Defending Democracy in Honduras

It is rare for an editorial to display ignorance of facts, failures of logic and carelessness of consequences all at once, but The Post achieved this feat with the June 30 editorial "Defend Democracy," on the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Manuel Zelaya was duly elected four years ago on the ticket of the Liberal Party, the center-left party in Honduras. (I attended his inauguration as part of the United States' official delegation). Mr. Zelaya was never, and never pretended to be, center-right, as the editorial asserted. And Honduran voters presumably expected him to govern from the left, as indeed he did.

The voters presumably did not expect, however, that he would attempt to stay in office after the expiration of his term, in open defiance of the Honduran constitution and of rulings by the Honduran Supreme Court. Or that he would defy the country's Congress on these same matters. Or that he would fire those who refused to implement his illegal orders, again in defiance of Supreme Court rulings.

As the editorial correctly noted, the Honduran Congress -- led by Mr. Zelaya's own party -- overwhelmingly voted to remove Mr. Zelaya from office because of his malfeasance. It appointed a successor, again in apparent compliance with the country's constitution, as your editorial seemed to concede. How then could you advocate -- in the name of defending democracy, no less -- that the United States work to reinstate Mr. Zelaya? We in the United States also have a legal process for removing our president. We have used it twice, though never successfully. Were we successfully to impeach and remove a president, would we accept the judgment of, say, France directing that he be reinstated?

Yes, it is ugly business when Supreme Court orders must be implemented by armed force. But, as you might have learned from Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus in 1957, that sort of thing has happened in this country, too -- and not that long ago. The bottom line is that Mr. Zelaya tried the same playbook that has been tried so many times by Latin American strongmen, most recently by his idol and mentor, Hugo Chávez. It is readily apparent why Mr. Chávez is, even now, attempting to rally his acolytes (and possibly troops) to restore Mr. Zelaya. It is less apparent why a Post editorial should urge our government to follow his lead. If we want to "defend democracy," we should side with the Honduran people who are rightfully insisting that their leaders honor their constitution, not that of Venezuela.

MIGUEL A. ESTRADA

Washington

The writer, a native of Honduras, is an attorney in Washington.