Serious errors of fact in CRS LL File No. 2009-002965 on Honduras

[struggle4progress]

Library of Congress Report on Honduran Coup Filled with Flaws

Subject: Serious errors of fact in CRS LL File No. 2009-002965 on Honduras
From: "Rosemary A. Joyce"
Date: Fri, September 25, 2009 12:49 am
To: [e-mail]
[e-mail]

Dear Librarian Billingsley and Director Mulhollan,

I write to bring to your attention serious errors of fact in a Congressional Research Service report written by Ms. Norma C. Gutierrez. Given the damage this erroneous report has already done as it circulates in Honduras and the US, I urge you to immediately issue a public correction and withdraw the report, notifying members of Congress that it is unreliable and based on faulty courses and inaccurate information ...

(1) She cites a single Honduran legal analyst as a source of personal communications "confirming" conclusions she draws. Her source is a known supporter of the de facto regime in Honduras, Guillermo Pérez-Cadalso, who testified on behalf of the de facto regime in July's hearings in the US Congress.

This is not a disinterested source. There are numerous Honduran law professors, as well as constitutional law authorities in the US and Spain, on record in writing finding the Honduran Congress exceeded its legal authority in claiming to remove President Zelaya from office on June 28. None of these authorities is cited ...

In short, in my view, Ms. Gutierrez produced her unreliable report in large part because she failed to exercise sufficient scholarly caution about one influential, yet unaccountable, source. She did not seek out other opinions. Her search of legal opinion was consequently flawed, as she missed the key Supreme Court decision of May 7, 2003. She went beyond her mandate, which was to explain whether the claims of constitutionality made by the Honduran Congress were accurate, and instead provided a speculative rationalization of their actions ...

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2130/68/

[struggle4progress]

1. Library of Congress Analysis is Wrong (from Armando Sarmiento)

Thu, 09/24/2009 - 22:57 — AP

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: STAY TUNED- a lengthier and more thorough version of this article is on its way.

With regards to the legal analysis carried out by the Library of Congress of the United States and published in various media sources as an argument in favor of the "legality" of the what took place on June 28, allow me to share with you the following points:

* The central argument of the legal analyst of the Library of Congress is that in Honduras there is not a process for impeachment.
* It asserts that the Honduran Congress does have the ability to interpret the Constitution and this argument serves as the basis for their claim of the legality of the substitution of President Zelaya. The author affirms that Congress carried out an "implicit interpretation" of the Constitution upon using their jurisdiction to "declare the illegality and nullity of the administrative act carried out by the Executive Branch," transforming the case automatically into an impeachment proceeding.

On this point we must take into account two legal and one political factor:

* The Supreme Court of Honduras declared it UNCONSTITUTIONAL for the National Congress to interpret the constitution in the verdict issued on May 7, 2003. As such, there exists no legal basis to assert that Congress can interpret the constitution, indirectly constituting a basis for a political verdict permitting the removal of the head of state ...

http://quotha.net/node/380

[EFerrari]

2. So, the source the researcher relied on gave her a rationalization

based on a power the Honduran Congress did not have and could not exercise anyway because they were in an extraordinary session. Is that right?

Who is planting this paper? Death Squads Negroponte? Who?

[EFerrari]

3. OMG, this is the same golpista that tried to pass off the fake letter of resignation.

Okay. Now someone tell me that this isn't evidence that someone in our government LIKE THE STATE DEPARTMENT isn't up to their eyeballs in this coup.

[Downwinder]

4. Mary O'Grady writes in her "Americas" column that

Now a report filed at the Library of Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides what the administration has not offered, a serious legal review of the facts. "Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system," writes CRS senior foreign law specialist Norma C. Gutierrez in her report.

...
http://www.mikepence.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3696:wsj-honduras-op-ed&catid=35:blog&Itemid=104

[struggle4progress]

5. Yeah, ever since Aaron Schock started waving Norma's toss-off, it's been a wingnut cause celebre

Norma's little toss-off has been a wingnut cause célèbre

Anastasia lives in a strange alternate reality, where evil Secretary of State Clinton is plotting against democracy in Honduras