Honduran coup is the first successful military coup d'etat in the region since the Cold War ended
We honeymooned on Roatan, one of Honduras' Bay Islands, and it was not without its political problems. Indeed, martial law was briefly declared on Roatan during our two week stay, after a series of blockades and sabotage in protest of massive rate-hikes from the newly privatized power company. Zelaya's personal handling of that problem was less than perfect. But as developing nations' governments go, Honduras had a pretty stable, relatively non-corrupt government and administration. Certainly, a military coup is less democratic than a leader seeking a mandate to try for a constitutional reform.
U.S. President Barack Obama and the European Union expressed deep concern after troops came for Zelaya, an ally of socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, around dawn and took him away from his residence. He was whisked away to Costa Rica.Army overthrows Honduras presidentZelaya, who took office in 2006 and is limited by the constitution to a four-year term that ends in early 2010, had angered the army, courts and Congress by pushing for an unofficial public vote on Sunday to gauge support for his plan to hold a November referendum on allowing presidential re-election.
Update: Xeni adds, "Regarding the notion that Honduras isn't all that corrupt -- I have some experience with the country, not in resort areas but in the poor/average areas, and it's bad. Wealth highly inequally distributed, but more importantly to the point of your statement, there is extreme and widespread corruption. So much so that Honduras placed WORSE than both Nigeria and Rwanda in transparency.org's list of corruption by country. They're worse than Nigeria and Rwanda. That's terrible. "
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Strictly speaking, the army removed him because he was trying to extend his term even though the Supreme Court ruled against his referendum. The military seems to have acted on the orders of the Supreme Court. It appears more likely that a would-be dictator was ousted before he could seize power in a more permanent fashion. The alternative, of course, is to violate the Constitution and ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court.
I'm very reluctant to take any position on this, as it seems to be far more complex and nuanced than a simple coup d'etat; saying that "a military coup is less democratic than a leader seeking a mandate to try for a constitutional reform" could end up sounding quite uninformed once more information comes out.
It seems to me that the rest of the government, and even his own party, strongly disliked the President, and that he may have been doing things that were quite questionable; the fact that the referendum may have involved allowing him to run for office again is certainly suspect. Some sources I've read imply that a major cause of the ousting was that there is no method of impeachment under Honduran law, and thus the military carried this out not under their own volition, but under orders from both the Supreme Court and the legislature. The fact that he was replaced with a member of his own party instead of a military officer is also interesting.
However, it does seem that the military and the government there are losing the PR battle horridly. Zelaya seems to have the majority of articles quoting him rather than the government, and seems to have found the support of most international organizations and foreign governments. It can be contrasted with the coup d'etat in Pakistan, which, despite the corruption issues, was unquestionably a coup, and yet resulted in a PR success for the military.
This is not the first military coup in Latin America since the end of the cold war. Their was an attempted military coup in Venezuela in 1992, and a successful (for two days) one in 2002. Let's see what happens in the next two days before we classify this one as a truly successful coup d'état.
surprisingly insightful article about what's happened and why. Not eveything is black & white.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-286803
tweets since the crack of dawn!: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23honduras
i also need to do some more reading on this.
bbc are saying he was running for second term, not third.
they also said this:
"In a speech, he said that he had not assumed power "under the ignominy of a coup d'etat".
The army had complied with the constitution, he said, and he had reached the presidency "as the result of an absolutely legal transition process". "
"transition process". orwell - it would have all been too much for you.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8123513.stm
The President was the one who tried to stage a coup. Imagine if you will:
George W. Bush decides to stay in office past two terms. He doesn't have the support to get it through Congress, so he decides to hold a popular referendum. But our Constitution doesn't allow such a thing. He tries to push it through. The Supreme Court shuts him down. Despite it being unconstitutional and rejected by the Supreme Court, he engages the machinery of the State to do it anyway. That would be a coup d'etat. Just because the person doing it is Latin American doesn't make it any less creepy.
In the past decade, a fair few heads of state in various countries have attempted (usually successfully) to extend their term of office, sometimes indefinitely. In other countries (Argentina, Pakistan, India, the US once and almost the US again, etc.) the leadership of the country now passes directly to the spouse or child of the head of state.
