Back in the 80's, Honduras stood up to the communist threat and it did not slide into civil war, even though it was the eye of a hurricane - with neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador in civil wars to the north; and Sandinista Nicaragua to the south. Ollie North ran the Contra strategy out of Honduras and the area was subsequently salvaged from the commie incursion.

Now we abandon our Honduran friends by embracing Zelaya's attempt to pull a Chavez maneuver and remain illegally in power. It seems that we've lost our bearings. OBAMA embraces our enemies and apologizes for our supposed excesses a la Neville Chamberlain. We need a Winston Churchill to kick some butt and put us back on top of the hill and not let our enemies walk...

Actually you are very right - Managua went through the earthquake in '74, followed by the war in '78, then the Sandinistas. I understand it still has the "escombros" throughout the city - rubble left from these various upheavals.

I agree Somoza was a SOB, but economically the country was doing fairly well (even if he ran the top 30 businesses) and there existed a prospering middle class. The Sandinistas expropriated what little there was left and promptly ran the economy into the ground. For example, many independent cattle ranchers did the best they could and finally gave up dealing with the inane Marxist policies. They could not get the foreign currency needed to produce, and many workers demanded wages without working. ...

After spending a couple of years living through a Sandinista/Marxist/Leninist hellhole in Nicaragua, I wholeheartedly agree that we are doomed to repeat history if we do not learn from it. The BS response from the OBAMA administration towards Honduras protecting its democracy against a legitimate threat is a case in point that we have forgotten how horrible Marxist dictators really are. OBAMA courts these brutal despots rather than shun them. Our liberties are in serious risk of disappearing to a nanny state and we all need to actively resist OBAMA's unwanted changes.

The local English newspaper "Honduras This Week" has published a series of interesting articles regarding the presidential impasse. Although the four part articles appear to have been written by a non-Honduran, the newspaper has been around many years and is owned and operated by independent Hondurans - not affiliated with any particular political party. The articles can all be accessed @: http://hondurasthisweek.com/

"A former president took the helm of an interim government."

This is a factually incorrect statement - Roberto Micheletti has never been the president of Honduras. Nonetheless, IMHO the international community should stop meddling and this volatile situation will iron itself out with the November elections.

On another note, the US will face Honduras in a World Cup eliminatory match October 10th in San Pedro Sula - be ready for individuals with political agendas to try and stir up the pot. After all, the infamous 1969 Soccer War between Honduras and El Salvador was ignited by a "match" in Tegucigalpa.

We take our amenities here in the USA for granted. Throughout 1994 I suffered through electricity rationing in Honduras - when the country's main supply from an hydroelectrical dam went fubar (two generators burned up). Talk about slowing down the economy, everything went from mañana (tomorrow) to next week or month. The sound of generators permeated everywhere and would kick on whenever the electricity went off in some area (the government's rationing schedule included shifts starting at 11 pm).

THANK GOD we don't have to ration electricity....yet