US Democracy Stance in Honduras

Many folks familiar with the situation in Honduras (President Manuel Zelaya was removed from power on June 28 following a judicial and legislative consensus that he violated the constitution) believe that our government incorrectly condemned the action.  President Obama condemned the move as a coup d’etat, cut off diplomatic ties with the interim government, and halted $30 million in non-humanitarian aid to the country.

Now it turns out that even other parts of our government aren’t too sure about the validity of these diplomatic decisions. The Congressional Research Service recently released a report indicating that the Honduran Supreme Court was acting within its rights.  (Here’s an excellent editorial from the WSJ explaining it more.)

If this country wants to be taken seriously in its democracy promotion efforts, we need to be a little more careful in how we assess democracies abroad. The Honduran government took laudable action to prevent a president seeking unconstitutionally to remove his term limits.  We should have condemned former President Zelaya’s attempt and offered our assistance in an interim election. Our support of this man despite his undemocratic actions just portrays us as being confused about what democracy really means. If we wanted unconditionally to support those who win elections regardless of what they do while they’re in power, we need to start making amends with Hamas, Hugo Chavez, and many others.