Zelaya experienced every president’s worst nightmare: the army showing up at your door at night and dragging you to Costa Rica in your pajamas.
Once you look past the civil unrest, bloody public violence, and scathing injustice, a coup is kind of a funny thing. Honduran president Manuel Zelaya fell in line with his socialist homey Hugo Chavez in an impoverished nation with a tiny but wealthy elite and a majority in a festering soup of poverty. Logical assumptions would lead one to believe that the regressive and conservative action of removing such a leader for army rule would be an unpopular action forced by the military. Judging by the condemnation of Latin America and the world at large, it comes as a bit of a surprise that only 30% of Hondurans actually support Zelaya.
The president’s popularity faded as Honduras increasingly suffered economic woes, widespread violence, and corruption at all levels. His emulation of Hugo Chavez led to various spats with other houses of government which culminated last night when Zelaya experienced every president’s worst nightmare: the army showing up at your door at night and dragging you to Costa Rica in your pajamas. Within hours of the ouster, the military had placed their own man at the helm, not that it matters who the new boss is because no country in the world will recognize the military government.
The real victims, as in any such situation, are the people. Progress has now been shelved for the sake of political rivals getting even, and the poverty and corruption that sparked dissent against the formerly established leader will now run wild. When corruption happens at the highest level, it will inevitable grow at all others.
