PrintSeptember 21, 2009
Obama bullies Honduras
Now that Barack Obama leads American foreign policy, the ugly Yanqui bully is back in Central America. Today's Wall Street Journal continues it's coverage of US bullying the small Central American country of Honduras. The cause of the Obama administration's ire was the removal of former President Manuel Zelaya by the Honduran Supreme Court and Honduran Congress. If you followed the story in the antique media, the removal of Zelaya was a right wing coup preventing the left-leaning president from helping the poor. The Obama administration concurred with the coup d'etat story line and began pushing Honduras to take their ousted president back with a series of increasingly harsher actions culminating in the refusal to grant visas to Hondurans and cutting off all US aid to that tiny nation.
The Wall Street Journal and the author of The America's column, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, had a slightly different take on those events and lays out the argument that what transpired in Honduras wasn't a coup at all, but a leader who was deposed lawfully for violating the Honduran Constitution. The Wall Street Journal's version of events includes facts left out in other reporting, now backed up by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
"... a report filed at the Library of Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides what the administration has not offered, a serious legal review of the facts. "Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system," writes CRS senior foreign law specialist Norma C. Gutierrez in her report."
All of the evidence to date clearly shows that the country of Honduras did the right thing both legally and morally, and helped prevent the rise of a leftist regime in Central America allied with Cuba and Venezuela. The actions of the Hondurans protected the Honduran Constitution and the separation of powers enumerated therein. There was no massive loss of life, nor a military coup; instead, there was an orderly transition to a new civilian leader (from the same political party as the ousted President).
Instead of rewarding the Honduran judiciary and Congress the Obama administration revoked their US visas. Can you imagine the outcry if George Bush had revoked the visas of an independent foreign judiciary because he didn't like their ruling? The Obama administration's actions display a pettiness and arrogance that run counter to the man who famously said "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist". This is yet another example that Obama says and what he does are often two different things.
When Obama said "Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace. We are ready to lead once more," what he meant was there is a new bully on the playground.
