Madam, – Tuesday’s Editorial on the Honduran crisis was worthy of Pravda in portraying President Zelaya as a radical facing up to Latin American conservatives.
He is in fact part of an unfortunate populist authoritarian streak in South America that is moving to introduce rigged political systems from Venezuela to Bolivia.
We saw this with the failure to investigate the death of Michael Dwyer in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and president Hugo Chavez’s move to shut down critical television stations in Venezuela.
These are not governments that respect the rule of law. As for Honduras itself there are credible reports of Venezuelan involvement and strong-arm tactics to engineer a referendum to extend the unpopular Zelaya’s rule.
We need only look to modern Brazil and Chile to see what countries can achieve when they embrace pluralism and the rule of law alongside the admirable goal of improving the lot of the poor. – Yours, etc,