Coup in Honduras

Is the foreign policy of President Obama inching ever closer to the morally confused foreign policy of ex-president Jimmy Carter? It may be too early to tell, but Obama's attitude towards Latin America looks increasingly feckless. A few points:

• As a senator and presidential candidate, Obama trumpeted the virtues of "soft economic" power over military strength. Then, before the Ohio and Michigan primaries, he pranced around vowing to renegotiate N.A.F.T.A. unilaterally, trying to compete with Hillary Clinton to see who knows the LEAST about economics. Then, in an act extreme perfidy, he sent Austin Goolsbee, University of Chicago economics professor and Obama advisor, to the Canadian Foreign Ministry to say "hey, Mr. Obama is only kidding." Left-wingers hailed this as "leadership" and "hope."
• As a senator and presidential candidate, Mr. Obama refused to show solidarity with the only center-right government and American ally in the region, Alvaro Uribe's government in Columbia. Congressional Democrats have repeatedly trotted out the canard that Mr. Uribe hasn't done enough to stem the violence against labor leaders and union workers in the country despite, on Uribe's watch, massive drop-off on such killings. More than likely, Mr. Obama was caving to political pressure from John Sweeney at the AFL-CIO and other union thugs to favor domestic industries over foreign markets.
• At the Summit of America's, much was reported on his chummy encounter and book exchange with Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chavez, as well his fraternizing with Nicaraguan pest Daniel Ortega and Ecuador mini-Chavez Rafael Correa. Civil liberties in these countries have been evaporating faster than you can say "Castro," yet Mr. Obama cannot bring himself to say anything negative about these leaders.

Over the weekend, the military deposed the president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya. Mel Zelaya is being described in the Western media as the "duly-elected" president of Honduras, although to be fair, many are describing him as an ally of Hugo Chavez. Curiously, the Obama administration is condemning the move as a fascist putsch despite the fact that the Honduran military is keeping the constitutional flame alit...and it is Mel Zelaya who is committing the power grab.
An editorial in today's Investor's Business Daily skewers this adminitration:

During his campaign, President Obama made a big deal of criticizing leaders who are elected democratically but don't govern democratically. He's had a chance to show that it mattered in Honduras. He didn't.

That's the sorry story as Honduras' now ex-president, Mel Zelaya, last Thursday defied a Supreme Court ruling and tried to hold a "survey" to rewrite the constitution for his permanent re-election. It's the same blueprint for a rigged political system that's made former democracies like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador into shells of free countries.

Zelaya's operatives did their dirt all the way through. First they got signatures to launch the "citizen's power" survey through threats — warning those who didn't sign that they'd be denied medical care and worse. Zelaya then had the ballots flown to Tegucigalpa on Venezuelan planes. After his move was declared illegal by the Supreme Court, he tried to do it anyway.

As a result of his brazen disregard for the law, Zelaya found himself escorted from office by the military Sunday morning, and into exile. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro rushed to blame the U.S., calling it a "yanqui coup."

President Obama on Monday called the action "not legal," and claimed that Zelaya is still the legitimate president.

There was a coup all right, but it wasn't committed by the U.S. or the Honduran court. It was committed by Zelaya himself. He brazenly defied the law, and Hondurans overwhelmingly supported his removal (a pro-Zelaya rally Monday drew a mere 200 acolytes).

Mary Anistasia O'Grady has more here:

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Thoughts please!