The Schmoblog

So, after checking and rechecking soures (here, here, and here), basically this is what I gather happened in Honduras over the weekend.

President Zelaya wants to amend the constitution of Honduras to let him run for president again…and again.

According to the Honduran constitution, it can only be changed by constituent assembly via Congress. Zelaya instead decides to have a referendum on whether he can put an item on the ballot in November that gives him the chance to run beyond his term limit.

The Supreme Court of Honduras (by all accounts a fairly corrupt institution) declares the referendum illegal. Congress and the military (and Zelaya’s own party, by and large) agree.

Zelaya ignores court order, holds a demonstration where he marches to a site where imported Venezuelan ballots are being stored.

Supreme Court tells military to intervene and does not recognize the outcome of illegal referendum.

Zelaya then dismisses top military general, who is promptly reinstated by the court and military promptly takes control of the country, ousting Zelaya.

Congress then appoints the President of the Congress as the interim president, who then names a new cabinet and sets a November date for a special election to determine next president.

World condemns coup and calls for the reinstatement of Zelaya. Strangely, both Hugo Chavez and the US (vis-a-vis Obama and Hillary) are on the same page on this. Chavez threatens to send troops into Honduras if need be.

So…the Supreme Court of Honduras (the supposed authority on Honduran constitutional matters) declares a referendum illegal, the President ignores the court, and the military ousts him. For some reason this does not seem like a ridiculous turn of events to me.

I’m hearing a lot of argument from libs that by their very nature referendums can’t be illegal because the express the will of the people, the truest essence of democracy. Yet, as it relates to certain California referendums barring gay marriage, they seem to think otherwise.

I for one happen to think California’s Prop 8 referendum was probably illegal. So was this one in Honduras. It’s time we step back and let the political institutions of other states do their thing. Mob rule isn’t democracy, and poltical institutions need to be respected. Zelaya brought this on himself, it isn’t pretty, and its really *not* how we’d prefer democracies do their business but at the end of the day, Zelaya ignored institutional checks and balances and had to get slapped.

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