The world’s government leaders unanimously stood by deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who was removed by military forces carrying out orders from the nation’s supreme court and exiled to Costa Rica. Zelaya had called a rogue referendum to initiate changing the nation’s constitution to allow him to succeed himself as president — a move that was in defiance of the courts and congress.
Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported on June 30 that Zelaya told a meeting of regional leaders in Managua, Nicaragua, that he planned to travel to Washington and to New York to speak before the United Nations General Assembly. The exiled Honduran leader also stated: "I go to Tegucigalpa [the Honduran capital] on Thursday."
One of Zelaya’s most steadfast supporters and allies, Venezuela’s Marxist President Hugo Chavez, urged Zelaya to meet with President Obama, saying that Obama’s attention to the crisis could "deliver a major blow" to the new Micheletti government.
Chavez told the leaders gathered in Managua that "it’s the moment to act" to restore Zelaya. "I’ll do everything possible to overthrow this gorilla [sic] government of Honduras. It must be overthrown," said Chavez.
Chavez engaged in saber rattling while speaking on Venezuelan state television on June 28. The Marxist strongman said that if the Venezuela ambassador was killed — a distinctly unlikely possibility — or troops entered the Venezuela embassy, "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war, we would have to act militarily." He continued: "I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."
Venezuela does not share a land border with Honduras, so any invasion would have to come by air or sea.
Chavez also threatened to act against any new government sworn in after the removal of his ally, Zelaya, stating: "We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you."
The situation in Honduras even brought Chavez’ longtime communist friend, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro out of retirement to write in a column for Cuba’s state media: "[The new Honduran leaders’] resignation should be demanded and younger officers not beholden to the oligarchy should take over the military."
Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban foreign minister, amplified his boss’s words: "I denounce the criminal, brutal character of this coup. This coup has removed a legitimate and constitutional government simply for wanting to hold a vote. There is only one constitutional government in Honduras, and one constitutional president who should return immediately without conditions."
Communist propaganda is always so audacious that it becomes almost amusing. While Castro denounces one military coup (and a rather mild one at that), for what purpose would "younger officers" take over the military? To start a debating club? Obviously, the "younger officers not beholden to the oligarchy" would stage a counter-coup against Micheletti and restore Zelaya!
Rodriguez’ words are even more amusing. He denounces "the criminal, brutal character of this coup." This coup was so "brutal" that Zelaya was immediately flown out on a plane to — where? Siberia? Devil’s Island? No, Costa Rica — a nation of majestic mountains, beautiful national parks known for their biodiversity, and surf-washed beaches that is considered to be a top tourist destination! In fact, since 1999, tourism has brought more revenue into Costa Rica than the combined exports of the country’s three main cash crops: bananas, pineapples, and coffee. Where does one sign up to become the victim of such a "criminal, brutal" coup that will provide free airfare to this vacation paradise?
In contrast, after his own 1958-59 coup against Battista that was so brutal that it made the installation of Micheletti look like a PTA meeting, Castro’s enemy’s were shot by the hundreds by firing squads and sent to hellish prisons by the thousands. As was noted in The Black Book of Communism: "From 1959 through the late 1990s more than 100,000 Cubans experienced life in one of the camps, prisons, or open-regime sites. Between 15,000 and 17,000 people were shot."
I think I’d rather go to Costa Rica.
It is not only committed Marxist/communist strongmen such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez who have condemned the change of government in Honduras, however. During a White House press conference, where he was joined by Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe, President Obama said, in part:
All of us have great concerns about what’s taken place there. President Zelaya was democratically elected. He had not yet completed his term. We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the President of Honduras, the democratically elected President there. In that we have joined all the countries in the region, including Colombia and the Organization of American States….
The United States has not always stood as it should with some of these fledgling democracies, but over the last several years, I think both Republicans and Democrats in the United States have recognized that we always want to stand with democracy, even if the results don’t always mean that the leaders of those countries are favorable towards the United States. And that is a tradition that we want to continue.
So we are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president, and we will work with the regional organizations like OAS and with other international institutions to see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way. [Emphasis added.]
In an article commenting on Obama’s statements, AP’s White House correspondent, Ben Feller, observed that the president "condemned a coup in Honduras by turning to the most reliable of friends: democracy."
Feller noted: "The point could not be lost. Obama mentioned some version of the word democracy eight times. He even wound up referring to George Washington."
By relentlessly extolling the virtues of democracy and equating democracy with a "peaceful" solution, Obama has disregarded the wisdom of the Founders who established the republican government that he currently administers. Just a brief sampling of statements from those Founders is enough to educate even the most recalcitrant defenders of democracy that — far from being the antithesis of unstable governments and rapid, violent changes in rulers, democracies foster such lawlessness and disorder. Consider:
"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." — James Madison
"We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy." — Alexander Hamilton
"Remember, Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself! There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide." — Samuel Adams
Roberto Micheletti and the Honduran congress and courts that installed him have committed a cardinal sin in the eyes of the world’s leftists — whose continued existence is wholly dependent upon the triumph of democracy over the rule of law. The new Honduran leadership has asserted the primacy of the rule of law and national sovereignty over "democracy" as defined by international bodies like the OAS and UN. For that transgression, it will incur the combined wrath of the world’s "democrats" — who are in reality committed to international socialism.
This does not portend well for Micheletti and company, who are strong contenders to become the international community’s next pariahs, in the model of Augusto Pinochet.
AP Images: Photo of Roberto Micheletti
