Dakota Beacon

The Problem: Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya took office in 2006 as the leader of one of the two center-right parties that have dominated Honduran politics for decades. In 2007, he declared himself a socialist, incorporated Honduras into Petrocaribe, a mechanism set up by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez for lavishing oil subsidies on Latin American and Caribbean countries in exchange for political subservience. Then his government joined the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), a political conspiracy that seeks to expand populist dictatorship to the rest of Latin America. In 2008, Zelaya announced that he would hold a referendum to set up a constituent assembly that would change the constitution that barred him from re-election. In the next few months, every legal body in the country declared the referendum unconstitutional. The courts declared that Zelaya had placed himself outside of the law, and Congress began an impeachment procedure. The Honduran military, in an ill-advised move that tainted a perfectly legal mechanism, expelled the president. The constitutional procedure was subsequently followed by having Congress appoint the head of the legislative body, Roberto Micheletti, as interim president, and regularly scheduled elections this November have not been canceled. Two radio stations that advocated public insurrection on Zelaya’s behalf were temporarily shut down. The international response, unfortunately including the United States, seeking to reinstate Zelaya without any mention of his illegal acts, has been highly inadequate and has undermined those who are trying to prevent populism from taking the region back to the times when it was forced to choose between left-wing revolution and military dictatorships. For a complete article on this subject: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/02/zelayas_coup_97275.html A Personal Account: On the day Zelaya was exiled by air from Honduras to Costa Rica, I was in the mountains of neighboring Guatemala as part of a week-long medical/dental mission. During that mission, we heard first-hand accounts of the Guatemalan civil war that began in 1960 with government-initiated “ethnic cleansing” of the Maya population and subsequent guerilla activity in response to the government atrocities. The civil war ended in 1996. Guatemalans we talked to expressed their concern that the Honduran unrest could spill over into Guatemala. A 1999 UN-sponsored report by the Historical Clarification Commission stated that the Guatemalan army was responsible for 93% of the human rights violations of the 36 year civil war, the guerillas for 3%. Both sides employed terror as a deliberate policy. 83% of the civil war’s victims were Maya. The Solution: The elections to be held in Honduras this November will demonstrate the will of all Hondurans for democracy; candidates (chosen prior to Zelaya’s constitutional removal) will run for office on their respective party platforms in a constitutional demonstration of the rule of law. Hondurans look to the U.S. as its model for democracy. The UN’s role: In a non-binding resolution, the UN General Assembly has demanded that Zelaya be returned to office, saying he is the constitutional leader of Honduras, ignoring his constitutional ouster by the Honduran Supreme Court and supported by the Honduran Legislature (two of the three branches of government intended to insure civilian authority over the military). The UN has also suspended cooperation with Honduras’ election commission ahead of the November election, saying conditions were not in place for a credible vote. President Obama has wrongly sided with the majority of the international community in attempting to return Zelaya to office in Honduras as if Zelaya had done nothing wrong! We must ask ourselves WHY?