Coup in Honduras

This morning, in a daring pre dawn raid, the President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was arrested by military force and forced into exile in Costa Rico. The Congress then elected its leader, Roberto Micheletti, to replace Zelaya. The military acted on the order of the Honduran Supreme Court.

The whole dispute started when Zelaya attempted to serve another term in office. He was about to finish his constititutionally mandated final term next year. He wanted to serve another term. As such, he planned on having a referendum allowing him to serve another term. His opponents said that a referendum was not the Constitutionally prescribed way to allow him to serve another term.

As such, the military not only began opposing Zelaya, but the referendum. As such, his Defense Minister, Edmundo Orellana, was removed and so was General Romeo Vasquez, the head of the armed forces. Meanwhile, the heads of the army and marines resigned in protest.

Then, two days ago, the Honduran Supreme Court ruled the referendum unconstitutional. The President, Manuel Zelaya, went ahead with the referendum even though the military, the judiciary and the legislature were now all against him. Then, this morning, the Supreme Court ordered an arrest warrant for the President.

Zelaya is a leftist and an ally of Hugo Chavez. He was, at least in the opinion of his opponents, attempting to turn the country into a dictatorship much like Chavez has in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the U.S. worked behind the scenes for the last couple days to stop the coup. (H/T to Hotair

The Obama administration worked in recent days to prevent President Zelaya's ouster, a senior U.S. official said. The State Department, in particular, communicated to Honduran officials on the ground that President Obama wouldn't support any non-democratic transfer of power in the Central American country.

"We had some indication" that a move against Mr. Zelaya was a foot, said a U.S. official briefed on the diplomacy. "We made it clear it was something we didn't support."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Mr. Obama Sunday in criticizing the Honduran coup and calling for the restoration of the democratic process.

The President is calling on all sides to "respect Constitutional order". Television stations aren't working today and power is out in many parts of Honduras. It goes without saying that the situation remains "fluid".