Friday, September 4, 2009

Everybody against Honduras

In June Honduras president Manuel Zelaya was deposed from the presidency on the order of the country's Supreme Court. Zelaya had violated the constitution by seeking a referendum to change the one-term limit on the presidency. The outside world, led by Venezuela, has called what happened a "coup" and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated as president. But they are all wrong since it wasn't a coup. The laws of Honduras were followed and now there will be new presidential elections in November.

What happened in Honduras is described in this July BBC report. Like everybody else the US abandoned Honduras in what seems a move to please the left-leaning Latin American continent. Wall Street Journal's reporter on Latin American affairs likens the US treatment of Honduras to old time US imperialism in Latin America, although this time to support a left-wing movement. Read Mary Anastasia O'Grady's latest column here.

Yesterday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Manuel Zelaya. The US is now increasing its pressure on the Honduran government by holding back financial support. See BBC article here and Department of State press release here.

The US, the EU and everybody else should stop interfering in Honduras democracy. Not even Zelaya's own party wants him back so why should other countries want it?

4 comments:

  1. U.S. policy in Latin America will forever lean whichever way best serves the interests of the party in power. We need internationally agreed upon standards which dictate the criteria for inter-country involvement, and at the top of that list should be flagrant human rights abuses that offend human consciousness, like the "honor" murders tolerated in Muslim communities all over the world! Really, what is more hideous than the forced genital mutilation of a young girl. Until there is an international consensus regarding what actions against humankind will not be tolerated, we only look like, and are, hypocrites when it comes to our use of economic sanctions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tony Blair has made the case for humanitarian intervention and in building an international consensus his speech from April this year would be a good starting point. Link to speech: http://tonyblairoffice.org/2009/04/tony-blair-speech-to-chicago-c.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tony Blair's 2009 Chicago speech has a new address:
    http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/speeches/entry/tony-blair-speech-to-chicago-council-on-global-affairs/

    ReplyDelete