You could not be more wrong about what is happening in Honduras; personally I blame the US media. Then again, when have they covered a story, much less an international news item, correctly in recent history? And at the end of the day, that is what this is about, recent history tainting the current situation based on out-dated USA-Latin American memes.
First off, let's correct a glaring mistake in the current diary by Turkana:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
In English, that first requirement is that the president be someone who was born in Honduras. But according to this website, the man installed by the coup, Roberto Micheletti, was born in Lombardy! As in Italy! If true, not only can Micheletti not be installed as president, he can't even be elected to be president!
Roberto Micheletti is the SON of Italian immigrants who was born in Yoro, Honduras. He is also a member of the same part as Zelaya, the Liberal Party of Honduras. Micheletti's claim to fame is starting cielo.com, a social media platform combination of what you know as Facebook & Twitter.
Update: So here is the part of the Constitution in question:
El ciudadano que haya desempeñado la titularidad del Poder Ejecutivo no podrá ser Presidente o Vicepresidente de la República. El que quebrante esta disposición o proponga su reforma, así como aquellos que lo apoyen directa o indirectamente, cesarán de inmediato en el desempeño de sus respectivos cargos y quedarán inhabilitados por diez años para el ejercicio de toda función pública.
This basically says what I was saying, with a caveat that this is also listed as a Constitutional crime, and not a criminal crime. It beyond treason against state. While the enforcement of this crime is a bit vague, one of the options on the table is exile. Which they did. The Constitutional crime verdict was handed down by the Supreme Court of Honduras and the execution of the punishment was handed down by a court of law.
So there you go.
And I might add, dropping off your former president in a foreign airport in his pajamas does show a certain style I have always loved in Latin America.
Once I find the exile statue in text link format, I will supply.
He more than fulfills the obligations required by the Articulos Petreos. Now petreo means rock or stone, as in written in stone. This is where the issues with Zelaya come into play.
http://hondurans4democracy.blogspot.com/
The Presidential survey (it is not a referendum) this Sunday seeks to establish a National Constituent Assembly with ample powers to discard the current constitution. President Zelaya has expressed on the government TV that he should have the right to be re-elected like other government officials. Thus it is clear that this is one of his objectives. In foreign interviews he says he will hand government over on January 27, but locally he adds, "unless the people (his people) ask him to stay".
If our country is flawed, it is due to the lack of ability and honesty of our leaders, such as Zelaya. During his term he has killed the Poverty Reduction Strategy, blocked projects to construct water power plants and promoted Carbon power plant projects for unknown reasons, protected corrupt officials of his government, he has increased our foreign debt to historical heights (after it had been condoned) and increased internal debt almost breaking retirement funds in the country, aside from a series of other problems. Currently, the government works without a budget because he has failed to present it to Congress since September 2008. There are serious problems the country has to solve such as the H1N1 pandemic, the consequences of the recent earthquakes, especially with levy protection against flooding (like New Orleans) now that the hurricane season is starting. Instead he is spending government funds in his re-election strategy.
President Zelaya talks of a new, better kind of Democracy where the representatives in Congress will be chosen by social organizations, such as worker unions, peasant unions, teacher unions and other social organizations, in other words, a new version of Lenin’s Proletarian Dictatorship. This model of the 60s, 70s and 80s has been tried and failed because it limits representation to a few. Yet he ironically claims that the other branches of the government and the "Oligarchies" are the ones who want to keep power in the hands of a few.
Thus, with the survey and fourth ballot, President Zelaya seeks to break the constitutional order, to defeat the constitution and change the rules of representation. That is why the majority of the Honduran people oppose this survey. That is why Congress opposes it. That is why the Supreme Court and the judicial system oppose it. That is why the Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, opposes it. That is why the churches oppose it. That is why the Honduran Bar Association opposes it. That is why the military oppose it. That is why we, the people oppose it.
Article 64 of our valid constitution protects itself from the passing of laws that contradict any other article in it, specially the seven non-amendable articles. There is also an article that states that no referendums or surveys can be held within 180 days before the general elections. Mel’s survey would therefore involve going against each of these articles, and ultimately assault the constitution as a whole. Our legislative and judicial institutions are aware of this, declaring it an illegal action. Our armed forces have rejected the commands from the president, because they refuse to participate in an illegality, causing further discourse. The news channels and newspapers have encountered themselves with people who have been offered money in exchange for their vote, and a woman was even denied service at a public hospital because she refused to sign in favor of the ballot.
