Today's Wall Street Journal has an editorial on the ongoing situation in Honduras. The article summarizes the events of the past few days and tells the story of how Hugo Chavez became a dictator in Venezuela.
The story of the 2004 election and its sanctioning by the U. S and OAS is told in the editorial:
"There was never any explanation for the blind endorsement, but behind the scenes there were claims that Mr. Chávez threatened to call his militia to the streets and spill blood. The oil fields were to be burned. To this day, the opposition contends that the U.S. and Mr. Gaviria made a cold calculation that caving in to Mr. Chávez would avoid violence.
Predictably, Washington's endorsement of the flawed electoral process was a green light. Mr. Chávez grew more aggressive, emboldened by his "legitimate" status. He set about using his oil money to destabilize the Bolivian and Ecuadorean democracies and to help Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner get elected. Soviet-backed Fidel Castro was able to intimidate his neighbors in the 1960s and '70s, and Mr. Chávez has done the same thing in the new millennium. This has given him vast power at the OAS."
We (the US, the OAS, and the UN) are in danger of creating the same situation in Honduras that was created in Venezuela. So far the people of Honduras, the government, and the army have backed the country's constitution. We have not.
Ms. O'Grady says in her commentary that she has received numerous emails from people in Honduras asking for prayers for their country. They want their constitution to stand. She points out:
"Hondurans have good cause for calling on divine intervention: Reason has gone AWOL in places like Turtle Bay and Foggy Bottom. Ruling the debate on Mr. Zelaya's behavior is Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez, who is now the reigning international authority on "democracy."
Mr. Chávez is demanding that Mr. Zelaya be reinstated and is even threatening to overthrow the new Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti. He's leading the charge from the Organization of American States (OAS). The United Nations and the Obama administration are falling in line.
Is this insane? You bet. We have fallen through the looking glass..."
Freedom can be messy, and there is always a cost to standing up to tyrants, but it is definitely something we need to do.
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