Honduras claims that FARC is financing Zelaya

Libertad Digital has the story (with special thanks to commenter Spartan) from news agency EFE:
INCAUTAN RECIBOS QUE LO PRUEBAN
Honduras denuncia que las FARC financian la marcha de Zelaya a la frontera (They seized receipts that prove it: Honduras denounced that FARC is financing Zelaya’s march to the border) (My translation: if you use this translation please credit me and link to this blog:)

Honduran authorities denounced on Monday the alleged financing by the FARC of deposed president Manuel Zelaya’s followers’ marches to the Nicaragua-Honduras border.

The article goes on to say that police seized a notebook and receipts showing that “Zelaya’s government officials and supporters, leftist leaders, farmers, union members, and at least one mayor and one governor” were paid between $2,500 to $100,000 for the “transportation of people and supplies” to the border region.

The information was gathered from a computer seized from a FARC leader. No money was seized since the funds had already been distributed.

Noticias 24 is also carrying the story as Zelaya Supporters Trickle Home.

Noticias 24 also has a chronology of the month since Zelaya’s ousting (in Spanish).

Roberto Micheletti has an op-ed in today’s WSJ, The Path Forward for Honduras
Zelaya’s removal from office was a triumph for the rule of law. (emphasis added)

Let’s review some fundamental facts that cannot be disputed:

• The Supreme Court, by a 15-0 vote, found that Mr. Zelaya had acted illegally by proceeding with an unconstitutional “referendum,” and it ordered the Armed Forces to arrest him. The military executed the arrest order of the Supreme Court because it was the appropriate agency to do so under Honduran law.

• Eight of the 15 votes on the Supreme Court were cast by members of Mr. Zelaya’s own Liberal Party. Strange that the pro-Zelaya propagandists who talk about the rule of law forget to mention the unanimous Supreme Court decision with a majority from Mr. Zelaya’s own party. Thus, Mr. Zelaya’s arrest was at the instigation of Honduran’s constitutional and civilian authorities—not the military.

• The Honduran Congress voted overwhelmingly in support of removing Mr. Zelaya. The vote included a majority of members of Mr. Zelaya’s Liberal Party.

• Independent government and religious leaders and institutions—including the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the Administrative Law Tribunal, the independent Human Rights Ombudsman, four-out-of-five political parties, the two major presidential candidates of the Liberal and National Parties, and Honduras’s Catholic Cardinal—all agreed that Mr. Zelaya had acted illegally.

• The constitution expressly states in Article 239 that any president who seeks to amend the constitution and extend his term is automatically disqualified and is no longer president. There is no express provision for an impeachment process in the Honduran constitution. But the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision affirmed that Mr. Zelaya was attempting to extend his term with his illegal referendum. Thus, at the time of his arrest he was no longer—as a matter of law, as far as the Supreme Court was concerned—president of Honduras.

• Days before his arrest, Mr. Zelaya had his chief of staff illegally withdraw millions of dollars in cash from the Central Bank of Honduras.

• A day or so before his arrest, Mr. Zelaya led a violent mob to overrun an Air Force base to seize referendum ballots that had been shipped into Honduras by Hugo Chávez’s Venezuelan government.

• I succeeded Mr. Zelaya under the Honduran constitution’s order of succession (our vice president had resigned before all of this began so that he could run for president). This is and has always been an entirely civilian government. The military was ordered by an entirely civilian Supreme Court to arrest Mr. Zelaya. His removal was ordered by an entirely civilian and elected Congress. To suggest that Mr. Zelaya was ousted by means of a military coup is demonstrably false.

Regarding the decision to expel Mr. Zelaya from the country the evening of June 28 without a trial, reasonable people can believe the situation could have been handled differently. But it is also necessary to understand the decision in the context of genuine fear of Mr. Zelaya’s proven willingness to violate the law and to engage in mob-led violence.

Do read the whole article – as Neoneocon said, it’s required reading.

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey asks, Zelaya fading in Honduras? Daniel from Venezuela News and Views posts on Patricia Rodas, who got Zelaya together with Chavez.

Earlier on the Obama adminstration cut cut $16.5 million in military aid and threatened to slash economic aid. Too bad they don’t have the FARC to lie back on.