President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras has been scheming for a way to stay in power, and decided to use the old "plebiscite in support of my righteousness" play to get a major constitutional re-write underway... one which would by the way let him keep his job.
The Supreme Court of Honduras took one look at the preparations for the referendum and said no. The top electoral body, and human-rights ombudsman have also declared it illegal.
Upon receiving orders to distribute voting materials, the Armed Forces Chief cited the Supreme Court ruling and said he would not... and got fired on Wednesday. The Defense Minister, the heads of the Air Force and the Navy all followed him and resigned.
And...
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Gen. Vásquez be reinstated, ramping up its conflict with the president. Mr. Zelaya refused and called the ruling "an embarrassment for Hondurans." Meanwhile, Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubí asked Congress to oust Mr. Zelaya.Here's the Wall Street Journal article on this, today. Reuters Alertnet has had it piece by piece the last few days. Needless to say, it is all over the America's Spanish-language media.
To make one point clear: M. Zalaya has so little support in the political system that his own party has already picked out a new candidate to run in the Presidential Election planned for this fall. But he's a Chavista, in style if not in actual affiliation. That means he commands a large number of supporters amongst the poor (who are only slightly less poor after his payoff schemes), and he intends to get his way by the means of demagogy.
This is very bad anywhere. In Honduras it would be a national disaster.
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