The Honduran Coup

[BlackLantern]

if thats not criteria for a coup, I don't know what is

 

[Matt]

So, If a poll says that a president has 30% a approval rating he should be removed from power by force? Nice...

Then why make those things called ELECTIONS? Let's just hear what the polls say and put in power the guy with the best approval rating.

Zelaya won in a democratic election, like it or nor that decision should've been respected (and I hate Chavez, Correa and Ortega, but they were all democratically elected too)

But Zelaya was impeached legally. You support their democratic system until a democratic process is used to remove him?

 

[Darthphere]

I blame Obama for all this, and his administration. They have gone out there and made it seem like some guys in Honduras went crazy and took the guy out. And it's not the case at all.

 

[Matt]

if thats not criteria for a coup, I don't know what is

Its not even a coup. Coup is just the word the media is using to sell this. This was an impeachment.

 

[BlackLantern]

ok...well its still an internal matter and should be left to them to figure it out

 

[Matt]

Agreed. I find it amazing that our president refuses to speak out against the country that has threatened to launch nuclear missiles at us, tried to hack our defense networks, and is holding two of our citizens prisoner...but will condemn a constitutional impeachment.

 

[Darthphere]

Agreed. I find it amazing that our president refuses to speak out against the country that has threatened to launch nuclear missiles at us, tried to hack our defense networks, and is holding two of our citizens prisoner...but will condemn a constitutional impeachment.

I really don't understand it. I maybe wrong but it seems that the general consensus is that people are ok with the removal of power by a large number.

 

[Matt]

The simple answer is, Obama is idealogically similiar to Zelaya. I think he saw a political ally threatened and made a knee jerk reaction and is now scared to back down despite being wrong for fear of being percieved as wrong.

 

[SuBe]

Ok, So I just got back.

EVERYTHING IS FINE in Honduras. The only thing I saw different on this trip than the last is there were more Military at the airport. There apperently was some protest in the middle of the day before I got to the airport out of Tegus. Everyone's spirits were good, and everyone I talked to, even the Customs Agents don't want Mel back.

 

[Paradyme]

For now Zelaya issued an 'or else' ultimatum, dun dun dun

 

[Paradoxium]

Honduran interim leader: I'm willing to step down

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' interim leader said Wednesday he is willing to step down if it helps end his country's political crisis, conditioning the offer on guarantees that ousted President Manuel Zelaya doesn't return to take his place.

 

[SuBe]

I just heard from Down there that American Airlines cancelled flights again.

 

[Darthphere]

This may be a little logical and or naive but why not have the UN oversee new elections.

 

[SuBe]

This may be a little logical and or naive but why not have the UN oversee new elections.

There was nothing Wrong with the Voting Process, it's the theft of power the Former President was trying to pull. This guy only has about 10% approval. Both Political Parties agree. He and his few supporters are the only ones having issue with it.

I think they should just hold elections as scheduled, in november, and be done with it. At least their people are standing up for their Constitution. . .

 

[VampElvis]

There was nothing Wrong with the Voting Process, it's the theft of power the Former President was trying to pull. This guy only has about 10% approval. Both Political Parties agree. He and his few supporters are the only ones having issue with it.

I think they should just hold elections as scheduled, in november, and be done with it. At least their people are standing up for their Constitution. . .

From my limited following of the situation I agree.

 

[Bunker]

Obama and all these other countries need to butt the **** out. I mean, where were all these people when all these South American dictators started coming out of the wood work.

We put them there...

 

[Paradoxium]

Honduras Has Won

In a welcome about-face, the State Department told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in a letter Tuesday that the U.S. would no longer threaten sanctions on Honduras for ousting its president, Mel Zelaya, last June 28.

Nor will it insist on Zelaya’s return to power. As it turns out, the U.S. Senate can’t find any legal reason why the Honduran Supreme Court’s refusal to let Zelaya stay in office beyond the time allowed by Honduran law constitutes a “military coup.”

This marks a shift. The U.S. at first supported Zelaya, a man who had been elected democratically but didn’t govern that way. Now they’re reaching out to average Hondurans, the real democrats.

Sure, the U.S. continues to condemn Zelaya’s ouster and still seeks mediation of the dispute through Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. But no U.S. sanctions means Hondurans have won.

 

[StorminNorman]

You go Obama's State Department!

