Honduras

[Dante]

Three weeks after I arrive in the country and the president goes into exile. Come on Edric, you're lagging. :P

Seriously though, I've taken time out of my busy coup- er, reef ecology work to come see what people feel about the situation here. On the one hand, the president is quite popular and did some good for the lower classes (hence his popularity). On the other, he is attempting a route to continued rule that has led others to permanent power in the past. The military has taken over, in theory, to prevent an unconstitutional referendum. But military juntas are hardly good news (or news at all) in Central America, and I for one am not a fan of the 9pm nationwide curfew. Thoughts?

[Andrew]

So what is Honduras like? Aside from current political stuff.

[Edric O]

I would expect Honduras is... hot. And humid.

As far as I can tell, a populist president who tried to actually take some measures to benefit the people (for a change) has been overthrown by your typical Latin American military junta intent on establishing a right-wing dictatorship under the flimsy excuse of "defending the constitution."

In other words, business as usual. Or it would have been business as usual, during the Cold War. Today, it's a bit of an unexpected blast from the past. And the deposed president seems intent on getting power back. I, for one, wish him good luck in doing so. Not that he's a good leader by any standards - it may even be true that he was trying to grab more power - but at least he seems less bad than the military.

[Dante]

Well, where I was at least there were large-scale protests in support of the ex-president, but they seemed largely controlled, in the sense that nobody was seeking to break the law and nothing got out of hand. His supporters are acting out, but at the moment most of them are content to do just that. There were a few smashed windows, and the banks were being very careful, but no major damage. Curfew was still in effect of course, and I was in the largely detached western side of the country - most of the trouble is in the capital and surrounding areas to the east.

However, I wouldn't say that the military acted entirely without cause. The president was trying to set himself up for an illegal duration of power under the current constitution. A better situation would have been, Putin-style, to have a puppet take your place and continue to do what good work you can from elsewhere. Much less hassle than all this.

[MrFlibble]

The president was trying to set himself up for an illegal duration of power under the current constitution.

I've heard the official cause for the attempt of altering the constitution was different; I've also read somewhere that it is said in the Honduras constitution that anyone trying to alter the limits of presidential rule will be immediately removed from any political position such person might occupy.