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Zelaya should be returned to power — and face impeachment
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Manuel Zelaya. Image appears courtesy
of Creative Commons.
Fidel Castro and, more recently, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez have been the bugbears of U.S. governments, whether Democratic or Republican, for some time, so it's a bit jarring to see President Obama "siding" with Castro and Chavez over the reinstatement of recently ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The "usual suspects" — the same people who accuse President Obama of not being a native-born citizen of the United States and of being a "socialist" (I've been a socialist for years, and Obama is no socialist) — are flinging accusations at Obama for "taking the side" of Zelaya, Chavez, and Castro.
But what, exactly, would these people have President Obama do? While it's quite clear that, as I wrote in an earlier piece, Zelaya was very likely in violation of his country's constitution, this is not grounds for a military coup d'état. This is grounds for impeachment. And, while I don't want to evoke a logical fallacy, in Latin America, once you choose the military option over the rule of law, you're well on your way down a slippery slope.
Now caretaker President Roberto Micheletti has stated that, if Zelaya returns to Honduras, he'll be arrested. According to Euro Weekly News, Micheletti claimed, "There was no other way. We tried every way we could to convince Zelaya that the referendum was illegal, but he did not want to listen to us." What about impeachment? Is it really necessary to throw Zelaya in jail while you impeach him? We didn't throw Bill Clinton (or Andrew Johnson) in jail while their impeachment proceedings were going on, nor did we put Richard Nixon in jail while the article of impeachment against him were being prepared — and Nixon very likely would have been convicted in an impeachment trial.
Here, I believe, are the bottom lines. First, rather than abide by the rule of law, the Honduran opposition to Zelaya opted to oust him from power and, in doing so, probably violated the country's constitution themselves. Second, if Micheletti wants any kind of credibility for a future of his country without Zelaya at the helm, he needs to (a) not arrest Zelaya upon the ousted president's likely return, and (b) go forward with an impeachment trial. And finally, Micheletti and the rest of the opposition to Zelaya need to stop living in the 1970s. The CIA was not propping up Zelaya — far from it — and, conversely, there isn't any Soviet Union to worry about as a client to leftists that come to power in the Western Hemisphere. Castro and Chavez, no matter what you think of them, don't have that kind of clout.
So I'm coming down on the side of Chavez and Castro — and President Obama and everyone else that recognizes that nations are best run by laws and not human beings. Zelaya must be returned to the presidency in Honduras. He must also face impeachment for the very likely constitutional violations he's committed. This is a genuine constitutional crisis for Honduras, but the military option isn't the way to solve it. The military option will only make it worse.
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