Article

2009-07-01 Caribbean-Latin America

Honduran ~~Constitution Restoration~~ coup leader to AP: Zelaya won't return

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Posted by ed 2009-07-01 09:55|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 I just got this email from a friend who lives in Birmingham, Alabama and does a lot of mission work.
Hi family and friends! Well, my life is occasionally boring, but not the past few days. I just returned, along with my youngest son and 64 other people from a mission trip to Honduras. Yep! We were in the middle of the political uprising. We arrived last Friday in Tagucigalpa, the capital of the country and drove about 3 hours north to a ranch. We had planned to stay until this coming Sunday. We got in a very good days work in the surrounding towns on Saturday, then went to church on Sunday with a local congregation, got in some horse back riding and planned to start again on Monday with the labor. We were laying a brick wall at the church..I discovered I can sling mortar with the best of them, delivered food and clothes to needy families, helped get a good start on a water system for a village that had been entirely displaced due to floods and planned to deliver about a 1,000 pairs of shoes we took down to school kids. If you can get shoes on their feet, you can stop a lot of the illnesses they experience.

Then the world got the idea that there had been a military coup..not quite accurate according to the locals. The way it works there is the people vote and the military implements. The people voted to remove the president because he was trying to change the constitution to become more socialist. The military escorted him out of the country because that is their job. But our president did not help when he said it was military coup and Chavez took that as an invitation, thinking that America would not step in to protect Honduras. So he mounted his troops on the boarder and was threatening to invade last night. That did not happen, not yet anyway, but because we had so many young people with us, we decided to get out while we still could. The very real possibility existed that the airports could have been closed for weeks. A curfew had been implemented and demonstrations were taking place in the streets.

So we got out yesterday morning. We had at least 8 check points where either the local police or the military stopped our bus and vans to see who were were. We never felt like we were in danger, really making it all the more difficult to leave. We spent the night in Houston, and flew out on different flights all day today. Please pray for the beautiful people and for their country. They are defenseless as no one but the military are supposed to own guns. May we never give up that right to be able to protect ourselves. I plan to return next year and hopefully get to stay the entire time.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2009-07-01 11:09|| 2009-07-01 11:09|| Front Page Top

#2 Stand your ground, Honduras. You did the right thing. Screw the US lawmakers. We may be learning from your example soon.

Posted by newc">newc 2009-07-01 12:15|| 2009-07-01 12:15|| Front Page Top

#3 I don't think this will end well for the Hondurans.

For some strange reason all the usual suspects (and others) are determined to assist Chavez in this case.

My prediction:

Zelaya will return (mainly due to pressure by the Obama administration, maybe an intervention.), and the Honduran people will feel his wrath (and that of Chavez, the Castros, and Obama.)

For some strange reason it is beyond the pale to impose basic norms of Western Civilization on the Afghans (who attacked NATO on 911), while it seems to be perfectly acceptable to impose Communism on the Hondurans (who have done no harm to any NATO country.)

Posted by Omeagum Ulomosing9137 2009-07-01 12:42|| 2009-07-01 12:42|| Front Page Top

#4 Ummmwas Micheletti actually the leader of the so-called coup or was it the folks that make up the Honduran Supreme Court that placed him?

Posted by DepotGuy 2009-07-01 12:54|| 2009-07-01 12:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Per local reports, anti Zelaya demos of 10,000 plus have been taking place today. Much bigger than the pro Zelaya demos.

Let's see whether this gets covered in tomorrows WaPo and NYTimes.

Also, a compromise is possible to let Zelaya serve as President while being essentially under house arrest and having no authority.

Posted by Lord garth 2009-07-01 13:04|| 2009-07-01 13:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Deacon, is your letter-writer confused, or did he mean that Ortega is threatening to invade from Nicaragua? Venezuela not having any more of a common border with Honduras than we do with El Salvador....

Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H. 2009-07-01 13:40|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2009-07-01 13:40|| Front Page Top

#7 Mitch, I believe she was relating what the locals told her. She knows Venezuela does not have a border with Honduras but the locals there are really afraid Hugo and Ortega will conduct military operations to restore Zelaya. And it looks like The One is willing to go along.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2009-07-01 15:27|| 2009-07-01 15:27|| Front Page Top

#8 In the bad old days of the Soviet Union Cuba intervened in Southern Africa.

Could Venezuelan-Cuban forces threaten Honduras from Nicaragua? Would US assistance (short of an actual military conflict) for such forces make a difference?

Posted by Chunky Omath4079 2009-07-01 17:42|| 2009-07-01 17:42|| Front Page Top

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