Miguel Estrada: Zelaya has “a meritorious immigration beef.”

Which is, of course, much different than being ‘a victim of a coup.’ After carefully and reasonably setting out the chain of events of the Honduran non-coup (something, I am forced to note, that this slapdash administration we have running foreign affairs neglected to do before reflexively supporting Zelaya*), Estrada finishes up:

It cannot be right to call this a “coup.” Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country’s elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

True, Zelaya should not have been arbitrarily exiled from his homeland. That, however, does not mean he must be reinstalled as president of Honduras. It merely makes him an indicted private citizen with a meritorious immigration beef against his country.

I don’t know what organization in Honduras handles emigration issues, but Zelaya should probably resolve it by suing them. Assuming that he can get back in the country without being arrested for treason, that is. That has yet to be determined.

Moe Lane

*A position that they have been steadily backing away from. There’s even agitprop claiming that this was all going according to plan; of course, at this point we’d probably be slightly worried if the news media didn’t reflexively do this sort of thing…

Crossposted to RedState.