[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16836-16837]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                HONDURAS

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I want to spend a few minutes tonight 
talking about what is going on in Honduras. I have a lot of friends in 
Honduras, and I have this peculiar worry that we find ourselves on the 
wrong side of freedom in the situation that is happening in Honduras.
  As you read the press clips, what we have heard is there was a coup. 
That, in fact, is not true. The Supreme Court of Honduras, under the 
direction of the Congress, asked the military to intercede because the 
President of Honduras

[[Page 16837]]

had violated their own laws. Yet our State Department and our foreign 
policy sided with Hugo Chavez, Raoul Castro, and the former President.
  There is no question that improvements have been made in the past in 
Central and South America, but tonight we find ourselves supporting an 
anticonstitutional President of Honduras when, in fact, the Congress of 
Honduras and the Supreme Court of Honduras have said he is violating 
their laws. So rather than look at the whole picture, we have decided 
we will intervene in our diplomacy on the side of a Chavez-type, would-
be dictator because what was happening in Honduras was an effort to 
change so you could have a President for life in Honduras. That is what 
was going on. That is why the Congress and that is why the Supreme 
Court of Honduras acted. We now are siding against the people of 
Honduras.
  What is little known is 800 to 1,000 Venezuelan thugs were admitted 
into Honduras, in the week prior to this, with Honduran passports to 
create chaos or a systematic attempt to create upheaval and discord and 
rioting by Chavez's thugs. So now we find ourselves, the free United 
States, siding with somebody who wants to make sure the Honduran people 
are not free, to create another petro czar dictator in South Central 
America.
  It is tremendously important we get this right. I think we are 
heading in the wrong direction right now. I think we are heading in the 
direction where we are going to make sure Honduras falls into the fold 
of Hugo Chavez, the last thing any of us should want. He has become the 
dictator in charge of Venezuela. He has nationalized American assets. 
He has corrupted the free Democratic process, and he seeks to do that 
in all the other areas where he can maintain influence. In fact, he was 
doing it.
  The other thing that is important that is not well published is that 
the President of Honduras was totally associated with drug cartels, 
cash, the distribution and transmission of drugs into this country, and 
the moneys associated with that were used to buy people to support his 
pursuit of permanent power. Now we find ourselves out there on a limb 
with our foreign policy without looking at the whole story.
  My main concern is about all those people who do want freedom in 
Honduras, who do believe we model in this country what they aspire to, 
and now the country they aspire to is siding against the vast majority 
of the people in Honduras. No illegal acts took place under the orders 
of the supreme court by the military--no illegal acts. Yet we didn't 
look at it close enough, and we have made now foreign policy decisions 
I fear are going to be irreversible.
  There is no question things could be done better in Honduras, but 
there is also no question things could be done better here. For us to 
decide to side with the factors that are going to force Honduras into a 
situation similar to Cuba and Venezuela makes my blood boil, because 
not only are we going to eliminate and limit the freedom of those great 
people, we are going to help perpetuate the loss of freedom in that 
hemisphere.
  So I call out to the President and the Secretary to do a 
reassessment. Let's relook at the facts. Let's talk to the people on 
the ground. Let's make sure we have the facts and the knowledge about 
what the vast majority of people in Honduras want. You can stimulate 
chaos if you pay enough money and bring enough people in to do that, 
which was the intent of President Zelaya.
  My hope is that we will slow down, that we will use caution at every 
turn as we interface with the situation. The Honduran people have the 
right to have their Constitution followed. That is what they did when 
they executed the imposition of removal of the President of Honduras. 
They followed their own law, their own Constitution. They don't have 
the right of impeachment, but they do have the right of carrying out 
the orders of the supreme court, which were given. For us to take this 
position--and this strong of a position--on what I feel has been a 
diplomatic lack of information of what is truth in Honduras speaks 
poorly for us as a nation and, most importantly, undermines the hopes 
of the people from Honduras.
  With that, I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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