The surreal political landscape of South America cannot get any more absurd: a man who was caught leading a coup d’état in 1992 in Venezuela, namely, Hugo Chávez, appears on television today with the audacity to condemn a coup—in Honduras, against his ally President Zelaya. As if that weren’t astonishing enough, Chávez goes on to claim that those who overthrew President Zelaya will themselves be overthrown. He used the plural term “we’re going to remove them,” presumably referring to a joint action by his armies and those of his über-democratic comrades from Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Unfortunately, the opposition in Venezuela still has to question the use of public and military resources in external conflicts by Chávez. In any case, don’t miss his threats here.
Interference, anyone? This is coming from the same man who created a scandal just a few days ago when the world rightly condemned, with equal fervor, the rigging of elections in Iran by Chávez’s fundamentalist ally, Ahmadinejad.
Meanwhile, the OAS, that beacon of democratic principles trying to reinstate the only communist dictatorship in America, has said nothing about the systematic violations of the Inter-American Charter in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and is already working to bring back President Zelaya,
who seems to share a similar disregard for the rule of law and the constitution with the coup-maker.
The most solid statements to date come from Hillary Clinton:
“We call on all parties in Honduras to respect constitutional order and the rule of law, reaffirm their democratic vocation, and commit to resolving political disputes peacefully and through dialogue.”