Let the Hondurans Decide (Letter to the Editor)

Charles Krauthammer was right to criticize the Obama administration for trying to force Honduras to reinstate its ex-president, a paranoid, power-hungry, would-be dictator who believed that Israeli mercenaries were trying to poison him [“Slapping friends,” op-ed, April 2]. As Mr. Krauthammer noted, the ex-president was validly removed from office under Article 239 of Honduras’s constitution.

The Obama administration complained that Honduras removed its ex-president with less “process” than countries such as the United States require for removing a president. But countries are entitled to govern themselves under their own laws. Imposing U.S. rules on other countries is imperialism.

Given Honduras’s sad history of elected presidents turning themselves into dictators, the provisions in its constitution for speedy removal made sense.