The government of Honduras, trying to manage having former president Manuel Zelaya sitting in the Brazilian Embassy but stirring up trouble all over the country, made a bad move. Not quite as bad a move as letting Zelaya out of custody in the first place, but a bad move; The executive ordered a suspension of civil liberties.
The only possible good to come of a move like that was shutting down the Zelaya-backing elements of Radio Globo and Channel 36 TV. Fine, but it could have been done differently.
The Congress of Honduras saw all this as bad as well, and *ordered* the restoration of civil liberties. Micheletti is suitably chastised, and the executive order has been recinded.
Some evil coupsters, huh? Still obeying civil authority goes a long way toward making claims of legitmacy stick. That is actually of value now as even the U.S. government is calling Zelaya's stunt "foolish".
Fausta has all about this, in more detail. She has also posted her "Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean" for this week, which remains my favorite overview of public media on Latin America matters. Thank you, Fausta. You're the best.
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2 comments:
Is there some chance the US is finally recognizing the pain signals from stepping out their (our) d!ck in Honduras?
By the way here is a Library of Congress report on the constitutional law issues in the Honduras regime change. It's brief and surprisingly readable.
The conclusion:
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.
However, removal of President Zelaya from the country by the military is in direct
violation of the Article 102 of the Constitution, and apparently this action is currently under
investigation by the Honduran authorities.
@Will
"Is there some chance...?"
I certainly hope so, but with the vested interest certain U.S. administration officials have in being the way they are (...that way being *wrong*, IMO), I can't say when the pain signals will finally reach any part of the executive nervous system able to understand them for what they are.
That Law Library of Congress analysis is a big help though in getting the message out on what happened and from what basis it happened. I had the pleasure of seeing the call for that report made, and got a heads-up (via his press release) of Amb. Otto Reich's efforts to spread the word on that.
Here's hoping people are listening.
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