The big news out of Latin America today is the coup in Honduras. Soldiers stormed into the house of President Mel Zelaya in the early morning hours and rousted him from his bed at gunpoint. Zelaya was forced to leave the country; he’s now in Costa Rica.
Coups were relatively common in Latin America over the first eight decades of the 20th Century, but there were many signs that the region had turned a corner. Peaceful transitions of power, through the ballot box and legal channels, became the rule rather than the exception. Let’s hope this latest event is just an isolated incident–one step back but not symbolic of a regressive trend. We condemn this coup in no uncertain terms.
-NF
