Honduran coup

Over the weekend the Honduran military – with support from Honduran elites – staged a coup that ousted the leftist president who was seeking – a la NYC Mayor Bloomberg earlier this school year – to alter term limits in the Honduran constitution. Apparently like the embattled Guatemalan president, the president of Honduras had won support from many working class and rural voters, but had raised the ire of some in the military and in the more affluent families, afraid of a left-wing power grab, a la the universal bogeyman of prosperous Latin American families, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

It’s amazing that no Latin American country has apparently had a successful coup for 25 years, since a military infighting coup in Guatemala. Guatemala is historically an even more divided and more violent society. Guatemala sits on Honduras’ northern border and is already unstable with parallel elements to those who have brought down the elected government in Honduras calling for the removal of Guatemala’s elected president. Whether the political stability that has enveloped Honduras will spread to Guatemala remains to be seen.

The U.S. government is sitting in a tight spot. The Bush Administration might have quickly recognized the new government. But the Obama Administration apparently wants to be slower to support extralegal military action by titular U.S. allies, and so – while Secretary of State Clinton hedges on the U.S. position lest the regime change spoil the U.S. military alliance with Honduras – President Obama joins leaders across the world opposing the coup, which he called “not legal.” (One of the counterarguments was that the president was going ahead with a referendum on abolishing the one-term presidential term limits – a referendum that Honduran courts had declared illegal.)

Meanwhile, CHPC friend Soila is from Honduras, and returning to Honduras may be an option for her and husband Jeff while they wait to see if they can both come the United States. We’ll see if this changes the situation for Jeff and Soila.

(The embattled Honduran president, Manuel Zelada, has huddled with other leftist heads of state this week, while supporters battle with the military in scenes reminiscent – though not quite as bloody – as those in Teheran last week. That these scenes resemble those in Teheran – not a U.S. ally – scenes that last week U.S. politicians condemned – put a little more pressure on the U.S. government. We’ll see what happens over the next few days in Honduras, Guatemala, and Washington.)