End Honduran coup drama

According to End Honduran coup drama in the Miami Herald:

OUR OPINION: Changing stories, rights repression discredits Honduran authorities

The cadre of civilians and military officers in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica is having a hard time keeping its story straight. First, the plotters said the removal was carried out in response to a lawful order from the Supreme Court, but now they say that President Zelaya actually chose exile rather than going to jail -- his only other choice.

Even members of the government are straying from the script. Deputy Attorney General Roy David Urtecho revealed on Wednesday that his office had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Zelaya on charges of treason and abuse of power. And, by golly, he can't figure out why the president was sent to Costa Rica instead of an Honduran court. That, apparently, is news to Roberto Micheletti, the newly installed president, who insists that the soldiers were complying with Supreme Court orders.

Trying to sort this out, Mr. Utrecho could only come up with this face-saving explanation: ``There were events that don't comply with the law.''

You don't say.

That's the most striking understatement to emerge from the turmoil in Honduras, but it fails to explain anything. The most pressing question is why Honduran leaders chose to turn a lameduck president with little popular or political support from any quarter, including his own party, into a figure hailed as a ''victim'' of anti-democratic forces by the U.N. General Assembly, the Organization of American States and even, reluctantly, the U.S. State Department.

Asking for trouble

Mr. Urtecho had the right idea. If the president did wrong, investigate him and file charges. Arrest him if necessary and hold a trial. Snatching him out of bed, putting a gun to his head and tossing him on a plane turns what might have been a conventional political process into a bizarre melodrama that discredits his adversaries, regardless of what Mr. Zelaya was accused of doing.

Mr. Zelaya was clearly asking for trouble by pressing for a plebiscite or referendum that might have served as a springboard for trying to extend his term of office. But it's not about Mr. Zelaya -- it's about the institutional integrity of Honduras, where democracy remains a fragile seed and needs to be nurtured rather than trampled on.

The military overthrow of the democratically-elected president Ramón Villeda Morales in 1963 started a series of unelected military governments that lasted more or less without interruption until Roberto Suazo Córdova was elected president in 1981.

Today's events in Honduras do not compare precisely with earlier upheavals because the anti-Zelaya faction acted in the name of the purported civilian authority, not in the name of a military junta. Still, that misses the point. As history shows, forcing elected presidents from office at the point of a gun can become a habit, a convenient way to circumvent constitutional authority any time it becomes expedient or a president loses political support.

`Excessive use of force'

That's why it's best not to go there. Mr. Zelaya's opponents have brought further discredit on themselves and their cause by their heavy-handed efforts to silence opposition and insulate themselves from criticism.

In a letter to the OAS, Human Rights Watch complained of ''excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and acts of censhorship'' by the Honduran authorities. The emergency decree that suspends fundamental rights remains in effect and could become a cover for further abuses.

Honduras police and security forces need to maintain order. But if, as the authorities claim, Mr. Zelaya has no significant political support, they have nothing to fear from peaceful political demonstrations. Nor should the Honduran public be kept in the dark about events in Honduras nor denied the right to be informed by their preferred media outlets.

The first job of the OAS mission headed to Honduras on Friday, led by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, is to press for a restoration of civil liberties and the release of anyone detained for political reasons in connection with the ouster of Mr. Zelaya.

Then he should make it clear to Mr. Micheletti and his cohorts that they are internationally isolated and must restore Mr. Zelaya to the presidency.

As to Mr. Zelaya, it should be made clear that he signed up for one term, as Honduras' constitution mandates.

Enough drama.