The complaint about Zelaya from the people who have taken over the country was that the legitimately elected president of Honduras wanted to hold an advisory referendum on whether to consider altering the constitution to allow elected executives to serve two terms. In order to prevent the referendum vote, the coup kidnapped an elected president, spirited him out of the country and installed a new unelected president. Then they suspended civil liberties. Outside of an Orwellian novel, or the mid-day slot on talk radio stations, some basic principles still apply: Getting elected. Organizing referendums. Proposing constitutional amendments. These are the sorts of things that happen in a country that is experiencing democracy. Kidnapping the president. Installing an unelected strongman. Suspending civil liberties. These are the sorts of things that happen in a country that is experiencing a coup.
John Nichols (via azspot) (via retropolitics)
When you put it that way, maybe. But as I understand it the entire civilian power structure outside the president himself had ruled that the referendum was illegal and unconstitutional. I don’t think that the president was such an innocent actor here, based on what I’ve read. And I think that the rest of the government had exhausted all options other than force: the Attorney General, the military, the Supreme Court, the Congress… they had all told him to cut it out. Right?