This is the biggest and scariest political tend on the planet. Think about every major political event in the past decade. Now think about them in the context of how they fit in with lifetime and hereditary presidencies.
The military politely dumped an alive and healthy Zelaya in another country. Prison or execution would have been a completely acceptable response to his coup attempt.
What I find interesting is that those who support the removal of Zelaya aren't interested in how popular he was. It's ok for the supreme court to have him removed because they feel the Constitution is inviolate and nobody should ever be allowed to affect a change of it? What if the vast majority of the population supported a change?
Currently, it appears to be the case that you can not be re-elected *at all*.
As for not having the support of his own party, that isn't surprising since it seems that he has changed ideologically to be quite far from their own positions.
What I think is critical here (and critical in democracy) is not the raw procedural legal situation, but rather what the people want, and whether this coup is effecting that.
Nothing is what it appears to be down in Honduras, that is certain. This country has the least amount of arable water in Latin America. It is one of the poorest countries. It was used for years as the jumping off point for Iran-Contra operations, and for coups in El Salvador and Guatemala as well. Its populace is ethnically divided between the haves (who can read, own cars, own the businesses, run the military, and own a lot of the land), and the have nots (who often are poorly educated, walk everywhere, own very little, and have few chances for advancement beyond their lot in life). The "haves" are closely tied with a lot of right wing activities and groups like the School of the Americas. There are also at least three factions within the military who hold different points of view about how the country should be run.
All of these groups of people have their own points of view about what was right and wrong in this situation. It is very clear to me that the "haves" are running a psyops campaign to make it appear that they are in the right and that the political process is doing what was intended- no coup here, please move along.
But the other side of it, the side you need to pay attention to, is what are the backgrounds and associations of the players involved, and who holds their purse strings. The guy who led the coup, he is a graduate of the School of the Americas (or whatever they have renamed it this year). You also need to consider that this "illegal referendum" was also non-binding. It was just a poll. For this, a coup? Who was afraid of what might happen if popular votes led to peaceful democratic changes in the Honduran constitution? Who stood to lose the most? It wasn't the campesinos, I think.
That, and the Reuters article was disingenuous at best- not mentioning that Soto Cano was used in staging and coordinating the Contras in the mid-80s, ignoring the rampant human rights abuses of the military before this current government, and trying to make the American presence there look sweet and innocent.
There was not one coup attempt in Venezuela in 1992, but two: the first in February 1992 and the second one in November 1992.
though Honduras has a large English-speaking native minority, so "Latin American" may not be the right word here
The CIA World Factbook lists only Spanish and Amerindian languages for Honduras, and Wikipedia puts the English-speaking populations at "less than 0.3%".
Are you perhaps confusing Honduras with Belize, which was formerly known as British Honduras?
The election, or, as someone already noted, the poll, that was staged for yesterday and that the military prevented to happen, was to ask the people IF they wanted an election to reform a constitution.
The reform of the constitution would have included the removal of limits to reelection, just as it is in a lot of democracies all over Europe.
Zelaya's presidency ends in november. There's no way that the constitutional reform would be approved by then, so he could not aspire to another presidential term. And he has denied repeatedly to has such aspirations.
I'd suggest to read this two spanish articles to have a better understanding of the situation: one and two.
For more reading on the topic in general check out Paul Collier's latest "War, guns and votes: Democracy in dangerous places". Whether you wind up agreeing with his notions, it is an interesting read. He looks at a cost/benefit said leaders would likely undertake as they assess their options.
As far as amending the constitution to allow such a thing, isn't it the way of a democracy to allow such a referendum? I mean, if US states amassed support for a measure and it was ultimately ratified that would be allowable, wouldn't it? I don't know that they would. But that is how we wound up with term limits in the 50s. I guess I didn't realize seeking constitutional amendments was undemocratic.
Honduras has always been a Latin American country.
The grouping includes all the countries were Spanish and Portuguese is spoken in the American continent (The Dominican Republic is one, Haiti isn't, in spite of both being in the same island).
Even Puerto Rico is normally considered part of Latin America, with time, even the US may actually have a claim to be part of it.
Zach de la Rocha will be delivering an achingly earnest denouncement of the coup on MTV at 11:00am EST.
