According to the Los Angeles Times today:
"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cut off more than $30 million in aid to Honduras on Thursday in an effort increase pressure on the country's de facto government to restore democratic rule after a coup in June."
First of all--IT WASN"T A COUP!!!!!! Former President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and taken out of the country in June of this year. He was arrested because he was attempting to violate the Honduran constitution which imposes term limits. The courts and the legislature had determined that the referendum he was planning to hold to allow him to run for another term was unconstitutional. His arrest and exile were ordered in order to prevent revolution and bloodshed in the country. President Zelaya is a close friend of Hugo Chavez, and Mr. Chavez was going to supply the ballots for the referendum (were they premarked?).
America is on the wrong side of this fight. We used to support democracy in our hemisphere; we seem to have moved away from that in this case. Hopefully someone at the State Department will take another look at this situation in the near future--South America does not need another dictator like Hugo Chavez.
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