The military are at it again in Honduras: Who is supporting them?

It is pretty depressing to see that a number of soldiers would have decided to arrest the elect president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya in the middle of the night and to expel him to Costa Rica. All this, it was said, in order to defend the constitution. It is a strange way to ‘defend’ the constitution by breaking it.

The military are clearly working against history by pretending a political return when nobody will recognise their illegal government. Their time in the 1960s, 70s and 80s is over and the return to democratic rule all over Latin America irreversible. Unless, that is, we let them return by giving the slightest bit of legitimacy to their actions.

This is exactly what seems to be happening from a number of sources. The first was Hilary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who ‘condemned’ the coup but pledged the US would not break diplomatic relations with the new government, thus giving a kind of green light to other such attempts throughout the continent.

We have to remember that the excuses used by the military in Honduras are very similar indeed to those used to justify the Venezuelan coup a few years ago and those used by the leaders of the ‘golpe civico prefectural’ here in Bolivia last September. Is there a link between them? Perhaps.

We have to hope that these declarations by the US secretary of state were a mistake provoked by the uncertainty of the first few hours after the coup. President Obama has condemned the new regime and will not recognise it so we would hope this is the last we hear from the US in tacit support of the coup.

Other sources of support are less surprising. The union of so called democratic organisations of America (UnoAmerica), a right wing network of organisations, formally recognised the new government referring to the coup as ‘a legitimate succession of power provoked by the president’s attempt to break the constitution and follow Venezuela’s path’.

What is more worrying is the position that seems to have been taken by CNN that has repeatedly referred to the coup as a ‘forced succession of power’. In what must be one of the worst blunders of all times on live TV, the news anchor joked about the deposed president’s pyjamas during an interview with the president of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Mr Insulza.

Neither the OAS, the Rio Group, nor ALBA have recognised the new dictatorship. They have all retired their ambassadors from the country. It is only to be expected that the European Union will make a clear and formal statement denouncing the return to one of the darkest moments of Latin America’s history.