Obama sends wrong message to Chavez

In the past, the messages that the US has sent to foreign governments has caused many of our foreign policy problems. Who can forget Saddam Hussein thinking he had Ambassador April Catherine Glaspie’s tacit approval for an invasion of Kuwait? The reason the Soviets thought they could invade Afghanistan was because they knew Jimmy Carter would do nothing (boy, he fooled them – he boycotted the Moscow Olympics. That taught ’em.)

Now, by coming down on the wrong side of the Honduras problem, Obama could be giving Chavez clearance to forcibly re-install ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes today in the Wall Street Journal;

At issue is Mr. Chávez’s determination to restore deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to power through multilateral pressure. His phone call to a State Department official showed that his campaign was not going well and that he thought he could get U.S. help.

This is not good news for the region. The Venezuelan may feel that his aims have enough support from the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) that he would be justified in forcing Mr. Zelaya on Honduras by supporting a violent overthrow of the current government. That he has reason to harbor such a view is yet another sign that the Obama administration is on the wrong side of history.

In the three weeks since the Honduran Congress moved to defend the country’s constitution by relieving Mr. Zelaya of his presidential duties, it has become clear that his arrest was both lawful and a necessary precaution against violence.

The Obama Administration has ignored the fact that Zelaya’s removal was required by the Honduran Constitution. In fact, under the Honduran Constitution, Zelaya’s loss of his Honduran citizenship was required. Continuing to call this a coup, only lends a violent return of Zelaya legitimacy.

The Obama Administration has refused to acknowledge the discovery of computer files in Honduras that held the pre-ordained outcome of Zelaya’s illegal referendum (reported to us by Alberto de la Cruz at Babalu Blog on Saturday) intentionally ignoring the fact that the whole world has been set up by the amateurs of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Fausta writes this morning that Zelaya has shifted his ultimatum date to July 24th – enough time for Chavez to position Venezuelan troops in Nicaragua to force the return of Zelaya.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Usual Suspects