Monday, July 27, 2009

Angus solves the world's problems, part I

The constitution of Honduras has a bullet proof no reelection clause.  Its president, Mel Zelaya, wanted to be re-elected, so he commenced trying to get around the obstacle. Honduras' Congress and Judiciary rejected Mel's moves, but Mel just kept on keeping on, and in the end, the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant. 

The military, in executing that warrant, also decided to deport Mel, which I don't think was in the warrant, is itself unconstitutional, and basically turned the situation into a military coup (or at least a situation with severe coup-like symptoms).

Now, the question is, and has been for several weeks now, what to do? 

To me, this is easy. 

1. Mel agrees to drop any efforts to change the constitution / run a referendum and in return comes back to T-town and finishes out his term as president (the next election is November 29th for Pete's sake).

2. The military personnel who deported him are charged and tried for a mediumly serious crime but Mel pardons them if they are convicted.

3. If Mel reneges on any of this, the military can do what it do and the international community will stfu.

Thats it. Pan comido.

3 comments:

Tom said...

I may be out of touch (from depending on NPR), but what problem are you trying to solve? Proceed directly to the second part of #3. It still blows over when elections are held in Nov.

steep said...

". . .severe coup-like symptoms)."

I hope they're not contagious.

John Thacker said...

Except that the Supreme Court is going around saying that they are fine with the deportation. That clause really is bulletproof-- it's illegal for a President to even *suggest* altering the Constitution so he can serve another term.

So the USA is revoking the visas of president of Honduras's Congress and their Supreme Court justice who issued the warrant.