Barred by the constitution of Honduras from serving another term as president, Manuel Zelaya sought to overcome this hindrance by staging a popular referendum (with ballots sent courtesy of Hugo Chávez, who used the same strategy to indefinitely prolong his rule in Venezuela), in early summer, to cancel the upcoming elections. This is unlawful (as is what else he did: foment mob violence in order to carry out his bid), and so the country's highest court and the Congress deposed him. He was arrested and escorted into exile by troops, which may have given casual, careless, prejudiced, or merely stupid observers the impression that he had been ousted in a coup d'état. This ought to have been the end of the affair, for a Honduran issue had been settled by Hondurans, right? Alas, it was not, for a number of other countries in the Americas, including, most shamefully, the USA, have been demanding that Zelaya be restored to power. Not contenting itself with insolent protests, Obama's administration has been trying to bully the small and poor Central American state with tactics, such as sanctions and acts of diplomatic pressure, that go beyond any that his regime has tried with, for instance, Iran. Doesn't Obama believe in "engaging" Honduras?
The first paragraph of this uncommon commentary might seem to break one of my rules for the Doman Domain, viz., avoid addressing issues that I know to have been dealt with adequately by other pundits, but it's only background; the question that I want to explore is, what would motivate the USA or any other country theoretically dedicated to freedom to pursue so obnoxious a policy toward Honduras? Emperor Nerobama has referred to the removal of Zelaya as a "coup," and it may be that, as some commentators have suggested, he jumped to the conclusion that Zelaya had been ousted illegally, and now his ego won't let him admit that he was wrong. This sounds plausible, but Obama had at least one previous knee-jerk reaction (to the Russian-Georgian war in August of this past year; the then-candidate called for "restraint on both sides," as if the Georgians, who were straining to defend their country from a vastly superior invading army, could have imposed "restraint" upon their armed forces without being annihilated), from which position he subsequently backed down. If he could flip-flop on that issue as well as so many others, why not on the pseudo-coup in Honduras? An even worse, but perhaps more likely explanation, is that Obama is just more in sympathy with the left-wing Zelaya than with those who favor the rule of law in Honduras.
