Background: Zelaya and his constitutional crimes ( Part 3 of 4)

Drafters carefully crafted our 1982 constitution in order to avoid the type of behavior shown by “Dictators-to-be” such as Mr. Zelaya. The intention of article 239 of not allowing a re-election, was to prevent the incessant coup d’états and the rise of the “Caudillo” that characterized a significant part of our 20th century history.

Important to note that this same constitution can be changed almost in its entirety -only 7 of the 378 articles are considered unchangeable- through a somewhat tortuous procedure, designed of course to avoid the tyranny of the few and those pursuing personal interests. This fact also breaks another argumentation posed by Mr. Zelaya Rosales that the constitution was at the center of the poverty problems in Honduras.

We add to this list of constitutional crimes, the fact that he had aligned himself with Cuba, Venezuela and to other states that have been condemned as rogue terrorist state such as Iran. Of course entering into commercial or diplomatic relations with any country is not a crime in itself – not asking for a Congressional examination and ratification of these “agreements” after they were signed, is indeed a crime.

Other constitutional and common crimes commited by Mr. Zelaya and his Cabinet include: not submitting a national budget for 2009, his inability to explain where the funds for the “Poverty Reduction Strategy” and other public funds went. We can also point out the corruption scandals that shook his administration, the complete deterioration of schools, roads, hospitals, and the shocking levels of poverty in the country, which by the way had increased over his administration; then we start to see why a large share of Hondurans citizens just wants Mr. Zelaya to go away.

Of these crimes, the one that we cannot forgive is the division and continual class fights deeply enhanced by Mr. Zelaya actions and words. After all, we do need to go back and examine carefully all civilian and military administrations before that of Mr. Zelaya to truly charge them with many of the crimes we are now charging Mr. Zelaya, but this does not mean that this will become an excuse to move on and forget Mr. Zelaya’s crimes and misdemeanors.