Kirchner, Correa warned against travelling to Honduras

PatrickJul 3rd, 2009 - 04:46:08

I am absolutely appalled at the international reaction to the recent events in Honduras. Mel Zelaya was a corrupt leader who was in process of selling his country to Venezuela. The constitution of Honduras has very specific provisions against exactly the type of actions Mr. Zelaya was undertaking to prolong his tenure in office. Below is an e-mail from a well-respected Honduran attorney. The Honduran PEOPLE have stood up to a corrupt leftist president who violated the law in order to establish himself as a Hugo Chavez style dictator. And the US government side with Chavez and Zelaya and Castro????

Honduras had a vaccine against the autocratic epidemic affecting the region.

All the emails received in response to the newsletter sent yesterday, have encouraged me to write again and clear some of your doubts. Having seen the court files today also forces me to correct a mistake I made yesterday in declaring the constitutional succession of power a coup. The reality is everything was executed in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws of Honduras.

On January 11th of the year 1982, a constituent assembly gave birth to a beautiful Constitution that was vaccinated against the diseases that historically have affected the region. The Honduran Constitution does not allow the reform of articles related to the form of government, the territory, the presidential term, the prohibition on presidential reelection and who can't become President in the subsequent term. It goes further and states that the alternation of the Presidency is mandatory and its violators incur in high treason.

The above is nice but it does not explain by itself how Zelaya was removed from the Presidency legally. Our constitution clearly lays out an impeachment process that must be followed to trial and convict a President that has violated the Law. But our Constitution also includes a single exception to this rule in article 239, which states that the President that violates the principle of alternation of the Presidency or simply proposes its reform, will immediately cease in the exercise of office. In other words, the simple act of proposing the reform removes ispo jure (by operation of law) a President from office. This may sound radical to many, but the truth is it's coherent with the geopolitical reality of Honduras ; and on June 28 of 2009 it proved why.

Zelaya clearly violated the Constitution and incurred in high treason. There is vast evidence that support this, which was used by the Attorney General to get a court order to arrest Manuel Zelaya Rosales; a citizen that deposed himself from office when he committed the highest crime under our Constitution. The different court files and the Honduran Constitution are available through the hyperlinks at the bottom of this newsletter. I urge you to see these documents for yourself.

The political crisis in Honduras will remind the world that the alternation of the Presidency is a sacred democratic principle that assures a government of the people, by the people and for the people. A true democracy imposes limits to those in power to prevent them from becoming dictators. It's based on the fundamental concept, that no President is good enough to stay in power, to justify the risk of a bad President staying in power.

Sincerely,

Luis Bueso

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@patrickJul 3rd, 2009 - 10:40:48

Good,continue to be appalled if you really must but please refrain from injecting your own bias into reality .What the (ex) president proposed was a referendum as foreseen in the constitution of 1982 ,the one you just sanctified ,in order to obtain a second mandate.THis procedure is legal ,if thesupreme court opposes it ,don't you think they simply fear the results rather than the principle (which is part of the constitution ).
Honduras is the country for which the term 'banana republic ' was first used.Allowing military coups to take place is nothing but confiming this .
Perhaps what will happen is something similar as whar happened in Venezeuela when Chavez was ousted by a military coup:the population will raise in defence of its president .Chavez has always been elected democratically,like him or not .

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