Blogs For Victory

And good for them – our government is gutlessly following the demands of thugs like Castro and Chavez and minority-elected President Ortega of Nicaragua, but it seems that the majority of the people of Honduras have decided that the rule of law is paramount. Looking around for some Honduran comment on the issue, I found this:

…The President of Honduras in Council of Ministers (Cabinet Council) emitted the Executive Decree PCM-005-2009, through which he called upon a consultation to the people with the ultimate goal of summoning a National Constituent Assembly to emit a new Constitution, which would allow the elimination of the “Articulos Petreos”, an act that is considered unconstitutional and is considered as a crime of Treason to the Country…

…The Attorney General began a judicial action that ended with a decree prohibiting the consultation.

The Executive Decree PCM-005-2009 was never published, making it impossible legally dispute itt, an improper behavior of the Executive Power.

The Attorney General publicly warned that the President’s behavior and that of his advisors was illegal.

The President of Honduras, in Council of Ministers, emitted the Executive Decree PCM-019-2009, through which he annulled the Executive Decree that called upon a consultation related to the summon of a National Constituent Assembly to emit a new Constitution, and replaced it with a new Executive Decree which ordered a national poll that would take place on Sunday, June 28 of 2009, in which the following question would be asked: Are you in favor with the addition of a fourth voting box in the general elections of 2009, in which the people will decide on the summon of a National Constituent Assembly?

The new Executive Decree number PCM-019-2009, dated may 26, 2009, was not published until June 25th of 2009, with the manifested goal that the same would not be judicially challenged.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the General Attorney of State began legal actions to confiscate the poll’s material and named the Air Force Chief as depositary of the confiscated items.

The President and a mob of his followers broke the order of legality, rejected the resolution by the Judicial Power, assaulted the Air Force facilities in Tegucigalpa, where the confiscated material was being kept, misused his authority as President of Honduras, publicly expressed that he would not respect the rulings of the Judicial Power, and put forward that the Legislative Power was not representative of the People, but himself, who had been elected president of Honduras.

The Armed Forces of Honduras re established the order and legality.

The National Congress followed the constitutional process established in the Article 242, regarding the succession of the President in case of a definite absence.

The facts, as known to us outsiders, appear to correspond with this narrative of events – the ex-President of Honduras, emulating Chavez of Venezuela, was attempting to do an end-run around the Honduran constitution in order to secure for himself de-facto unlimited power. Certainly, the ex-President had (and has) some popular support for this, but even if it could be demonstrated that he had majority support for it, the actions taken by him appear to be in direct violation of the Honduran constitution.

The rest of Honduran society decided that, difficult as it was, it was better to get rid of the President than either fall under dictatorship or be forced in to civil war – summoning their legal powers, these opposition forces in Honduras turned the would-be tyrant out. Imagine if an American President attempted to submit a popular, national referendum as to whether or not we should call a constitutional convention? It can’t be done like that – any President attempting to do such a thing would have to be removed from office in order to protect our democratic republic even if such a move could be shown to have majority support. It must be kept in mind that in a democracy, it can never be pure majority rule – that isn’t democracy, that is tyranny dressed up as democracy. The key to successful democratic governance is to have things the government simply can’t do.

Our proper course is to respect the people of Honduras and allow them to work this out on their own – we certainly don’t need to be taken in train by the likes of Chavez and Castro.