Hands Off Honduras - Part I

In Zeal for Zelaya, Mr. Conrad Black summarizes the scenario leading to the constitutional removal of former Honduaran president Mel Zelaya from office:

"As his presidential term approached its end, Zelaya tried to alter the constitution to allow him to seek a second term. He even led a violent mob in an assault on a military installation to seize and distribute ballots printed in Venezuela for an illegal referendum. His whole effort to secure reelection was deemed unconstitutional by his own partisans in the congress and by the Honduran supreme court.

In Honduras, as in the U.S. and other civilized countries, there are recognized procedures for changing the constitution and for dealing with unconstitutional behavior by high office holders, though there is not a discrete impeachment process. The Honduran congress and supreme court followed the constitutional path for removing Zelaya as far as it goes, after he was found guilty of unconstitutional offenses, including firing the military officers ordered by the congress and supreme court to restrain him from holding an illegal referendum.

The highly respected cardinal-archbishop, Oscar Rodríguez, has urged Zelaya to desist from his farcical efforts to return and accused him of violating his inaugural oath and the “sacred law of God: not to lie, not to steal, and not to kill.”"

The international community's zeal to reinstall an anti-democrat to Honduras is disgraceful. Mr. Zelaya forfeited his mandate and the system worked to reject him.

It is high time to support the democratic forces in Honduras not aid and abet the anti-constitutionalists who have one aim- unite in the Castro-Chavez Club no matter the price to be paid.

US President Obama's siding with the Marxist Zelaya is sorely misplaced and reflects a poor understanding of what actually transpired in Honduras or worse.