When Honduran soldiers entered democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya's bedroom and packed him off in his pajamas at gunpoint to exile this summer, the politicians and industrialists who backed the ouster had confidence that President Obama wouldn't touch them.
Even though the United States maintains 600 troops in Honduras, they thought they could pull off the first successful military coup in Latin America since the end of the Cold War. So far, they're right: The Honduran junta's intransigence in negotiations to restore democracy has been rewarded with U.S. complacency, setting an extremely dangerous precedent for other areas of the world. Unexpectedly, in the age of Obama, democracy is in retreat.
In the wake of the coup, the United Nations and the Organization of American States passed rare unanimous resolutions with U.S. support calling for Zelaya's immediate, safe and unconditional restoration. Obama labeled the actions a "coup" and sponsored the valiant efforts of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for a negotiated solution in which the coup leaders would gain amnesty in exchange for restoring Zelaya to office, albeit with limited powers.
But in response to the administration's extremely generous concessions, the coup leaders responded with vicious attacks. Instead of engaging in sincere negotiations, they are digging in for the long haul. They are threatening, for example, to offset the relatively weak economic sanctions and visa restrictions imposed on Hondurans by reversing the country's ban on environmentally disastrous open-pit mining.
Meanwhile, they've hired well-connected Democratic lobbyists, such as Clinton administration veteran Lanny Davis, to mount a PR campaign against the restoration of democracy. And Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint has shamelessly supported their anti-democratic efforts -- defending the coup on the Senate floor.
Faced with this pressure, the administration seems to be drifting toward perilous inaction. The State Department recently issued a statement on Honduras that undermined the president's stated commitment to Zelaya and evoked the cynical formulations of past U.S. policy toward Latin America.
"Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting any particular politician or individual," State Department spokesman Richard Verma wrote in a letter to GOP Sen. Richard Lugar. "Rather, it is based on finding a resolution that best serves the Honduran people and their democratic aspirations."
