wuap, what are your thoughts on this article?

[il Padrino Ute]

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10341

I'd be curious to here what you think, as you first posted here about what had happened in Honduras.

[wuapinmon]

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10341

I'd be curious to here what you think, as you first posted here about what had happened in Honduras.

Well, this is the same stuff, almost, that the CS Monitor published last week. I linked to this response:

http://counterpunch.com/thorensen07012009.html

Here's what I wrote last week:

I've read the Honduran Constitution and I can say this......both sides were wrong, and the decision to remove him was one that is subject to interpretation. Zelaya was a punk and knew exactly what he was doing.....total brinkmanship trying to curry the vote---Chavez-style, and the government took a proviso in the Constitution as the justification to rid itself of this meddlesome priest--as it were. Both sides were in the wrong. If they hadn't dumped him in Costa Rica in the middle of the night, suppressed all media to the point where signals were being blocked, and actually started impeachment, I might feel a little better about the coup....but it was a coup....he was denied his rights.

[il Padrino Ute]

Well, this is the same stuff, almost, that the CS Monitor published last week. I linked to this response:

http://counterpunch.com/thorensen07012009.html

Here's what I wrote last week:

I've read the Honduran Constitution and I can say this......both sides were wrong, and the decision to remove him was one that is subject to interpretation. Zelaya was a punk and knew exactly what he was doing.....total brinkmanship trying to curry the vote---Chavez-style, and the government took a proviso in the Constitution as the justification to rid itself of this meddlesome priest--as it were. Both sides were in the wrong. If they hadn't dumped him in Costa Rica in the middle of the night, suppressed all media to the point where signals were being blocked, and actually started impeachment, I might feel a little better about the coup....but it was a coup....he was denied his rights.

So, you feel it was a coup, despite the Constiution being followed during his removal?

it sure looks like the rule of law was followed and because of that, not a coup.

[wuapinmon]

So, you feel it was a coup, despite the Constiution being followed during his removal?

it sure looks like the rule of law was followed and because of that, not a coup.

Well, I have the luxury of being able to read the entire Constitution in Spanish.....and I don't think it was followed....I think it was a matter for the court and articles of impeachment. The government jumped the gun. Zelaya wanted more power, but not immediately. Both sides got carried away I'm afraid.

Every news source I get is too subjective for me to render an objective
opinion. My take is that the president was making a gambit to force a
Constitutional Convention after the next election, in an effort to amend the
Constitution so he could run for president again. The Supreme Court
overturned his decisions at every point, and the Honduran military, ever
cautious about losing their legacy as 'protectors' of the country, decided
to remove him, prematurely, to enforce the Supreme Court and Congress's
edict that the plebiscite was illegal. They should have tried to impeach
him instead. I'm dismayed that both sides seemed unwilling to allow for the
rule of law. As I understand it, from talking to a friend in San Pedro Sula
(who is very scared for her future), the military decided to do an end run
around the law to prevent a similar end run around the law.

I'm no fan of leftist dictators like the odious Chavez; he is a literal
dictator and as narcissistic as they come. He spends all that oil wealth on
social programs and foreign aid while doing virtually nothing to build the
Venezuelan economy to prevent economic Dutch disease from further
impoverishing his country; he is among the worst leaders Latin America has
ever produced. His human rights abuses don't even factor into my opinion
of him. You'd have to be a damn fool to invest in anything substantial in
Venezuela right now.

[il Padrino Ute]

Fair enough, wuap.