Agree with the comment #8, to which I should ad that the media is not helping Americans understand the real situation.
As an example, President Obama is meeting with Colombia's President Uribe, who has been in power for almost ten years thanks to a reform he pushed through congress and is trying to force (and I mean force) the issue once more so he can be reelected even two more times, what gives!
(PS: I am not going to go through Colombia's record in human right abuses and squandering of the US taxpayers money in the now almost notorious War on Drugs)
@JACOBIAN
Your comment is terrifying beyond belief. Constitutions (well the US Constitution at least) was written with certain checks and balances for a reason. Just because he was popular should have no baring on one person circumventing the laws of the land to make a power grab.
Let's imagine GWB doing the same thing immediately following 9/11 at the height of his popularity.
The bottom line is that Constitutions are not "living and breathing". There are ways to amend them, but working outside of that system is dangerous and should not be accepted under any circumstances.
#8 - Thank you.
We know the CIA would *never* intervene in such a manner to protect U.S. business interests, right?
Never:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-negroponte1a,0,294534.story
Democracy is bad. Seriously. Democracy sucks. Just because 51% of the population is for something doesn't suddenly mean that that is the just, moral, or wise course of action to take. If 51% of the population wanted to enslave the other 49%, that would be democratic, but it would also be wrong.
So, democracies have found a way to lesson this moral hazard. They have constitutions and independent judiciaries. Constitutions spell out exactly what it is that democracies can NOT do, and independent judiciaries ensure that people without political motivation see to it that the constitution is upheld. El presidante here tried to violate both. He ran into a constitutional road block. He brought it to the courts where he was shot down. He then tried to use the machinery of the state to carry out his agenda anyways. The army picked his ass up and tossed it over the border on the orders of the judiciary.
Good.
I think someone already gave the best analogy. This is like a US president deciding that because he is really popular, he deserves and extra term in office. Amending the constitution takes too long and is too hard, so he decides that fuck it, lets just have a big vote. The Supreme Court shoots it down, and he tells the state to ignore the supreme court. The supreme court than orders the arrest of the president of the violation. The order is carried out. That isn't a coup. This tossing out a criminal who decided to ignore the constitution and void the judiciary.
I say, good for Honduras.
@Jacobian
No, it doesn't matter at all how popular he was. The entire point of a system of checks and balances, which the Honduran constitution has, is to prevent mob rule and keep one branch of government from taking precedence over the others. No president, no matter how popular, is entitled to break the law. In any country,
He was a lawbreaker who was legally arrested after defying Congress and the Supreme Court and attempting to unilaterally rewrite the constitution. Hardly a "coup."
Calling this a "military coup" is like calling a President's arrest in our country a "police coup" or an "FBI coup." A "coup" is the military seizing power, not arresting someone as directed by the courts. Zelaya had already fired the past Army chief for refusing to violate the law by distributing the ballots.
For those of you concerned about democracy, there is a method for legally holding a constitutional referendum in Honduras. It has to be supported by the Honduran Congress. I fail to see how requiring legislative approval is undemocratic.
So it was a simple hostage-taking? It seems the man behind the overthrow was also trained at the school of americas...
There's a great discussion on this going on over at economixt - http://www.economixt.com/2009/06/military-overthrows-honduras-president
Honeymooning on Roatan?! Hardly any real insight to Honduras.
Not very corrupt?! You really don't know the place.
I liked Zelaya, he should have tried to take smaller steps and appear less aligned with Chavez. He then probably could have achieved more. He certainly has good leader qualities.
What should be worrying those in and out of Honduras even more is how it is converting to a narco-estado.
Funny how it happened the same day a very important election was held in Argentina.
surprisingly insightful article about what's happened and why. Not eveything is black & white.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-286803
Good to get one perspective, I do find it interesting that the author and most of the people in the comments claim to speak for the *majority* of Hondurans. Do most Hondurans have internet access and browse diy news sites? There was something kind of telling about one of the other comments that was glowing with praise about the piece, the commenter who also claims to represent the majority of Hondurans says: Stop confusing the Honduran people that don't know how to read and write! They are the ones that watch TV the most because they don't have internet or other services to investigate the situation thoroughly.
