Honduran Hilarity: Why Obama's $1 Billion For Central America Is Risky. And Urgent.
Honduran Hilarity: Why Obama's $1 Billion For Central America Is Risky. And Urgent.
9:00 pm
Wed June 10, 2015
By Tim Padgett
Honduras gives us so many reasons to cry. The worlds worst murder rate. Grinding poverty. All those desperate, unaccompanied child migrants who poured into the U.S. last summer and who just might come knocking on our border again this summer. These days Honduras is giving us some good laughs, too. As in: Im laughing so hard Im crying, because the Honduran hilarity makes me nervous about the fate of the $1 billion the Obama Administration wants to send Honduras and Central America this year.
Consider Honduras' Supreme Court, which recently annulled the rule Article 239 that limited the country's presidents to one, four-year term. Fine. A lot of Latin American countries are relaxing presidential re-election bans these days. But Article 239 was considered, at least until now, the sacrosanct core of Honduras 1982 Constitution a shield against the kind of dictators who litter the countrys banana-republic past.
It was so revered that if you wanted to witch-hunt people in Honduras youd call them re-electionists instead of communists. In fact, Article 239 said that if presidents so much as mentioned to their spouses over breakfast that the constitution should be changed to allow a second term, they automatically forfeited the office.
And thats why Honduras National Congress evoked the rule six years ago this month, during the shameless coup that ousted then President Manuel Zelaya. Under pressure from Honduras conservative oligarchy, the legislature decided Zelaya was too liberal and had to go. So it slapped him with a 239. Just one problem: The charge was bogus. Zelaya could certainly be accused of dopey demagoguery, but he hadnt proposed presidential re-election.
More:
http://wlrn.org/post/honduran-hilarity-why-obamas-1-billion-central-america-risky-and-urgent
burrowowl
(17,653 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)It was an early sign of business as usual in foreign policy.