However, it may not seem like such a poor attempt at guilt by association if you are looking at a pattern and practice of past graduates from the same school.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

Last year, following the script originally laid out by Chávez in Venezuela and adopted by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Zelaya announced that he would hold a referendum to set up a constituent assembly that would change the constitution that barred him from reelection. In the next few months, every legal body in Honduras — the electoral tribunal, the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the human rights ombudsman — declared the referendum unconstitutional. According to the Honduran constitution (articles 5, 373 and 374), presidential term limits cannot be changed under any circumstance; only Congress can modify the constitution; and political institutions are not subject to referendums…In defiance of court orders, Zelaya persisted. Surrounded by a friendly mob, he broke into the military installations where the ballots were kept and ordered them distributed. The courts declared that Zelaya had placed himself outside the law, and Congress began an impeachment procedure.

This is the context in which the military, in an ill-advised move that turned a perfectly legal mechanism for stopping Zelaya into a coup, expelled the president. The fact that the constitutional procedure was subsequently followed by having Congress appoint the head of the legislative body, Roberto Micheletti, as interim president, and that the elections scheduled for November have not been canceled, is not enough to dissipate the cloud of illegitimacy that hangs over the new government.

It seems like that what Zelaya was doing was unconstitutional and illegal – not surprising considering his fascination with everything Chavez. However, the Congress was preparing to deal with this issue when the military unwisely stepped in. Hopefully the issue can be resolved so that Zelaya leaves office in November when his term ends (and prosecuted for any crimes) and the Honduran people can elect someone new.

The fact that the head of the military took a couple classes at the School of the Americas decades ago has little to no bearing on the overall story. I’m not sure why Sojourners chose that as the focus of their sole commentary on this issue up to now.

Article 4, Section 5 of the Honduran Constitution allows for just this scenario- depsoing a leader and dragging him or off to the airport in nightwear, if, and only if the perpetrator is a graduate of the School of the Americas.

Do your homework before spouting off. Okay?!

Area residents from Honduras and supporters will get together at 4:00 PM at Washington Monument in the D.C. Mall and march at 5:00 PM to the Organization of American States to demand the end of the military coup and the restitution of civil government and President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Bring Transparency to SOA/WHINSEC. Contact your Senators today!
http://www.soaw.org/vote

Honduras' current political system does not allow for much citizen participation; one part of the proposed redrawing was to allow more participation from non-elite groups such as labor and social movement groups, which I would argue increases democracy in the country.

I did not mean to imply that Mr. Zayala was a necessarily virtuous politician, but I do mean to say simply that this coup was a grievous violation of democracy, led by a U.S.-trained officer who follows in the footsteps of many other U.S.-trained military leaders in committing human rights violations against his own people.

Do you know whether the Honduran constitution has any provision for what to do in the case of a corrupt elected official? I'm thinking in terms of refrerendum, impeachment proceedings, etc.

My guess is that the army's taking over the country and dragging the alleged corrupt official off to the airport in his pajamas and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica is not part of the Honduran constitution's provisions.