Honduras, Zelaya and the Obama Administration: Why Hugo Chavez is Smiling

Ray Walser / September 04, 2009

When Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez steps off his airplane in Tehran for a weekend chat with Iran’s leaders, he is certain to have a little extra bounce in his step. Having engineered a massive political crisis in Honduras, Chavez can now count on Washington and the Obama Administration to deliver what he could not do: the forced return of ousted ally Manuel Zelaya to the presidency.

Failure to return Zelaya, the State Department warned ominously today, will swiftly end virtually all U.S. economic assistance. Even more ominous, the Obama Administration warned that it will not recognize the outcome of the November elections if conducted without Zelaya’s return to power.

This is the political and diplomatic equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on Tegucigalpa and Roberto Micheletti government. (more…)