Obama “Stands With Democracy”, Defends Leftist Despot/Thug/Drug Trafficker

In what continues to be a shocking series of events, the Obama administration has joined Castro and Chavez in supporting the leftist  Honduran President Zelaya, a man who at home had lost the support of even his own party. Thanks to the Obama administration, Zelaya now has the foreign backing to return to power.

This BBC News profile of Zelaya painted a very unflattering picture of his presidential tenure…

He pledged to tackle gang warfare and poverty in one of Central America’s poorest nations.

But food prices rose and violent crime continued.

In May 2007, Mr Zelaya ordered all of the country’s TV and radio stations to carry government propaganda for two hours a day, accusing them of giving his government unfair coverage.

And get this:

“He is surely a good man, with a healthy dose of tradition and amazing talent.”

This was Fidel Castro’s description of Mr Zelaya after a meeting in March with the Honduran leader who, in the Cuban ex-leader’s words, “cannot be accused of being either a Marxist or a Communist”.

The Honduran president’s popularity with Latin America’s most prominent radicals raised questions at home about the man who had been elected as a Liberal.

American leftists would call that “guilt by association”.

Zelaya was ousted by the country’s Attorney General, Congress, and Supreme Court, because he was trying to strong arm his way to an illegal referendum to make himself el Presidente for life, ala Chavez, which everyone in Honduras understood. As Newt Gingrich noted, “having Castro call for defending democracy should convince any reasonable person that Honduras was on the edge of a leftist dictatorship”.

But  Obama  insists that the US will “stand with Democracy” in the face of the overthrow.

Obama and Zelaya at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, April 18, 2009.

“We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there,” Obama said. “It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backward into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that the ouster “should be condemned by all.”

Clinton and Zelaya during the 39th general assembly of the (OAS) at Honduran-arabic Club in San Pedro Sula June 2, 2009.

Fidel Castro weighed in again, after Zelaya visited Managua on Monday for the meeting of the leftist Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA):

“Even Mrs. Clinton had declared that Zelaya is the only president of Honduras, and the Honduran coup leaders can’t even breathe without the support of the United States,” Castro wrote.

Didn’t Castro and Chavez used to be  bad guys?  Why are we on the same side as the bad guys?  Why am I becoming increasingly ashamed of my country? I feel like we’re part of the Axis of Evil, now.

Charles Krauthammer, on Fox News,  argued forcefully that the Obama administration is wrong:

Read what this Honduran wrote at The Corner, yesterday:

The country is bewildered that the world, especially the United States, is not on their side.  Zelaya was confident of his plans to convert Honduras into a Venezuelan satellite. The Honduran people are proud of their constitution and are proud to have a functioning democratic system. Zelaya was replaced by a member of his own party who vows to see that this November’s presidential election takes place. What happened was not a “coup” but a bipartisan effort to save the nation.

It is heartbreaking for me to see President Obama throw Honduras under the bus. He did not speak out when Zelaya was attempting to stage a sham “constitutional referendum” with ballots printed in Venezuela.

Here is another one expressing himself on video:

And now the deposed President has been accused by his countrymen of having drug ties:

The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States.“Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds … and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking,” its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol.

“We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it,” he added.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in Washington said he could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation.

This is the man Obama chooses to side with?

Ace Of Spades wasn’t kidding when he said:

Obama, Enemy of Democracy and Human Rights.

Previously:

Honduran Military Removes Despot From Power