 

[Darthphere]

Obama mishandled this whole situation from the get go. Apparently, making uninformed statements about things is going to be a staple of the Obama administration. Too bad he couldn't fix this one with a beer.

 

[Darthphere]

Obama mishandled this whole situation from the get go. Apparently, making uninformed statements about things is going to be a staple of the Obama administration. Too bad he couldn't fix this one with a beer.

 

[Paradyme]

*sigh*

U.S. moves toward formal cut off of aid to Honduras

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. State Department staff have recommended that the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya be declared a "military coup," a U.S. official said on Thursday, a step that could cut off as much as $150 million in U.S. funding to the impoverished Central American nation.

The official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said State Department staff had made such a recommendation to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has yet to make a decision on the matter although one was likely soon.

Washington has already suspended about $18 million aid to Honduras following the June 28 coup and this would be formally cut if the determination is made because of a U.S. law barring aid "to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."

The official said that $215 million in grant funding from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation to Honduras would also have to end should Clinton make the determination that a military coup took place.

About $76 million of that money has already been disbursed and a second U.S. official said this implied that the remaining roughly $139 million could not be given to Honduras should the determination be made.

Diplomats said that the United States had held off making the formal determination to give diplomacy a chance to yield a negotiated compromise that might allow for Zelaya's return to power.

Such efforts, however, appear to have failed for now and so the United States is taking steps -- including its decision on Tuesday to cease issuing some visas at its embassy in Tegucigalpa -- to raise pressure on the de facto government.

"The recommendation of the building is for her to sign it," said the first U.S. official said of the 'military coup" determination, saying this was a response to the de facto government's refusal to accept a compromise that would allow Zelaya to return to power ahead of November elections. (Editing by Jackie Frank)

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN27328207

 

[Matt]

Sigh...So first Obama prematurely speaks out against the removal of a man who was violating Honduran law because the man is idealogically similiar to him, then he admits he is wrong, now he is going back to continuing to pursue the wrong path that he admitted was wrong earlier this month?

Does that sum it up?

A leader who continues to take the obviously wrong path.

 

[Paradoxium]

Sooo dumb, headache.... I am speechless.

 

[Paradoxium]

To be fair to Obama, I don't think he ever apologized. It was the state department who said they probably won't pursue sanction. So in this sense Obama did not 180, he is running through with what he said no matter the consequences, ala Georgie Bush.

This whole thing gives em a giant headache.

 

[Paradyme]

EXCLUSIVE: Honduran president makes offer to end political standoff

The interim president of Honduras has offered the man he replaced after a June coup the chance to return to the country on the condition that both renounce claims to the presidency, a negotiator said Thursday.

Arturo Corrales, a member of a three-man Honduran panel seeking an end to the standoff, told The Washington Times that Roberto Micheletti was willing to make the concessions to restore peace and prosperity to Honduras following the coup against Manuel Zelaya.

The offer represents a turnaround by Mr. Micheletti, who has insisted until now that Mr. Zelaya should have been arrested rather than deported to Costa Rica on June 28. Mr. Zelaya was deposed by the military after he sought to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term.

Lanny Davis, a prominent Washington attorney who represents the Honduran Latin American Business Council, said the new proposal "shows Mr. Micheletti is not concerned about power -- he is offering to resign entirely from public life. ... The question is, does Mr. Zelaya acknowledge that no one, even the president, is above the law?"

The United States, Organization of American States and United Nations all have condemned the coup and sought to isolate Honduras unless it negotiates a solution to the standoff.

Mr. Zelaya, a populist close to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, has made several failed attempts to return.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias also has sought to mediate an end to the dispute, so far unsuccessfully.

Mr. Corrales, who was appointed by Mr. Micheletti, has shuttled between Honduras and the United States for the last few weeks. He told The Times that under the new proposal:

• Both Mr. Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya would resign.
• The next in line under the constitution would become interim president.
• New elections would be scheduled and monitored by independent foreign observers.
• Mr. Zelaya may return as a private citizen.
• Mr. Micheletti will support a decision by the Honduran congress to grant "political amnesty [not involving common crimes] to all parties relating to events of June 28."

Mr. Corrales expressed optimism that Mr. Zelaya would accept the proposal but conceded, "We don't know if Zelaya will agree to this at this point."

....

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/28/honduran-president-makes-new-offer-to-end-politica/

Sounds pretty fair to me.