The President of Honduras found himself on the way to Costa Rica this morning after being rousted from his presidential chambers in his pajamas by the army. In what the president later referred to as a “brutal kidnapping”, the army rolled tanks through the streets and put Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on the next plane for Costa Rica. If he could talk about it later, it doesn’t seem to have all that brutal, to me, remembering other coups in the area over the years.
It seems the president got on the wrong side of everyone in the country by attempting a Chavez-inspired rewriting of the Constitution. According to the Baltimore Sun he was all by himself;
Zelaya, a leftist allied with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was arrested shortly before polls were to open in a referendum on whether to change the constitution. The Supreme Court ruled the referendum illegal and everyone from Congress to members of his own party opposed it. Critics said Zelaya wanted to remove limits to his re-election.
Of course, President Obama voted “not present” on the issue of a neighbor in our hemisphere;
“I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” Obama said in a statement.
“Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.”
Well, if you want to talk about democratic norms, the Honduran Supreme Court seems to come down on the Army’s side;
The Supreme Court said it supported the military action, which it said was aimed at defending the constitution.
Reuters reports that Chavez isn’t being as shy as Obama about this coup;
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was attacked or kidnapped.
Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, his close ally.
Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chavez said he would do everything necessary to “abort” the coup.
The commie suck wads at Venezuelanalysis are claiming that Chavez said the US is behind the coup. And he ain’t being shy about what his reaction will be;
The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, manifested his rejection, this Sunday, of the kidnapping of the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by that nation’s military, and said that North American imperialism and the extreme right are behind this act.
“Soldier, empty out your riffle [sic] against the oligarchy and not against the people,” he said, adding, “These solders are going to know what the people are when the people start to go out into the streets.”
Lemme see, now, that’s Iran, North Korea and Venezuela all accusing us of interfering in their business in the space of two weeks. North Korea is threatening Hawaii with missiles and Chavez is threatening the US and Honduras. Iran is just taking their belligerence out their own people for the time being. Until the concoct some reason to start a war with us, too.
In the meantime, we can rest assured that our President is concerned about all of this.
Added: El Universo writes that Chavez threatened the Honduran Army (in my Calle J translation);
President Hugo Chavez said that he won’t recognize any president who takes an oath in Honduras instead of Manuel Zelaya, who was removed from the country Sunday by the military on the day that was going to realize a referendum on the possibility of the presidential re-election.
“If they administer an oath to Micheletti (Roberto Micheletti, president of the Congress of Honduras), or to Peleletti or Gafetti or Goriletti we will overthrow, it. We will overthrow it, I say” , Chávez said, reported Reuters.
“We will make all whole which is what we must do so that Manuel Zelaya is returned to his office”….
