You are, of course correct in implying that this is probably NOT the constitutional procedure for removal of a president from office, but I haven't read the whole thing yet.
SlaveRevolt
Rapierwits:
"Good question. He's got "hundreds" of supporters in the street."
Ah, yes, that explains why the military would kidnap him right before the referendum instead of letting the Honduran people decide. Because it probably would have gone the way the military and Honduran bourgeoisie wanted, excellent logic. So they just made themselves look like Nazis and carried out a coup d'etat to prevent something that was likely to go their way? That's absurd. Common sense tells one that were it likely to go the other way they would've stood pat.
Thank you.
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