Ousted president Jose Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras, a Honduran diplomat in Washington told CNN on Monday. http://tiny.cc/cnn697
As you may know by now Zelaya was removed from power by the military at the direction of Honduras' supreme court. What you may not know is that this change of power was within the power and required under the country's constitution.
"The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's plan to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution and allowed longer term limits. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Micheletti (Zelaya's replacement) and his supporters say that Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup. The United Nations has condemned Zelaya's ouster and does not recognize Micheletti's government. While the United States has called Zelaya's removal a coup, it has not formally designated it a "military coup," which, under U.S. law, would have triggered a cutoff of all non-humanitarian aid."
Mary O'Grady, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, provides a very good analysis why what the U.S. is doing by punishing Honduras violates the very foundations upon which our country is based. http://tiny.cc/wsj418
"Since June 28, the U.S. has been pressuring Honduras to put Mr. Zelaya back in the presidency. But neither Mrs. Clinton's spurious 'rule of law' claims or the tire iron handed her by Mr. Obama to use against this little country have been effective in convincing the Honduran judiciary that it ought to abandon its constitution."
The United States downfall as a constitutional republic can be traced to the FDR administration and the New Deal. As many of you may know FDR threatened to pack the Supreme Court with additional Justices so that he could have a more friendly court which he needed to pass constitutional muster for the New Deal programs. While ultimately the court packing bill died in the Senate the question you have to ask yourself is what would have happened to our country if FDR had went to the people for a referendum about packing the court after the Senate had panned his proposal? Would not the U.S. Supreme Court and the Legislative Branch had the right to arrest FDR for attempting to setup a dictatorship? I think so.
The U.S. has no right to meddle in Honduras' affairs. If the people of Honduras chose to change their Constitution to prevent this type of ouster in the future let them decide it at the ballot box. At least when Bush was President we attempted to support new democracies but now under Obama we are throwing aside the rule of law in favor of allowing a dictator to return to power. Our Founding Fathers must look at us with disdain for what we have become because i certainly do.
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