The Obama administration’s wishy-washy attitude toward Honduran elections finally lands him on the right side of the issue: in favor of Honduras and its democracy, and against ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was thrown out after attempting to extend his reign illegally.
The United States says it supports Sunday’s presidential election in Honduras as an “essential” part of a solution to that country’s ongoing political crisis.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly says the U.S. thinks it is important that the people of Honduras have the opportunity to “express their votes in a free and transparent way.”
…Spokesman Kelly noted that the election, in which neither [Interim President Roberto] Micheletti nor Mr. Zelaya is running, is being organized by an electoral tribunal that was selected and installed in a transparent, democratic process before the coup. He said it is important the election be seen as free, fair and transparent, and is monitored by a credible international monitoring process.
After an Obama knee-jerk reaction to Zelaya’s ouster in June, the U.S. had insisted on Zelaya’s reinstatement. This would have harmed Honduras’s Congress and high court, which had ousted Zelaya, even as it served no discernible U.S. interest. At the same time, Zelaya’s continuation in power would have benefited one of Zelaya’s main allies and alleged sources of funding — Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.
By hanging Zelaya out to dry — leaving him powerless and languishing in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, possibly facing trial for illegally seeking re-election — the administration saves face in Honduras and ultimately does the right thing. The Honduran Congress will vote on Dec. 2, after the next president has been elected, whether to reinstate Zelaya as a lame duck, and with the election already decided, they won’t be under any pressure to do so and reverse their earlier decision.
So all’s well that ends well. But even so, as we recently opined, a happy ending is still no excuse for Obama’s half-cocked diplomacy, and no number of low bows to Honduras’s next president will make up for the damage he has caused there. Again, his legendary inexperience in world matters shows.
