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Legality of the Honduran Coup
6/30/2009 08:14:00 PM | Justin

The Honduran constitution is a pretty strange document. Check out this paragraph from wikipedia on the subject. It says that any citizen who tries to change the term limits article of the constitution can be immediately stripped of public office, and eventually even stripped of citizenship. So maybe the coup organizers are on solid legal ground.

President Manuel Zelaya intended to hold a "nonbinding" public referendum on June 28, on whether to call a National Assembly to rewrite the constitution, to take place concurrently with this year's elections. Zelaya's opponents claimed that his intention was to allow his own re-election. Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, which forbids any former chief executive from being re-elected President, states that any citizen who proposes reforming said article, and any others who support such a person directly or indirectly, are to immediately "cease carrying out" any public office.[12] The Constitution, however, establishes no process for impeaching or removing a president.[citation needed] Furthermore Article 42, Section 5 of the Constitution states that citizenship is lost for "inciting, promoting or supporting the continuation or the reelection of the President of the Republic." According to the same article, revoking citizenship for this reason requires a court sentence and then a government order ("acuerdo gubernativo").[12]


Limiting a president to one term seems kind of extreme to me. In a way, it can be empowering, because the president need not worry about running again. So they can start their presidency off immediately by doing what they want. It also is a bit anti-democratic, because it curbs the people's will. But then again, with the sordid history of latin lifetime dictatorships, maybe it's wise to prevent the president from becoming to comfortable with his position.



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