TRUE DEMOCRACY

The situation in Honduras is interesting in many ways, particularly as it relates to the term 'democracy'.

Within recent times many 'democratically' elected governments have come into power not because they have won the popular vote, but simply because they have won the electoral college. So to say I am rolling on the floor laughing my arse off at the antics of the UN and other 'international' bodies to mediate the 'crisis' in Honduras is an understatement. I am pissing all over myself at how grotesque the image of democracy can be across borders.

Let's track back a bit, deposed President Manuel Zaleya who negotiated millions of dollars from major lending agencies for his impoverished Central American nation, had for quite some time, been moving his country closer to the socialist paradigm of Latin America via the Hugo Chavez model of using democracy as an introduction to 'nationalism'.

After coming into government through the democratic process, Zaleya on the brink of completing his constitutionally due four year term in office, decided he wanted to have the Constitution re written to extend the life of his presidency and sought a referendum on the issue.

The Honduran High court ruled the move illegal, but Zaleya disregarded the court's ruling and called for a referendum on the matter. The country's Attorney General hurriedly petitioned the Honduran Supreme Court, obtained arrest warrants for Zaleya and ordered the military to step into the fiasco.

Zaleya (in his pajamas), we are told, was put on a plane to Costa Rica. Since then, this drama has played out on international theater, with the United Nations and the Organization of American States(OAS) joining a chorus of major world leaders demanding the reinstatement of the democratically elected president of Honduras.

Oh. Really!!!!! I have listened to this same chorus vociferously condemn Hugo Chavez's regime in Venezuela for doing the same thing Zaleya was trying to do in Honduras. It is clearly deceitful for the 'international community " including the Trinidad and Tobago government to demand the immediate reinstatement of Manuel Zaleya on the basis of Zaleya's claim to be 'democratically elected.'

The interim president, former president of the Honduran senate Roberto Micheletti, has swiftly debunked any idea that Zaleya will be welcomed back into Honduras. He has emphatically stated that the former president would be arrested once he set foot on Honduran soil.

The fact is Zaleya's crying and international posturing is making a mockery of diplomacy. It would do well for all those who have been meeting and speaking with Zaleya, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning and all others to READ or at least have the Honduran CONSTITUTION translated for them to read in English.

You see folks, as President of Honduras, Manuel Zaleya knew full well he was BREAKING THE LAW when he proposed the referendum that would have extended the life of his presidency.

The Honduran Constitution is explicit on this issue and clearly states that amendments will be considered for all articles, EXCEPT (1) the country's borders, (2) the rules that limit a president to a single four-year term and (3) the requirement that presidential administrations must "succeed one another" in a "republican form of government."

Additionally, Article 239 specifically states that ANY president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection "shall cease forthwith" in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any "infraction" of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Hondurans, who have lived under decades of military rule.

Even more interesting, the timeline leading up to this diplomatic fiasco questions whether the action taken by the military in Honduras can even be considered a coup.

For the record, the Concise Oxford dictionary's definition of a coup is ' a sudden violent seizure of power from a government' - which I may quite humbly state, DID NOT OCCUR in Honduras.

The military had been ordered by the Honduran Supreme Court to arrest Zelaya for treason, following an urgent request made to the Supreme Court by the country's Attorney General to have the President arrested. A second writ, issued on the same day, authorized the military to enter Zelaya's home to execute the warrants for his arrest.

It follows therefore that what occurred in Honduras was democracy at work in the truest sense and no amount of posturing by Zaleya and the international community will resolve a problem which clearly, the framers of the Honduran Constitution had foreseen.

The Uninhibited Diplomat