I am Honduras I live in the capital.
You do not even have a clue, what happened here., NOT JUST jesterday, but months!
I AM A NORMAL WORKING PERSON, that has to go to work every day to earn a living.
WE HAVE A CIVIL GOVERMENT, when there is a military coup, the military take the rule of the country..and that is NOT happening here. THE MILITARY ARE SUPPORTING THE SECURTY OF US, THAT´S IT!!
THE PRESIDENT ZELAYA BROKE THE LAW!!, HE NEVER SAID SOMETING ABOUT A REFERENDUM, BECAUSE THERE IS ALREADY A LAW FOR THAT...HE ALWAYS SAY A "SURVEY"..FOR THAT YOU HIRE A COMPANY TO MAKE IT, INSTED HE BROKE INTO THE AIR FORCE AIRPORT ON THRUSDAY JUNE 25 WITH A GANG OF PEOPLE PAID BY HIM, TO COLLECT THE MATERIAL FROM THAT "SURVEY" COMING IN A PLANE FROM VENEZUELA!!..YES FROM VENEZUELA??
HE FIRED THE ARMED FORCE CHIEF BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT TO BRAKE A THE LAW, A RESOLUTION OF THE SUPREME COURT WAS THE "EVENT" WAS ILEGAL.
PLEASE BE MORE RESPONSABLE WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS TOPIC YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT OUR CONSTITUTION STANDS FOR, TO TALK WITH FACTS, BECAUSE NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW..EVEN IF WE ARE A POOR COUNTRY WE HAVE ELECTION EVERY 4 YEAR AND THAT IS WHAT ALL HONDURAN WANT, AND WITH CHAVEZ INFLUENCE WE WERE GOIN TO BECOME ANOTHER VENEZUELA, CUBA OR ECUADOR.
THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA IS WAY LOST OF THE REAL FACTS.
WE DO NOT WANT ANY CHAVEZ INFLUENCE HERE!!
log on into: www.latribuna.hn the most serious and ethic paper,It´s in Spanish, but please have an spanish speaker to translate to you, so you will know what really happened.
GOD BLESS MY COUNTRY!
It matters very little if the vote was just a "poll". What matters is what Zelaya planned to do with those results, in addition to the fact that the Honduran Court and Congress told him he could not conduct the referendum. He is still held accountable under the rule of law. This was not a coup d'etat, this was an act to uphold the Honduran Constitution. Some of these comments have implied that WHISC has something to do with what has happened and that the Honduran military is acting in a sinister fashion, but fail to identify that Venezuela and Chavez(a failed coup instigator) supplied that ballots for that "poll". Who is really in violation here? We need to point the finger south, and not at ourselves or Ft Benning.
addressing the update: Rwanda's president, Paul Kigame, for all his flaws is staunchly anti-corruption. He runs the country with an iron fist, but won't stand for an nepotism or any other form of patronage, due in no small part to the country's history of violence and his own part in it.
#25 beat me to the punch: According to my wife & her family, all Hondurans, Zelaya has been too friendly with Chavez and has been trying to push Honduras towards becoming another Venezuela or Cuba.
I'm not sure when Honduras instituted the one-term limit for their President, but it sounds like a good idea for them. The President is elected from the elites, and each one seems to rape the country, becoming rich at the country's expense.
I have a question and i was wondering if any one could help me out... my parents are both in the capital of Honduras right now visiting my uncle who is a diplomat there. Does anyone know when the airports will be re-opening or what the level or safety is htere for my parents is. Thanks
"worse than Rwanda" -- ive read in the New Yorker recently that Rwanda is actually shaping up.
as for "worse than nigeria" -- ok! thats certainly saying something.
but are they "worse than zimbabwe"? thats the gold-standard for corruption. they couldntve hit that milestone yet.
Dear Boing Boing friends,
I am a Honduran citizen living and working in the US. I would like to give my perspective on the situation in Honduras based not only on my experience and knowledge of the situation but also on the information my family is relaying to me from San Pedro Sula (Honduras' industrial city).
