Honduran "coup d'état"?

During the last couple of days, I have been following close the events related to the so-called coup d'état in Honduras, in which President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and forced into exile by the Honduran Army, and Mr. Roberto Micheletti was sworn as new President under the approval of the Parliament.

Indeed, this political crisis in Honduras has received a full coverage from the media around the world, which has been greeted by the international community with less than sympathy. Leaders from around the globe, especially from countries in the Americas, have promptly expressed their disapproval of the "coup d'état", and demanded the restoration of Mr. Zelaya in power. What the international community is ignoring though, is that Mr. Zelaya was arrested and overthrown because he refused to follow the orders issued by the Supreme Court of Honduras, which forbid him of going ahead with a referendum to modify the Constitution in order to reelect himself as President, when the current Constitution clearly prohibits reelection and its promotion, and demands that any public servant incurring on those activities to be removed from their position.

As one could expect, the first leaders to condemn the "coup" were Mr. Zelaya's closest supporters: President Hugo Chavez, from Venezuela; President Rafael Correa, from Ecuador, President Evo Morales, from Bolivia, and President Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua. All of which are loyally aligned to Mr. Chavez's ideas to shift Latin America towards socialism and, by the way, to turn their backs to the Empire (a.k.a the United states) and its allies. In fact, Chavez was prompt to threaten the newly formed government of Honduras with a military operation, should his friend and ally Manuel Zelaya not be restored in office.

No surprises up to this point. The impressive part comes when President Barack Obama, too, joins Chavez's group to declare the "coup d'état" as illegal. And so do virtually all the regional leaders, even some of the most conservatives and tending less to meddle into foreign affairs: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, among others. But what everybody is ignoring here, as I previously pointed out, is that President Zelaya violated the national Constitution and the mandates issued by the Supreme Court of his country, which constitutes an abuse of power and hence makes him unfit to rule the country.

I seriously doubt that this is a case of coup d'état, as the regional leaders and the media alike have been reporting. This is more a case in which the people decided to overthrow a power-abusive tyrant, in the hopes of restoring real democracy and Rechtsstaat. I welcome the bravery of the people of Honduras and hope that this transition will bring a bright future to their country.

With information from Yahoo! News
Photos by Reuters and ABN, respectively