Honduras’s military acted under judicial orders in deposing President Manuel Zelaya, Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said, rejecting the view of President Barack Obama and other leaders that he was toppled in a coup.
“The only thing the armed forces did was carry out an arrest order,” Cruz, 55, said in a telephone interview from the capital, Tegucigalpa. “There’s no doubt he was preparing his own coup by conspiring to shut down the congress and courts.”
Cruz said the court issued a sealed arrest order for Zelaya on June 26, charging him with treason and violating the constitution, among other offenses. Zelaya had repeatedly breached the constitution by pushing ahead with a nationwide vote that the court ruled illegal, and which opponents contend might have paved the way for a prohibited second term.
She compared Zelaya’s tactics, including firing of the armed forces chief for obeying a court order to impound the ballots for the poll, with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
“Some say it was not Zelaya but Chavez governing,” she said, adding that the arrest order will be made public today along with documents pertaining to a secret investigation that took place for weeks under the high court’s supervision.
Cruz acknowledged that the interim government faced a “very difficult” task trying to sway the U.S. and other countries to recognize its authority.
‘Sovereign and Independent’
“But as a sovereign and independent nation, we have the right to freely decide to remove a president who was violating our laws,” she said. “Unfortunately our voice hasn’t been heard.”
Justice Rosalinda Cruz sounds like a wise Latina woman.
The reason NYT has a problem with this is:
A democratically elected left wing leader is being deposed by a right wing warlords using an outdated law as justification for undermining the democratic process.
NYT would be of a different opinion if:
A majoritarian right wing ruler who attempted to undermine the constitution and took steps towards establishing a dysnastic dictatorship was deposed without violence due to pressure from a grassroots political movement that had the backing of the judicial system and the armed forces.
Posted by: empirical | July 01, 2009 at 06:20 PM
Err... empirical...
"A democratically elected left wing leader"
"A majoritarian right wing ruler"
"undermine the constitution"
"an outdated law"
Your doublethink is showing.
Posted by: mike | July 01, 2009 at 06:49 PM
"Justice Rosalinda Cruz sounds like a wise Latina woman."
As opposed to .... ?
Posted by: Peter | July 01, 2009 at 09:36 PM
Is it not true that the Honduran constitution, which contains 375 articles, can be amended by a two-thirds majority vote in congress? However, there are eight “firm articles” which cannot be amended. These include presidential term limits, system of government that is permitted and process of presidential succession. Since the president has the ability to amend the remaining 368 provisions by means of a congressional majority, some have called into question what the president’s true intentions may be.
This seems to be a thinly disguised attempt to grab power through a Chavez-type populist putsch.
Posted by: Vigilante | July 02, 2009 at 11:30 AM