A great day in Honduras - by Dan Taylor
With all the news media misfiring on the factual events unfolding in our little democracy here in Honduras, my good friend and American developer, Dan Taylor, puts it this way....
"The sun shines bright on this new day with the expulsion of the former President Zelaya. In spite of what the press is saying, this is a great day. Zelaya had aligned himself with the communist leaders of the region and was moving the country in that direction. Of course, this made the investors and the business owners of the country very nervous. He started making agreements with Leftist governments without congressional approval and wouldn’t listen to the judicial or legislative branches of the government who opposed such things. The government, both parties, and business decided to tolerate his antics, knowing that it would end at the end of his elected term. The final straw came when he decided to change the constitution. One of the items he wanted to change was the term limitation. If he ran over items in the constitution, he could include things that prevent confiscation of private lands by the government – a real concern to investors.
He decided to hold a referendum to garner support for his changes to the constitution. Both his party and the national party agreed in principle to amend the constitution in ways that made sense for the country but not to do it to help those in power. Zelaya took actions that were opposed by the Supreme Court and also by the Congress. He believed that he had control of the military, a supply of funds from Chavez in Venezuela and could do as he wished. When he told the military that he wanted them to help in the referendum that had been deemed illegal by the Legislative and Judicial branches of government, he was in effect telling his military leaders to break the law. They had vowed to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and felt that they were not required to comply with an illegal order in conflict with the constitution. Zelaya fired the military Chief of Staff and the Secretary of Defense and the other senior officers resigned in support of the position of the Chief of Staff. The Supreme Court told Zelaya that there were reasons that he could fire the Chief but not for failure to obey an illegal order and told Zelaya to reinstate him. Then a lot of political pushing and shoving took place and the government decided to expel Zelaya, which they did yesterday.
The Constitution describes the order of succession that takes place when a leader is no longer able to perform his duties. This order was followed and the President of the Congress was designated to fulfill the duties of President until the regularly scheduled elections in November.
There was no military coup, the military were the tool of government and there was a peaceful transition of government. CNN and other news outlets are quick to describe the action as a grasp for power, which is a story that fits the picture that many hold when they think of Latin American governments. This was anything but that. This was a government, all parties and branches working together, trying to prevent a tyrannical ruler from running roughshod over the constitution for his own purposes – trying to prevent a ruler from taking the country down the road to communism. This issue is so important to the nation of Honduras that for the first time in its history both major parties and other minor parties were galvanized in support of this necessary change. In a country of over 7 million people with 4.5 million voters, the silent majority is in support of the government action. They are not silent out of fear but out of agreement that right has prevailed. There are hundreds of Zelaya supporters seen on TV, not even thousands but those crowds make better press than a well researched and documented story. Much of the press needs to take another class in responsible journalism and not just take the side of a story that is easiest to sell. Don’t be led down the path of ignorance - today is a great day for the Republic of Honduras!"
