South American Politics

South American politics are tricky, in some cases violent, many times corrupt, and almost always difficult to judge without being intimately involved on the ground.

The President of Honduras was forcefully deported from his country on Sunday by the military. Sounds like old school South American politics. Accept in this case the military was acting on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court and with backing from their Congress who appointed a provisional President. Hmm… not so old school South American politics.

On top of that allegations have surfaced regarding President Zelaya’s involvement with drug trafficking, political intimidation, and an attempt to re-write the countries constitution to eliminate term limits for the President. As a socialist leaning president the move appeared to be a power grab at an all out dictatorship. The fact that Zelaya was immediately supported by Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro did not bode well. President Obama also immediately stepped in, echoing Chavez and Castro and demanding that Zelaya be returned to Honduras and reinstated as President.

Hmm…. a military coup is a bad thing, but is that what this is? Or is this a move by the balance of power within the Honduran government to keep their country from going the way of Venezuela? Tough call.

Personally I think this falls into the ‘too soon to make a judgment call’ category.

The question that I have to ask is, why was President Obama so quick to condemn the Honduran government and side with the ousted President?

I would hope he is acting on a plethora of information from our intelligence resources, but is that the same information that Chavez and Castro have? These are leaders that do not typically act in the best interests of democracy, individual rights, or the United States. Why is this situation different?

At the same time I am shaking my head wondering how President Obama can be so quick to condemn this action and stand behind ousted President Zelaya when he was so slow to speak out against the fraudulent Iranian presidential election and support the massive protests by the people of Iran calling out for justice and freedom?