Posted by
Always To The Right on Saturday, October 10, 2009 3:17:28 PM
While the White House and the State Department continue to insist that
Honduras removed its president Manuel Zelaya in a coup, Senator Jim
DeMint decided to do something rather basic — ask the Hondurans what
happened. John Kerry attempted to stop
DeMint from traveling to Honduras in a bald extortion attempt to get
DeMint to lift holds on two Obama administration diplomatic nominees,
which DeMint ignored. DeMint writes in today’s Wall Street Journal that Zelaya needed to go, and that the US has backed a megalomaniac intent on seizing complete power
In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in
Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and
who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S.
Ambassador Hugo Llorens.
Even if one accepted the Obama administration position that Zelaya was removed improperly, a conclusion that the Congressional Research Service disputes,
the elections should be an opportunity to move past the problem. Zelaya
couldn’t have been re-elected; the constitution of Honduras forbids
presidents from seeking second terms. Zelaya’s own party had already
nominated someone else to run in that election, and that candidate and
party want the elections to proceed.
The White House opposes these elections, but has shown no reason or
evidence that they would be corrupted in any way. All of the normal
stakeholders in Honduras back the elections, and Honduras is bringing
international monitors as it usually does to verify the reliability of
the vote. If the Obama administration truly backed the concept of
self-determination, then these elections would be the rational solution
to the problem that Barack Obama has mostly created.