June 29, 2009

How Should the U.S. Respond to Honduras?

Tim Padgett, Time

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It would be tempting for Washington to dismiss Sunday morning's military overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as just a minor banana-republic convulsion. But the Obama Administration doesn't have that luxury. Zelaya is a member of the left-wing club of Latin American leaders — and its honcho, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has already deemed this a hemispheric crisis that will challenge the new north-south bonhomie Obama established two months ago at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Less than an hour after Honduran military aircraft had whisked Zelaya into apparent forced exile in Costa Rica, Chávez was accusing the CIA of having a hand in his ouster. "The Yanqui empire," he said, "has much to do" with what he called "this troglodyte...

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TAGGED: United States, Barack Obama, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Honduras, Manuel Zelaya

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