{"id":2450,"date":"2009-06-30T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2009-06-30T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T17:30:00","slug":"a-military-coup-in-honduras-not-quite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/30\/a-military-coup-in-honduras-not-quite\/","title":{"rendered":"A Military Coup in Honduras? Not Quite."},"content":{"rendered":"

As is all to often the case our pop culture obsessed, sound bite focused media is either ignoring or deliberately misreporting the facts of what’s happening in Honduras.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s column<\/a> on Honduras in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal you should. In short what happening in Honduras is not a military coup d’\u00e9tat but rather a restoration constitutional rule:<\/p>\n

Hugo Ch\u00e1vez’s coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation’s constitution.<\/p>\n

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.<\/p>\n

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya’s abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.<\/p>\n

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Ch\u00e1vez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.<\/p>\n

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo V\u00e1squez Vel\u00e1squez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.<\/p>\n

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.<\/p>\n

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica. Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Obama Administration’s siding with Hugo Ch\u00e1vez in support Pres. Zelaya is quite telling… Given the choice between standing up for freedom and the rule of law or supporting a tinpot dictator they opted for the tinpot dictator.<\/p>\n

Shame, shame!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is all to often the case our pop culture obsessed, sound bite focused media is either ignoring or deliberately misreporting the facts of what’s happening in Honduras. If you haven’t Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s column on Honduras in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal you should. In short what happening in Honduras is not a military coup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[73],"tags":[745],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-international-affairs","tag-honduras","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-Dw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2851,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/10\/weekend-briefing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":0},"title":"Weekend Briefing – Saturday, October 10, 2009","author":"Jeff","date":"October 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to be tied up with family all weekend but here's a collection of must read links: CBO: Budget deficit hit record $1.4T in 2009 - Associated Press Proposals to create jobs add up to second stimulus - Associated Press A Nobel for Obama - New York Sun Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Afghanistan"","block_context":{"text":"Afghanistan","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/afghanistan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/02\/mikheil-saakashvili-georgia-acted-in-self-defense\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":1},"title":"Mikheil Saakashvili: Georgia Acted in Self-Defense","author":"Jeff","date":"December 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There's always two sides to every story and unfortunately, for the most part the western new media has only told half story about the Russian invasion of Georgia. If you haven't read Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's excellent Op Ed in today's Wall Street Journal you should. Georgia Acted in Self-Defense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2792,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/30\/video-french-president-thinks-obama-is-very-naive-and-egotistical\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":2},"title":"Video: French President Thinks “Obama Is Very Naive and Egotistical”","author":"Jeff","date":"September 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm generally suspicious of anonymous sources but given French President Nicolas Sarkozy's public remarks I'm inclined to take Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Jack Kell at his word here: From the Telegraph: Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, came close to mocking his American counterpart for the good intentions, which Mr Obama had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3775,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/31\/chuck-schumer-we-have-3-branches-of-govt-a-house-a-senate-a-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":3},"title":"Chuck Schumer: ‘We have 3 branches of gov’t — A House, a Senate, a President’…","author":"Jeff","date":"January 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, just wow: Idiot. Umm, Senator Schumer the three branches of Government specified by the Constitution are the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial not the Senate, House and President, you might want to review Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Constitution. It's no wonder we're in the mess\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2081,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/27\/wsj-misconceptions-about-the-interrogation-memos\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":4},"title":"WSJ: Misconceptions About the Interrogation Memos","author":"Jeff","date":"April 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"William McSwain, a assistant U.S. attorney and executive editor of the 2005 Review of Department of Defense Detention Operations and Detainee Interrogation Techniques, commonly called the Church Report has a must read Op Ed in today's Wall Street Journal: President Barack Obama has reinvigorated the critics of George W. Bush's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3407,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/23\/mcchrystal-relieved-petraeus-to-replace\/","url_meta":{"origin":2450,"position":5},"title":"McChrystal Relieved; Petraeus to Replace","author":"Jeff","date":"June 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan, he will be replaced by General David Petraeus: President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander and strategist of the Afghan war,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Afghanistan"","block_context":{"text":"Afghanistan","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/afghanistan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}