A Step Backward: Obama Administration Lacked Backbone in Response to Honduras Coup d’État

[Judi Lynn]

A Step Backward: Obama Administration Lacked Backbone in Response to Honduras Coup d’État
by COHA Research Associate Robin Burnette

During the first months of President Obama’s term, it looked as though U.S.-Latin American relations would turn a new page. An initial sign was the United States’ participation in several conferences pertaining to the Americas, most importantly those held by the Organization of American States (OAS) soon after Obama’s inauguration. The June 2009 coup in Honduras was one of the first major tests in Latin America for the Obama administration. It was one of the first opportunities to change foreign policy within the region and unfortunately, the United States’ efforts in Honduras ultimately ended in failure. While the Obama administration was initially resolute in its condemnation of the coup, calling resonantly for Zelaya’s reinstatement, it later altered its demands, in practice abandoning hope of restoring Manuel Zelaya to his place as the legitimate president of Honduras. Indeed, in the case of Honduras, President Obama largely failed to provide sufficient support for a democracy in peril.

Coup d’État Condemned

On the morning of 28 June 2009, the Honduran National Guard forcibly removed President Zelaya from his residence in Tegucigalpa and flew him to San José, Costa Rica. Zelaya was first supported by conservatives in Honduras, but became increasingly radical when his presidency began in 2006 and reforms followed suit such as joining ALBA (Bolivian Alliance for the Americas), increasing the minimum wage and reducing bank interest rates. The newly exiled Zelaya protested his wrongful expulsion from the country, maintaining that he remained the legitimate President of Honduras. However, the new de facto President and former Parliamentary Speaker, Roberto Micheletti, had the military’s backing. Micheletti insisted that Zelaya had violated the Honduran constitution and was therefore no longer eligible to be president. The following day, leftist members of ALBA were quick to condemn the coup, followed by the United Nations, the OAS, and the United States in quick succession. ALBA’s rapid alignment with Zelaya in this case was unsurprising, considering the strong political ties between Zelaya and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, ALBA’s major force.

From the outset, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton were both adamant in their disapproval of the events in Honduras. Obama was in Colombia the day following the coup, and the statement he made on the subject was unequivocal:

President Zelaya was democratically elected… had not completed his term…we believe that the coup was not legal…in that we have joined all the countries in the region including Colombia and the Organization of American States…I think it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition.

More:
http://www.coha.org/a-step-backward-obama-administration-lacked-backbone-in-response-to-honduras-coup-d%e2%80%99etat/

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