Honduras President Ousted in Good Old Fashioned Coup

The army of Honduras, a bunch of yahoos that couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag let alone beat a half-strength Brooklyn street gang, toppled the president of that country over the week-end. President Jose Manuel Zelaya argues that he is still the leader of that country, but he does so from Costa Rica. It's just like the good old days during the Cold War, except no one outside Honduras cares who leads.

President Zelaya wanted to extend his time in office. The constitution of Honduras, an honorable document that dates from the 1980s, prevented him from another term. He sought a referendum to overturn the rules, but the Supreme Court of Honduras said he couldn't hold such a vote. He decided to have one anyway. This is where the army stepped in. On the grounds that he was going to hold an illegal referendum, the military ousted him and put in Roberto Micheletti, the president of Congress.

Mr. Zelaya is a leftist, along the lines of Messrs. Lula of Brazil and Chavez of Venezuela. He has not wrecked his country yet, but he certainly has such ambitions. The populists of Latin America have a tragic record of destroying the economies they claim to love. To give him another term in office, contrary to the constitution, would be a disaster.

That said, the military has no business intervening in electoral politics -- nowhere, never. The people may or may not choose wisely, but the army is inevitably inept at running a society. Giving orders just doesn't work when those receiving the orders are civilians. When a sergeant says "jump," a private may ask "how high?" but a civilian might just was well ask "why?" History records no case of a successful military-led society (Sparta, maybe).

The problem is that Mr. Zelaya is an incompetent leftist yahoo while the Honduran military is full of rightist idiots. Given the choice, the average Honduran should pack up and move to Costa Rica or Florida. Home is not going to be worthwhile for a long time. And that is a shame. That said, it is clear that governments do matter to the people who live in a given country. Honduras simply deserves better than it is being offered.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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