American Foreign Policy in Latin America -- Beyond Weird

How does one begin to understand the incomprehensible. Okay, let's suppose, we impeached an American president (this is hypothetical and is not intended to point to any specific president) in a procedure that complied with rulings of the Supreme Court and was instituted by a vast majority of the members of our Congress. Let's suppose, further, that the EU disapproved of our impeaching this president and removed the right of members of our Supreme Court, and of our interim president, and members of our military to visit any European country.

A fantasy, you say. Okay, let's turn to what really did happen as reported in the NY Times on 9/13/09, on page 14, in an article less than 1/24 th the size of the full page. I quote from this half buried article, "Interim President Roberto Micheletti said that his United States dipolmatic and tourist visas had been revoked in response to the June 28 coup in which President Manuel Zelaya was forced into exile

"Later on Saturday, his spokeswoman, Marcia de Villeda, said that the United States revoked the visas of 14 (Honduran) Supreme Court judges, the foreign relations secretary, the country's attorney general and the armed forces chief on Friday."

Really? What is going on here?

For those who haven't followed this story, let me say that Honduras, in order to have a more democratic government, instituted term limits on the presidency even before Mr. Zelaya came to power. But, Mr. Zelaya didn't like term limits. He proceeded to takes steps to have the county's laws circumvented. To counter his actions, Mr. Zelaya was forced into exile.

I don't have every detail of this situation, but I think it's clear enough that this is (a) an internal Honduran matter and (b) that term limits are considered a good thing by the majority of Hondurans. What I don't understand is what in Sam Hill we're doing sticking our nose in this business.

But, maybe there are some clues. For example, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is an ally of Mr. Zelaya, the ousted Honduran president. You recall Mr. Chavez, the man who is buying missiles from Russia and offering Ahmadinejad of Iran gasoline and perhaps hoping to acquire nuclear technology in return. Yep, that Mr. Chavez.

Other friends of Mr. Zelaya include Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega, the leftist, who heads up Nicargua.

So, just what are we doing in the company of these thugs and dictators? The only one who can possibly answer that is our President. I'd like to support Obama in all he says and does, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to understand just how he's got his head screwed on.