One of my students asked me if i could write something about the Honduras situation. I decided to write this in english, as i think some other students from PC will be reading this and it should be in english. My opinion is the following:
President Zelaya is no longer President of Honduras as a result of his own dealings. If in fact he wouldn't have tried to impose re-election (The new found love of latinamerican Presidents across the continent) he would probably still be in Honduras with his signature 10-Galon hat on, riding some funny horse and listening to bachata.
The current dealings internationally are as followed: (1) As the vote-elected dignatary, President Zelaya is the rightfull Head of the Honduran State; (2) As the result of a coup, de facto leader Roberto Michelletti is not a legitimate authority, although he WAS elected following constituional procedure for replacing the President upon his absence; (3) A return of Zelaya is mandatory.
First off, 1; Although he is the rightful President, the international community must not conviniently forget that President Zelaya blatantly ignored orders by both Congress and the Supreme Court of Honduras to stop at his attempts of modifying an article that the Constitution itself claimed cannot be changed. In a heist to do as he pleased, he even replaced the high ranks of the military in hopes to achive his goal, by ilegal procedures.
I personally think it is a show of political balance when even the military, the Legislative and Judicial branches of a country uphold the Constitution as the basic law of a country and demanding the rightfull execution of ALL its commands, even when they don't benefit you or your party. Long shot it will ever happen in these two-thirds of an island, but I'm hopefull.
Second, de facto authorities; Parliament President Michelletti is not the rightfull President of Honduras, I get that. But he is the provisional leader until elections are called for sometime before the summer ends. In any case elections were supposed to be held in November (Whcih explains President Zelaya's rush to modify the Constituion, in which case he wouldn't have been able to participate in the contest, as teh Constitution he was elected under does not allow for Presidents to run for office twice) in which case new authorities, legitimate ones, will soon be elected and this ordeal will soon be forgotten with so far 2 victims as its costs.
Third, a return of President Zelaya is not exactly a healthy thing to be happening. I haven't talked to the students i know from Honduras, im actually looking forward to doing so. President Zelaya was looking to impose himself as an incumbent candidate under the worse conditions ever, as his popularity wasn;t exactly Obama's, the social situation in Honduras wasn't exactly great and in general, his achievemnts as President didn't pile up as enough to justify the Constituional proposal.
I think he might have pulled it off earlier in his term, who knows. But right now, with all this turmoil in heat, a return of Zelaya (And a posible return to his former position of imposing a constituional reform) would be the completely opposite of what the international community wants to promote: Legal validity of law and legitimacy for elected officials. Only this elected official was violating the Constitution itself by organizing a pole to ordain a reform of something that is specifically marked as not-reformable, supported on Parliament Resolution and a Supreme Court Decision.
Should we allow Presidents to have infinite power as the please? Should we support the manhandling of state Branches? Ignore the authority of Congress and the Highest Courts?
With all due respect President Zelaya, you've brought this on yourself.
Ehl.
