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Zelaya To Return As President Of Honduras, But Only To Sit On His Proktos – UPDATE

Via Hot Air, previously ousted Honduran President and Chavez-wannabe Manuel Zelaya will return to power as President for the remainder of his term after an agreement between Zelaya and the Honduran government was accepted. There are some caveats (emphasis from Ed Morrissey):

Mr Micheletti said that Mr Zelaya could return to office after a vote in Congress that would be authorised by the country’s Supreme Court. He said that the deal would require both sides to recognise the result of a presidential election due to take place on November 29 and would transfer control of the army to the top electoral court.

Effectively, Zelaya would be the ultimate lame-duck President until power was turned over to the President elected after the November 29th election. Micheletti will also not be allowed to run as well.

Fausta has a great round-up of this as well, including a translation from Honduras’ El Heraldo:

El Heraldo (in Spanish) makes it clear that US State Dept. envoy for Latin America Thomas Shannon went to Honduras to twist arms: his position was that the November 29 elections would not be recognized unless Zelaya was returned to power. I guess nothing ensures democracy like restoring to power the guy who did his outmost to undermine democracy, at least in Shannon’s eyes.

American leftists have long whined about American intervention in Latin America, but only when that intervention is supposedly done by Republican Presidents. As of this post, no leftist blogger has said a thing over at Memeorandum (this could change as the day goes on). Yet in discussions I’ve had with leftists, they are pretty ambivalent about the Obama administration’s actions against the Micheletti government, taking the State Department’s word that it was an illegal military coup d’etat. I am pretty sure they will say this is just another example of the administration’s “smart” (that is, dumb) power, ignoring the implications that Obama just engaged in another case of intervention by the American gringos.

As a side note, the Law Library of Congress had recently issued a report that said Zelaya’s removal from office was perfectly legal under the Honduran Constitution and law, although they do mention that Zelaya’s exile by the military did seem to violate the Constitution, which is under investigation by the Honduran government. The now-senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry had wanted the report retracted. Per Morrissey in an update:

Law Library of Congress to John Kerry: Pound sand.

At least Zelaya, provided he keeps his word, will be gone from office, although he could still cause trouble down the road. But the hypocrisy of the administration of The One and those who worship him is stunning. They have put into practice the idea of the “Ugly American”; but based on my own observation of the left, those that revere The One will be completely dishonest and not put it that way. If I’m wrong, I’ll retract that.

UPDATE: These same leftists who will probably say nothing about this have hypocritically praised The One’s non-intervention of the Iranian election, even while the corrupt thugs of the Iranian mullahcracy brutally tortured and murdered its own citizens in order to make them legitimate. The One, to them, can do no wrong.

COMMENTS

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    There are multiple ways that Zelaya can carry out a coup d’etat, which the U.S. will turn a blind eye to, just as it has to Ortega’s tearing up of Nicaragua’s constitution by a judicial coup (i.e. a rump Supreme Court simply nullifying their Constitution’s prohibition against a second term which decree Ortega then decrees is unappealable).

    Especially with the total embargo of MSM coverage of Latin America except fitered through the Obama adminstration’s PR department.

    So if Shannon successfully twists enough arms to ensure a congressional restoration, Zelaya will have a free hand to create a shadow government. The possiblities boggle.

    The point is that the Marxists in the Administration and State Department are taking their revenge for Allende and finally engaging in their 50-year project of a socialist revolution throughout Latin America to form dictatorships to usher in socialist utopias like Venezuela.

    Of course the Honduran citizenry knows the script and has been heroically resisting; the question is whether they still have a choice or whether the U.S. by abuse of its hegemonic position essentially has taken matters out of their hands.

    • scipio62

      Zelaya is hated by his own party, most of the military, and the people. It looks like all Zelaya will become after leaving office is an old crank that is mostly ignored by the Honduran people.

      My problem is the hypocrisy of this administration and the left.

      • aesthete

        After his term is up, he will become a hero to the international left, a la Rigoberta Menchu.

      • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

        There are many scenarios for his not leaving office.

        But you may be right, perhaps will leave office peacefully and plot his agitation and coup from outside the president’s office. with the help of Ortega and Chavez and his drug lord connections.

        These leftists never give up. Just look at Ortega.

        The big mystery that I haven’t seen dissected is the drug trafficiking that he’s up to his armpits with – I’m not sure whether we’re dealing with an incipient guerrilla movement or with a government-free zone for financing subversion.

        • aesthete

          and maybe he’ll be able to squeeze some more support out of the urban poor, but my impression is that he’s truly spent any political capital that he had prior to this situation (he wasn’t that popular to begin with), and that he’s seen more than ever as a tool of Venezuela. Don’t get me wrong, the Obama administration’s handling of the situation doesn’t cover America in glory, and this was a bad move in a list of terrible and pro-tyranny moves on their part, but I see Zelaya becoming more of a martyr figure that the internationalist left, and perhaps other leftists in Central America, will capitalize on.

  • http://davesnotepad.blogspot.com/ Dave

    ?First of all, it was no military coup that ousted Zelaya. He was voted out for his attempting to violate the Honduran constitution. Even the moochers and leeches at the U.N. agreed his removal had been legal, as did the Law Library of Congress, which is why they told John Kerry, the darling of pajama-clad Viet-Cong all over North (and South) Vietnam, to go “pound sand”* when he attempted to have their report quashed.

    This was certainly no ?triumph? for democracy, neither in Honduras, nor anywhere else in the world. It was, however, a cold slap in the face to the rule of law, and to people the world over who yearn to experience the freedom we here in America still enjoy ? although I wonder for how much longer.

    I am sorry, but I want my president, as well as my government, expending our resources (as in tax dollars) promoting freedom and liberty around the world, not working 24/7/365 to reinstall a communist dictator that the people of that country clearly do not want.

    What a disgrace. ?

    *Thank you Ed Morrissey

    -Dave