Honduras Congress will NOT reinstate Zelaya

FAUSTA'S BLOG, 12/3/2009 - 111 out of the 128 members of the Honduran Congress present voted against reinstating deposed president Mel Zelaya. The vote came after an all-day session where the Congress reviewed several reports from the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and various members of the political parties, including pro-Zelaya.

Following the vote, the Congress issued an official statement. Read it here (translated by La Gringa)...

Recalling that Obama first took Zelaya's side...
Honduran Parliament to Obama: Pound sand
HOT AIR, 12/3/2009 by Ed Morrissey - The vote is a slap in the face to the Obama administration, which has insisted that the parliament conducted a coup by removing Zelaya from office. After getting slapped by Congress and its Law Library for misstating the facts of Zelaya’s removal, the State Department reluctantly agreed to recognize the regularly-scheduled Honduran presidential election and let Honduras’ parliament determine Zelaya’s status. The White House publicly expected Honduras to restore Zelaya in some capacity for a short transition period.

However, as statements by MPs on the floor show, Obama and his team miscalculated the depth of the insult felt by Hondurans over the US intervention:

Politician after politician insisted that they were right the first time when they voted to oust Mr Zelaya for ignoring a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum on changing the constitution.
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“My vote is [a lesson] for anyone who pretends to perpetuate himself in power. My vote is so that my son can look at me and say ‘Dad, you defended democracy,” said Antonio Rivera of Mr Lobo’s conservative National Party.

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Honduras Congress will NOT reinstate Zelaya

FAUSTA'S BLOG, 12/3/2009 - 111 out of the 128 members of the Honduran Congress present voted against reinstating deposed president Mel Zelaya. The vote came after an all-day session where the Congress reviewed several reports from the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and various members of the political parties, including pro-Zelaya.

Following the vote, the Congress issued an official statement. Read it here (translated by La Gringa)...

Honduran Parliament to Obama: Pound sand
HOT AIR, 12/3/2009 by Ed Morrissey - The vote is a slap in the face to the Obama administration, which has insisted that the parliament conducted a coup by removing Zelaya from office. After getting slapped by Congress and its Law Library for misstating the facts of Zelaya’s removal, the State Department reluctantly agreed to recognize the regularly-scheduled Honduran presidential election and let Honduras’ parliament determine Zelaya’s status. The White House publicly expected Honduras to restore Zelaya in some capacity for a short transition period.

However, as statements by MPs on the floor show, Obama and his team miscalculated the depth of the insult felt by Hondurans over the US intervention:

Politician after politician insisted that they were right the first time when they voted to oust Mr Zelaya for ignoring a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum on changing the constitution.
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“My vote is [a lesson] for anyone who pretends to perpetuate himself in power. My vote is so that my son can look at me and say ‘Dad, you defended democracy,” said Antonio Rivera of Mr Lobo’s conservative National Party. [Emphasis added]

Read More......

Jim DeMint: What I Heard in Honduras

WALL STREET JOURNAL/OPINION, 10/10/2009 by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) - Our ambassador is the only person I met there who thinks there was a 'coup.' Let's release the State Department legal analysis. ∴ In the last three months, much has been made of a supposed military "coup" that whisked former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power and the supposed chaos it has created. ∴ After visiting Tegucigalpa last week and meeting with a cross section of leaders from Honduras's government, business community, and civil society, I can report there is no chaos there. There is, however, chaos to spare in the Obama administration's policy toward our poor and loyal allies in Honduras. Read more at WSJ...

Mr. DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Read More......

U.S. Cancels Visas of Four Honduran Officials

WASHINGTON POST, 7/29/2009 by Mary Beth Sheridan - The U.S. government revoked the visas of four members of Honduras's de facto government Tuesday, escalating the pressure on officials there to reinstate the president, who was kicked out of the country a month ago. Read more at Washington Post...

Added: PAJAMAS TV - Jennifer Rubin Reports: Sen Cornyn & Rep Rohrabacher, Are We Undermining The Honduran Constitution? (6:06) Read More......

