Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has done little to assuage concerns that the Organization of American States (OAS) he leads has given up entirely on its original mission of defending democracy in Latin America. Attending a summit of ALBA, the Venezuelan-sponsored alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (a sort of Chavista Warsaw Pact), Insulza threatened to expel Honduras from the OAS lest it allow the safe return of ex-president Manuel Zelaya. Interim president Roberto Micheletti put country above comity and rightly responded: We’ll pass on that and, by the way, we’re out of the OAS, too.
Micheletti is right. After all, thanks to the OAS’s inaction, Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez has used his country’s oil wealth to prop up such dictatorial regimes as those of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. The OAS even opened the door to Cuba’s readmission into its ranks despite Castro’s blatant disregard for the democratic principles allegedly at the center of the OAS charter. These regimes share an utter disdain for democratic, constitutional authority, and an absolute unwillingness to abdicate power. Yet the OAS has stood by them during the Honduran crisis rather than castigate Zelaya for running roughshod over the constitutional rule of law of his own country.
The Honduran constitution was adopted in 1982, after several previous incarnations that overextended the power of the executive. The 1936 constitution, for instance, was frequently amended to extend the original four-year term of then-dictator Tiburcio Carias Andino, who ruled for 16 years. The 1982 constitution, on the other hand, is very strict: One four-year term for the president, no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s easy to see why Zelaya’s actions, then, made the military eager to expel him from the country. Honduras’ courts and Congress lawfully ruled Zelaya’s efforts to extend his term by referendum unconstitutional – going so far as to describe it as a coup d’etat. Even so, Zelaya led a mob of civilians to storm government buildings to “liberate” the Venezuelan-printed ballots supporting his referendum.
Latin America has no shortage of “strong men,” but it does suffer a shortage of durable institutions that preserve the rule of law. This is the only way to ensure peace and continuity between governments. If OAS leaders were serious about ensuring democracy in Latin America, they would defend Honduran institutions in deciding the fate of their country, rather than dancing to the tune of a chorus of Chavez-wannabes.
