Headline according to Drudge is: “OBAMA LASHES OUT AT HONDURAS; SIDES WITH CHAVEZ, CASTRO.” The question is, will Obama still side with Venezuela and Equador when it comes to threatening military action in Honduras?
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.
"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.
The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country’s Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.
The European Union and a string of foreign governments have voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas.
Obama said he would work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to restore Zelaya to power and "see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way."
Source/Full Story: Reuters
One Comment
The words he used were: “We believe that the coup was not legal…”. That IS NOT the same as saying that it was definitively illegal.
Don’t look for the words in your headline to be spoken by anyone in the US government anytime soon.
Hillary Clinton set the tone for all the weasel words emanating from the mouths of US officials regarding this issue the other day, when she said:
“…the United States was working toward *full restoration of democratic order* (emphasis on ‘Weasel words’ mine) in Honduras.” Source, NYTimes
Like we brought “Democratic Order” to Iraq no doubt..
Too bad the Honduran coup leaders, including the legislators consisting of the remnants of the oligarchy have been diplomatically isolated by every country in the world except daddy Warbucks, the US..
If the Obama administration had turned off the financial faucet to the opposition in Honduras as the US was (it claims) attempting to head off this situation over the last few weeks, I MIGHT have believed them… NOT!
Obama’s First Coup… an adorable, and now violent, failure.