BJ’s Wrong Take On Honduras

Yesterday in the Huffington Post, Mike Farrell (remember him as BJ Honeycutt on M*A*S*H?) asked: “where the hell is the USA?” He was asking this in relation to Honduras and though I liked him on M*A*S*H, he’s dead wrong about Honduras.

Mike’s argument basically is this: President Zelaya had a lot of good, pro-poor programs, Congress and the Military – supported by Honduras’ elites – didn’t like this common touch so they cooked up a coup to throw Zelaya out and put the former head of the Honduran Congress, Roberto Micheletti, in as president. Ok, that sounds good as a theory, but it ignores one small fact – that Zelaya was violating Honduras’ constitution by trying to hold a referendum to extend his own term in office. The Congress told him not to do it, the Supreme Court told him not to do it, but Zelaya insisted, finally prompting the Military to remove him (Honduras’ constitution, according to the explanation I’ve seen, says that anyone trying to change the term limits on the presidency must be removed from office immediately).

So by that reading the Military was actually upholding the constitution, not violating it. And I think that is the problem that a lot of people are having with what’s going on in Honduras, if you’ve studied International Affairs you know usually it’s the other way around – the military violates the constitution to remove the legal leader.

But just because that is the common way these things unfold, it doesn’t mean that’s the reality of the situation in Honduras. President Zelaya’s grandstanding visit to the border late last week doesn’t help his cause either, making him seem like someone more interested in self-promotion than in governing his country (even Hillary Clinton slammed his visit as being “unhelpful”).

So while I loved you as BJ, Mike, you’re wrong on this one.