There was a coup d’état last week in Honduras. At first, it appeared to be a military coup: photos and video showed the Honduran Army out and about after units stormed the Presidential Palace and forcibly removed President Manuel Zelaya, the elected head of state, along with allied ministers. Who replaced President Zelaya? A general?

No: the President of the Congress of Honduras, Mr. Roberto Micheletti, became the Provisional President of that country. Someone didn’t read the script for a military coup, eh?

What Happened?

• The Constitution of Honduras limits the President to a single term.
• The President of Honduras wanted to amend the Constitution to allow his reelection.
• The Constitution of Honduras prohibits the amendment of articles proscribing the term limit and succession of the President.
• The Congress of Honduras rejected the referendum proposed by the President.
• The Supreme Court of Honduras declared such a referendum as illegal.
• The President planned to conduct the referendum, anyway.
• The Congress debated methods to impeach the President (apparently, the Constitution is silent about this).
• The President imported ballots for the referendum from Venezuela, where they were prepared.
• The President fired the Army chief of staff for his refusal to support the referendum.
• The Supreme Court, to prevent an illegal referendum, directed the Army to remove the President.
• The Army removed the President.
• The Supreme Court swore in as Provisional President the President of the Congress, a man who is a member of the (former) President’s party and who cannot run for the office himself in the upcoming November election (he lost the primary to another in his party).
• The members of the Organization of American States, along with many other nations, condemned the coup and seek to return the (former) President to his country, where he faces up to 18 specific legal charges.

And, that’s the story, in a proverbial nutshell.

Background

Did any member of the government of Honduras support President Zelaya’s referendum?

• No. Not the electoral court, the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Congress, or members of Mr. Zelaya’s own political party supported it. The courts told him that his planned referendum was illegal; yet, President Zelaya was determined to conduct it, anyway.
• Apparently, the Honduran Supreme Court assigned the Army the responsibility to remove Mr. Zelaya from the Presidency. (That action may not be permitted by the Constitution, either.) Answering to civilian control, the Army removed Mr. Zelaya—at night—from the Presidential Palace.

Did the Army quietly execute him by firing squad?

• Nope. Instead, the cruel usurpers of the public will forced the former President onto an airplane and, cruelest of all, sent him to…Costa Rica. Talk about torture!
• Personally, I wonder if some of the Honduran journalists who were murdered during Zelaya’s administration would have preferred similar treatment.

Zelaya’s Accomplishments

Okay, it’s only right to be fair to the ousted President. So, I’ll set aside my very subtle sarcasm and list most of President Zelaya’s more famous successes or accomplishments in office:

• Called upon the US to legalize drugs (2008) to lower or eliminate drug-related violence in Honduras
• Aligned Honduras with the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA, in Spanish) (2008)—ALBA is an initiative of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to counter the US-led Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA, in Spanish)
• Announced plans to initiate government monitoring of all cell phones in Honduras (2009)—the National Committee for Human Rights called this “police terrorism”
• Sought to de-fund the two Honduran agencies responsible for running and monitoring elections in the nation
• Depite promises to double the number of police and to control gangs, the crime rate has risen significantly

These are just a list of Zelaya’s accomplishments; some are, to me, insignificant. If Central and South American states want to leave the US-led free trade programs and treaty, fine. ALBA is more about creating a multi-national currency and promoting socialist agenda than it is about free trade. Chavez’s Venezuelan oil revenues underpin the organization, and it really is not of concern to this nation. Silencing journalists through murder and threats of murder and tapping all cell phones, however, are matters of grave concern.

The Constitutional Question

Manuel Zelaya’s term as President was to expire next year, following elections in November. However, he began his attempt to change the Constitution to remove the one-term limit for his office in 2008.

The Constitution of Honduras allows all but eight of its articles to be amended by the President without referendum. These include law concerning the:

• Term limits of elected officials
• System of government
• Succession of the Presidency

Since the President’s purpose in holding his referendum was to change the articles that cannot be legally changed, the Honduran Supreme Court prohibited the referendum as illegal. Zelaya, who as President was responsible for upholding the Constitution and the rule of law, rejected the Supreme Court decision. He subsequently fired the Chief of Staff of the Honduran Army because he would not conduct the referendum in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Both the Supreme Court and the Congress, including most members of Mr. Zelaya’s party, hold that this dismissal was illegal.

Popular Support

Estimates of Zelaya’s popularity, before the coup, are that he was supported by only 25% of the populace. In fact, there was a large demonstration in Tegucigalpa against President Zelaya on June 27^th. On the other hand, at least some unions and farm groups supported the referendum because they believed Zelaya would implement reforms favorable to the working poor in Honduras.

Our Official Position on This

Our Department of State, along with every other member nation of the Organization of American States, condemned the coup and demanded the perpetrators reinstate President Zelaya as head of state.

Sounds reasonable and, yes, somewhat refreshing. The US not behind a banana republic putsch? That’s a change.

Consequences Intended or Unintended

So far, the “winner” in this mess, on the public relations front, at least, is [drum roll, please]: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. From late 2007 onward, Zelaya increasingly aligned himself and his country with Chavez and, by extension, with the Castro regime in Cuba and Morales in Bolivia.

Our problem is today no different from when we supported completely military juntas, anywhere for any reason. The thing is, that the many severely disadvantaged working poor in Central and South America have legitimate issues. And, they look to government to help them improve their lot as well as get off of their collective backs. The problem is, that neither socialism nor republican democracy have done a great job of providing such reforms as the poor need. A dictator is a dictator regardless of the brand of government he claims to provide.

On the other hand, it is not apparent that the removal of Manuel Zelaya resulted from elites attempts to turn back the social clock. The root cause may just have been the lack of a clear method of impeachment in the Constitution of Honduras.