The Weekly N&C for June 29th, 2009

Why is this case different?

Short and to the point for today:

Why is the case of Honduras forcibly removing its sitting President...

as reported by The AP and by Reuters (quoting the Cuban government!) and by The BBC

...different from cases like Madagascar (2009) and Haiti (2004)? (note the language in the UNSC resolution about Haiti completely accepting the forcible removal of a sitting President)

It is different because, as Mary Anastasia O'Grady observes in today's WSJ, this time the levers of power in organizations like the OAS and in the hands of some advisers to the current American administration are no friends of rule-of-law democracy. She writes:

The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that "the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called 'democratic charter.' It seems to believe that only military 'coups' can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove." A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza's judgment is that he doesn't mind the Chávez-style coup.

Remember, elections and plebiscites must be part of a constitutional process or they are nothing more than tools to be used to place the patina of legitimacy on autocracy...

"The Man of December", Napoleon III of France, knew very well about all that.

He managed both an autogolpe and a national referendum to legitimize his seizing absolute power and establishing the Second French Empire.

More democracies die by suicide than by murder.

Maybe, just maybe, Honduras has avoided a death of the Republic for now.

That is, if the murderers out there can be kept at bay.

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End Notes:

All noted citations are embedded in the text as links.

For your amusement and edification as to what an autogolpe (self-coup) is, here is an incomplete list of historical examples of leaders in power "legitimately" that have chosen to seize power "absolutely". Note that the Elias autogolpe of 1993 Guatemala failed precisely because of an intervention by the institutions of the nation against him.