Honduran talks snag on proposal for unity govt

BREITBART NEWS, 7/18/2009 by Marianela Jimenez - SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP): Honduras' interim government rejected a mediator's proposal to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya and form a national unity government, throwing negotiations on settling the political crisis into doubt Saturday night. ∴ Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who is mediating the U.S.-backed talks, said both sides agreed to hold more talks Sunday, but he acknowleged they were far apart over how to end the dispute over a June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya and send him int exile. ∴ "We have to make an effort to bring the positions closer," Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending Central America's civil wars, said at the end of Saturday's round of talks. Read more at Breitbart... Read More......

WSJ: Honduras at the Tipping Point

O'Grady, 7/6/2009: Why is the U.S. not supporting the rule of law?
∴ Mr. Chávez is demanding that Mr. Zelaya be reinstated and is even threatening to overthrow the new Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti. He's leading the charge from the Organization of American States (OAS). The United Nations and the Obama administration are falling in line.

Is this insane? You bet. We have fallen through the looking glass and it's time to review how hemispheric relations came to such a sad state. Read it all at WSJ's Opinion Journal...

Related
(Hat tip: Jack) A letter from Florida Congresswoman, Ileana Ros, to President Obama regarding the events taking place in Honduras (PDF) Read More......

A 'coup' in Honduras? Nonsense.

ALG Liberty Alert (via email/hat tip: Linda Weimer), 7/2/2009 By Octavio Sánchez - TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS: Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d'état. That is nonsense. In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.

To understand recent events, you have to know a bit about Honduras's constitutional history. In 1982, my country adopted a new Constitution that enabled our orderly return to democracy after years of military rule. After more than a dozen previous constitutions, the current Constitution, at 27 years old, has endured the longest.
It has endured because it responds and adapts to changing political conditions: Of its original 379 articles, seven have been completely or partially repealed, 18 have been interpreted, and 121 have been reformed.

It also includes seven articles that cannot be repealed or amended because they address issues that are critical for us. Those unchangeable articles include the form of government; the extent of our borders; the number of years of the presidential term; two prohibitions – one with respect to reelection of presidents, the other concerning eligibility for the presidency; and one article that penalizes the abrogation of the Constitution.

During these 27 years, Honduras has dealt with its problems within the rule of law. Every successful democratic country has lived through similar periods of trial and error until they were able to forge legal frameworks that adapt to their reality. France crafted more than a dozen constitutions between 1789 and the adoption of the current one in 1958. The US Constitution has been amended 27 times since 1789. And the British – pragmatic as they are – in 900 years have made so many changes that they have never bothered to compile their Constitution into a single body of law.

Under our Constitution, what happened in Honduras this past Sunday? Soldiers arrested and sent out of the country a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.

These are the facts: On June 26, President Zelaya issued a decree ordering all government employees to take part in the "Public Opinion Poll to convene a National Constitutional Assembly." In doing so, Zelaya triggered a constitutional provision that automatically removed him from office.

Constitutional assemblies are convened to write new constitutions. When Zelaya published that decree to initiate an "opinion poll" about the possibility of convening a national assembly, he contravened the unchangeable articles of the Constitution that deal with the prohibition of reelecting a president and of extending his term. His actions showed intent.

Our Constitution takes such intent seriously. According to Article 239: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years."

Notice that the article speaks about intent and that it also says "immediately" – as in "instant," as in "no trial required," as in "no impeachment needed."

Continuismo – the tendency of heads of state to extend their rule indefinitely – has been the lifeblood of Latin America's authoritarian tradition. The Constitution's provision of instant sanction might sound draconian, but every Latin American democrat knows how much of a threat to our fragile democracies continuismo presents. In Latin America, chiefs of state have often been above the law. The instant sanction of the supreme law has successfully prevented the possibility of a new Honduran continuismo.

The Supreme Court and the attorney general ordered Zelaya's arrest for disobeying several court orders compelling him to obey the Constitution. He was detained and taken to Costa Rica. Why? Congress needed time to convene and remove him from office. With him inside the country that would have been impossible. This decision was taken by the 123 (of the 128) members of Congress present that day.

Don't believe the coup myth. The Honduran military acted entirely within the bounds of the Constitution. The military gained nothing but the respect of the nation by its actions.

I am extremely proud of my compatriots. Finally, we have decided to stand up and become a country of laws, not men. From now on, here in Honduras, no one will be above the law.

Octavio Sánchez, a lawyer, is a former presidential adviser (2002-05) and minister of culture (2005-06) of the Republic of Honduras.

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