There has been much discussion in the media about the “military coup” in Honduras and while the military did escort the president out of Honduras it seems they did so at the request of Congress which has appointed a new president until the elections are held in November and an new president is appointed in January. Mr. Micheletti, the Parliamentary speaker now appointed president, has stated that former president Mel will be arrested if he attempts to return to Honduras. It seems that the Supreme Court has ruled that former president Mel had committed a crime when he attempted to circumvent Congress and hold a vote to see if the people would allow for changes to be made to their constitution. There is plenty of news coverage all over the internet which can fill you in on the details of the events which have lead Honduras to this situation, but I caution you to read over several reports with opposing biases before deciding the facts. My primary concern is that the former president is in no position to help his people even if his intentions were in their best interests and as such he should cut his losses and stay out of Honduras.
What we do know is that, according to every source we have, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the military are united against the former president. Suppose he is some how able to re-enter the country and assume his former role as president. What could he accomplish? He would need Congress to pass any laws and they want nothing to do with him. They will certainly be working against him for the remainder of his term if he were to return. He would also need the Supreme Court to uphold any laws he was able to somehow pass and they too would circumvent him in any way they could. Lastly he would need the military to enforce any actions he chose to take and they are the ones who escorted him out of the country to begin with. Unfortunately, at this point the only thing I think the return of former president Mel would do is incite a revolution. For this reason I firmly believe that the former president should begin planning his retirement outside of Honduras and thus far it seems the rest of the world is beginning to see this situation the same way I do. Former president Mel was planning to return to Honduras today and postponed his trip for 72 hours, hopefully by then he will have decided to postpone the trip indefinitely.
