"This is not a man who follows the rule of law”

Bob Amsterdam appeared on KPCC, Los Angeles (Public Radio) today on the Larry Mantle show. (And you have to applaud Larry Mantle. He’s one of the few talk show hosts in the country not draining his listeners with endless droning on about Michael Jackson.) Mantle talked to Amsterdam about a front page issue that actually has some importance outside of the world of entertainment. Amsterdam, who represents a political prisoner in Venezuela-- a business guy named Eligio Cedeno who opposed Chavez’ tyranny and got thrown in the slammer as a result-- knows a little something about the dictatorial regime of Hugo Chavez and his juggernaut of destroying whatever vestiges of democracy remain in his country.

Today, Bob made the connection between Chavez and the Honduran military coup last night (when they led President Zelaya away in his pj’s with Zelaya insisting, “I’m the president of Honduras.” It seems President Zelaya, who started off as a nice right wing fellow, got to be good friends with Hugo Chavez recently, and lo and behold, if he didn’t become a radical leftist as a result. In fact, in his quest to dispense with niceties like the constitution, which term limits Honduran presidents, Mr. Zelaya turned to Mr. Chavez to print the ballots for his referendum in Caracas. Maybe Mr. Z thought ballots printed by his buddy might slip more easily into Honduran ballot boxes sans hanging chads if they were greased with a little Venezuelan oil. Zelaya, said Amsterdam, in demanding an office for life, was doing the bidding of Chavez who’s been trying to recruit him, along with as many Latino leaders as he can get, to be part of his anti-American League of Nations. Now, as you can imagine, President Chavez is unhappy that his new recruit got led off in his jammies, and he’s threatening to bring in troops to rectify the situation.

President Obama’s not happy either. We have not witnessed a military coup south of the border in about 16 years. Thought we were done with those messy things. So 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue issued a statement today expressing displeasure with this middle of the night business. After all, Mr. Zelaya was democratically elected. True, it’s just that once the people of Honduras put him in office, just like his pal Hugo, Zelaya decided that he could rip up the bothersome Honduran constitution and stay in his cozy office until they carried him out feet first. Instead, he got marched out on his own two feet and got a free flight to Costa Rica. (Hopefully they gave him a bathrobe and some slippers for the flight.) Bob Amsterdam agrees with President Obama “that the coup was unacceptable, but we have to put it in a wider context. While Zelaya was staging his constitutional coup, the military engaged in a counter coup to take him out, because Zelaya had defied not only the constitution but also the supreme court and the congress, and, working with Chavez decided to stage this vote…Let’s be clear, Zelaya was following the policy used by Chavez called ‘constitutional editing.’ This is not a man who follows the rule of law.”
Stay tuned.