Honduras Holds Free Elections: Chooses Freedom Over Socialist supported by Chavez & Obama

Over the summer, I did several posts on the situation in Honduras.  The detailed information is here, and here.  For a brief recap of the events…

• Manuel Zelaya was the elected President of Honduras, and is closely aligned with Hugo Chavez.
• The Honduran Constitution has strict term limits for the office of the President.  One term, no more.  This part of the Constitution cannot be changed under Honduran law.
• Zelaya wants a “dictator for life” deal like his friend Chevez, however, their Constitution will not allow this.
• Zelaya suggests having a referendum to change to Constitution.  The legislature, with a majority from his own party say no, as does the courts.
• Not to be deterred, Zelaya decided to do it anyway.
• Rather than follow the laws of his own country, Zelaya turns to his friend Chavez, who prints the ballots for this illegal election, and flies them into Honduras.
• The Honduran military, under orders from the elected government, confiscate the ballots.
• Zelaya has his goons attack the military base where the ballots are stored and takes them back.  He prepares to have this election, which has already been declared illegal.
• On the eve of the illegal election, the Honduran Supreme Court rules that Zelaya has violated the Constitution, and orders the military to throw Zelaya out, which is done.
• The police raids Zelaya’s HQ. Inside, they find computers with  election results already fed into them…for an election that never took place!  (was ACORN helping there?)
• The legislature appoints an interim president to oversee the country until the regularly scheduled election can be held this past Sunday.
• BTW, the Honduran Constitution mandates that the President set aside funds to pay for the regularly  scheduled elections.  Zelaya had refused to do this.  Perhaps he thought it would not be necessary?
• The US, and socialist countries protest this, tried  to punish Honduras financially, and demanded Zelaya’s return.
• Zelaya sneaks back into the country, holes up in the Brazilian embassy, and claims that Israeli agents are using advanced technology to make him ill.  (No, I’m not kidding here!)
• After all of this, the election is held on 11-29-09

Here is some coverage from the WSJ.

Unless something monumental happens in the Western Hemisphere in the next 31 days, the big regional story for 2009 will be how tiny Honduras managed to beat back the colonial aspirations of its most powerful neighbors and preserve its constitution.

Yesterday’s elections for president and Congress, held as scheduled and without incident, were the crowning achievement of that struggle.

National Party candidate Porfirio Lobo was the favorite to win in pre-election polls. Yet the name of the victor is almost beside the point. The completion of these elections is a national triumph in itself and a win for all people who yearn for liberty.

The fact that the U.S. has said it will recognize their legitimacy shows that this reality eventually made its way to the White House. If not Hugo Chávez’s Waterloo, Honduras’s stand at least marks a major setback for the Venezuelan strongman’s expansionist agenda.

The losers in this drama also include Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Spain, which all did their level best to block the election. Egged on by their zeal, militants inside Honduras took to exploding small bombs around the country in the weeks leading to the vote. They hoped that terror might damp turnout and delegitimize the process. They failed. Yesterday’s civic participation appeared to be at least as good as it was in the last presidential election. Some polling stations reportedly even ran short, for a time, of the indelible ink used to mark voter pinkies.

Latin socialists tried to discredit Honduran democracy as part of their effort to force the reinstatement of deposed President Manuel Zelaya. Both sides knew that if that happened the electoral process would be in jeopardy.

Mr. Zelaya had already showed his hand when he organized a mob to try to carry out a June 28 popular referendum so that he could cancel the elections and remain in office. That was unlawful, and he was arrested by order of the Supreme Court and later removed from power by Congress for violating the constitution.

It is less well-known that as president, according to an electoral-council official I interviewed in Tegucigalpa two weeks ago, Mr. Zelaya had refused to transfer the budgeted funds—as required by law—to the council for its preparatory work. In other words, he didn’t want a free election.

This is straight from the leftist playbook.  First, he didn’t ban the election, he just didn’t fund it.  When the left didn’t get what they wanted, they threw a tantrum and tried to take power by a combination of deceit and force, even creating fake results for an election that never happened!   When that failed, they cried to sympathetic governments, who heaped threats upon their lies.  Then, when the elections drew near, they started bombing.  Now that they are likely to lose the election, they will try to de-legitimize it.  Odd that a force that talks so much of democracy attempts to undermine freedom at every turn, but then again, democracy to them means that the people are allowed to choose as much socialism as they want!  Choose freedom, and well, something has to be done then!

I pray for the people of Honduras, and any other country that is under pressure at the hands of socialist neighbors.  The pressure and threats will be unrelenting, and they no longer (at least for now) have a US that is interested in defending freedom.

Related Link:  Hot Air