[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25610]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        HONDURAS: A DEMOCRACY IN SPITE OF THE U.S. INTERVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there is trouble in Honduras, and the 
United States has chosen sides in this conflict. Here are the facts: 
the people of Honduras are holding an election on November 29. Honduras 
is a democracy. Their elections will fill 3,000 offices nationwide and 
all 128 seats of the national congress, and they will elect a new 
President.
  They've had some trouble recently with their current President. 
Manuel Zelaya attempted to stay in office and be on the November 
ballot, which is not allowed by term limits in their Honduran 
Constitution. Zelaya wants to become a permanent President of Honduras 
and has tried to illegally change the Constitution to keep himself in 
power.
  The people have followed the rule of law, however. They followed 
their own Constitution. Just as the people of this country would follow 
our Constitution under similar circumstances, they took proper, legal 
action to stop Zelaya's illegal behavior, and they removed him from 
office through the legal court system.
  Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution states: ``The citizen who 
has already held executive power''--that would be the President--``may 
not be President or designee. Anyone who violates this provision or 
proposes its reform and supports those who do directly or indirectly, 
must immediately cease the discharge of their duties, and shall be 
disqualified for 10 years from the exercise of any public function.''
  Those are pretty simple words. It sounds like the Constitution 
prevents Zelaya from trying to hijack the government.
  The self-governing people of Honduras set forth in their Constitution 
that a tyrant could not abuse the process and become a dictator. They 
set rock solid term limits to one term for President. These good people 
legally removed Manuel Zelaya, the man who would be dictator, a tyrant, 
and a special friend of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Now that's special.
  Here's how the people acted legally. After several attempts by legal 
means to prevent Zelaya from staying in power, the Office of Public 
Prosecutor filed a criminal complaint. The charges were treason, abuse 
of authority and usurpation of power in violation of the Honduran 
Constitution. The Supreme Court of Honduras agreed with the charges and 
issued an arrest warrant for the armed forces to arrest Manuel Zelaya. 
So Zelaya was legally arrested. And because he violated the 
Constitution, he was exiled from the country.
  We should be applauding the people of Honduras for following their 
rule of law. In America, we honor the rule of law. We believe in self-
determination and constitutional limits on government power, but we 
picked the wrong side in this case. We took the side of the tyrant 
versus the people of Honduras.
  Now why would we do that? We cut off foreign aid to Honduras. We have 
refused to recognize the interim government that followed the rule of 
law. This is a Honduran Government that is doing everything despite 
America's interference to make sure that their elections take place as 
scheduled, to make sure their democracy survives according to the 
Constitution.
  In the meantime, Zelaya, who was exiled, has slipped back into the 
country. He's holed up in the Brazilian Embassy. He's being funded by 
guess who? The Communist dictator, Hugo Chavez. Zelaya's thugs are 
targeting select groups with violent acts, including attacks on 
Christians. Zelaya is attempting to create chaos, but the popular will 
does not exist to return this would-be dictator to power. The people 
want their free elections to take place as scheduled.
  One of our Senate colleagues, Senator DeMint of South Carolina, 
recently returned from Honduras. He said that the only person he found 
in Honduras interested in putting Zelaya back in power was guess who? 
The American ambassador.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a moral imperative that we back the rule of law, 
that we honor the decision of the democratically elected institutions 
of Honduras, that we support the elections in November, and that we 
recognize the new government, whoever wins the race.
  Why do we, as a Nation, say we believe in self-determination but deny 
self-determination to Honduras? Why do we say we believe in a 
constitutional government but bash the nation of Honduras for following 
their own Constitution? Why do we support the likes of a deposed ruler 
like Zelaya? And how is it any of our business to determine who should 
be President of Honduras anyway?
  Honduras has been an ally of the United States, yet appears to be 
another example of how we treat our allies worse than we treat our 
enemies. We are on the wrong side of things when we stand by the bandit 
dictator Hugo Chavez and his buddy, Manuel Zelaya.
  And that's just the way it is.

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