The recent political developments in Honduras have been developing over a long period of time. The ex-president Manuel "Mel" Zelaya has been trying to expand his power within Honduras and has been siding with Hugo Chavez and his ideology for some time. Mel was forcibly trying to introduce and carry out an illegal referendum to rewrite the constitution. His ultimate aim was to be able to rule for multiple terms. This referendum was being carried out using the Hugo Chavez handbook. There was direct contribution on behalf of Chavez as his government printed and provided the ballots and boxes to be used in said referendum. The results were already rigged to allow Mel to carry out his constitution rewrite and grant him the capability to continue in power.
After several legal and civil attempts by the Honduran congress and supreme court to put an end to this reform it was obvious that Mel was going to go through with it. He violated the Honduran constitution, abused his power and put the country in danger. As a result, the other branches of government ordered the military to have Mel removed from the presidency on Sunday before he could complete his ilegal referendum. During this action, no one was hurt and there were no deaths. The military followed orders from the Supreme Court. Once Mel was removed and sent to Costa Rica the military was no longer involved and the legislative and judicial branches went about to institute an interim government. There will be regularly scheduled elections in November and a new government will be elected then.
A vast majority of the Honduran people are extremely happy that Mel is no longer the president of Honduras. As a Honduran, I am bursting with pride that we did not let this Chavez puppet carry out his plan. As a country we stood up against the communist ideals that Mel has been favoring over the last couple of years. The courageous actions of the Honduran Supreme Court, Congress and military have saved our country from a terrible fate. Honduras has defended their constitution and will continue to do so. I am proud to be Honduran.
The reports of the protests have been greatly exagerated. There have been some very small (maybe numbering a couple of hundred people) protests. These protests have been concentrated in Tegucigalpa the capital city. I would not be surprised to find out that some of the protestors are from Venezuela and Cuba as they have been inserted into Honduras by Chavez and Castro as trouble makers. On Tueday, you will see a large gathering of peace-loving people of Honduras rally in support of the interim government to show the world that we are united and approve the removal of Mel as president.
I have been terribly disappointed in the incorrect depiction of the situation the majority of the media has been portraying these past couple of days. I have also been disappointed by the international condemnation of the events that transpired. Particularly interesting is that the US government is agreeing with Chavez, Castro and the rest of the leftist leadership that is poisoning the Americas. I believe in my heart that Honduras acted within the legal limits of our constitution for the betterment of the country and hope that when the facts come out, our actions will be applauded. At the end of the day, with or without the support of the international community, Honduras is a better country for standing up and defending its constitution.
Thanks for your time.
VIVA Honduras!
Also note to post #29 - the international airports in Honduras remain open and operational. With a few pockets of protests in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, the majority of the country is going about their days as usual with businesses open and people showing up to work.
The situation of "no re-election" in Honduras is much more drastic than you realise. Number 42.5 of the constitution states
ARTICULO 42.- La calidad de ciudadano se pierde:
5. Por incitar, promover o apoyar el continuismo o la reelección del Presidente de la República;
Which I think says: The quality of citizenry is lost (as opposed to suspended in 41): For the inciting, promotion, or supporing of the continuing or the reelection of the President of the Republic.
The Legislature on Tuesday, had specifically passed a bill prohibiting referendums within 180 days of a General Election, to back up the Supreme Court's finding therein. The National Congress itself already has the authority to allow the considering of Constitutional Reforms by a 2/3 vote, which then need a majority each. However, Number 374 is absolutely clear that the re-election clause can not be modified.
Honduran military just obey theirs order and to react as soon as possible, in condition to maintain constitutions. President Manuel Zelaya's referendum could make instability condition in Honduras and emerge political crisis in Honduras. Honduras military took him out of from his country because of this reason.
Tim Dzurilla over at economixt has some great observations from fairtrade coffee farmers in Nicaragua. There seems to be a large sentiment, at least in this example, that corruption is a way of life, and tolerated to a degree in the instituions of south america. It seems that corruption, a certainly extra-legal transgression, underscores much of the trouble in the region. This too, it would seem, is a poignant testament to institutional weakness in the region.
You can check out his article here:
economixt
http://www.economixt.com/2009/07/honduras-and-global-vigilance
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/05/manuel-zelaya-to-head-to-_n_225889.html