International organizations like the OAS have responded. However, they are listening to the ambassador of Honduras who is appointed by the executive power, and so the people feel ignored. As a reaction, the capital city organized a peaceful march this morning, of between 10 to 15 thousand people dressed in white to promote peace, liberty, and democracy, following the example of a similar protest earlier this week with over 100,000 participants in the industrial capital. These people have a voice too, and internationally nobody is fighting for them. They asked that something be done to stop the instability that is destroying our democracy.
At this point, let us clarify that we, the authors do not seek the intervention of other governments, but given that the president’s side is involving foreign powers such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, we feel that international pressure should be brought upon these countries so they DO NOT interfere. We would also like to clarify that we do not support the breaking of constitutional order. We hope the president can finish his term in office normally, in peace on January 27th 2010, as is established by the law.
Now this comes from a Honduran, not some news desk at CNN. But as you can see, if anything, this coup d'état was actually to preserve the entire state structure supported by the rule of law. This wasn't a palace revolt; it was about accountability of the executive.
As another Honduran says:
http://www.ireport.com/...
In trying to create a legal and "democratic" facade for his project, Zelaya used one of the statutes of his "Citizen's power" initiative, which is the "Law of Citizens' participation", in which the people can put request to the government to conduct surveys about the peoples opinion. The problem is that no one to be asked about their will to change the constitution. This was fabricated by Zelaya, by threatening public employees to fire them, if they do not bring in a quota of "voluntarily" signed requested for this inquiry. So public employees, trying to safeguard their jobs, started forcing people to sign this if they wanted to be treated at hospitals, sold needed medicines, and even have a phone line repaired.
After gathering a certain number of "requests", he started moving for the installation of a popular inquiry, in which he would ask if the people wanted a new constitution, and which was going to take place today. The issue here is that this "popular inquiry" was not sanctioned by any independent and legal body, such as the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and, furthermore, was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Justice, on the grounds that our Constitution forbids anyone on changing the basic, or petrous, articles of it, which state the form of government and the impossibility of re-election.
Finally, I want to remind everyone that this was not a military coup, this was the arrest and destitution of a criminal president, with the help of the military. Proof that it is not a coup, is that as of this moment we already have the Constitutional State of Right re-established, with a new president, and new cabinet. Let us Hondurans be, we have already defenestrated what was causing us such stress, division and unrest, and we will reunite ourselves, to again perform our right of suffrage in 5 months.
Wow, you mean they hold criminal presidents accountable in other democracies? The USA could learn something from the Hondurans here. At least in some Latin American countries leaders are not above the law and are subject to the laws of the land, especially their constitution.
So why are people here on this site and USA media asking for Zelaya, who was removed per provisions in Honduran law, be restored so he consolidate power under a system that haunted Latin America for most of the last century?
Why does the USA media support the over-throw of Latin American constitutions, why is this site doing the same?
Where are the pictures of the 100,000 people marching against Zelaya in Tegucigalpa? Where are the stories of the local support for the constitution, the laws set in stone, instead of just accepting Zelaya's worth as bond, why is no one looking into the events leading up to his ouster?
Why is everyone here and the media just accepting the old tried but true meme of Latin American coup d'état without realizing this was an action by the sovereign people of Honduras to preserve their constitutional government.
Is everyone here seriously for Zelaya being able to re-write the constitution with his hand-picked cronies at a constitutional assembly?
Do you really want to see the feudal system of group representation take hold again in Latin America?
Micheletti already said he is stepping down after the upcoming elections, it's not like he declared himself president for life. In fact, no military personal have taken office. Everyone who has been appointed has been appointed per the laws of the land in Honduras and were already democratically elected.
The Vice-President would be President usually, but he already stepped down due to the unconstitutional actions taken by Zelaya. So in our system that would be Speaker of the House, and funny enough it's basically the same there, Micheletti was "Speaker" of their "House."
Maybe people here are just jealous that there are democracies that can hold rogue executives accountable and that's where this misinformation is coming from, people being petty. Or maybe it's shoddy journalism from the USA media.
Or maybe it's a playful mixture of both.
Either way, do not judge Honduras until you have heard the entire case.