A few days ago I got an e mail from Amnesty International in which their Central America team strongly criticizes the de facto government in Honduras, even referring to a “coup” in the country.

I had previously printed my e mail letter to US President Obama advising his administration to re-consider referring to the political change as a “coup”, since it appeared to me to have been legal according to the constitution of Honduras. (See my previous post here.)

Now here was an e mail from Amnesty International, making me doubt whether my assessment of the situation was accurate.  Or was it perhaps true, that there are serious human rights violations in Honduras now, even if the political events referred to were not a “coup”?  I have not been following the events in Honduras closely, especially since news of events there have become less frequent now.  But it may be that serious abuses of people attempting to demonstrate have been perpetrated.

I am considering writing to the Amnesty International team asking them to explain why they think it was a coup, since according to my understanding of the events, it was not.  Perhaps they know something which I do not which will persuade me to think otherwise.

This is a case which shows several things- it shows that it is good not to be too stiff or resilient on a position, especially if one does not really have enough knowledge to decide.  A person who is truly in pursuit of truth on some issue or concern must be open minded and willing to consider new points of view or new information.

It also shows (as I have noted before) how difficult it can be to try to keep track of and have any real understanding of many different countries in the world.  I recognize ultimately the weakness in my own assessment of the situation because I, like many others, lack the time to really carefully investigate more than a few key issues as time passes.

Are there any readers out there who have any feelings or thoughts about whether the events in Honduras in late July, 2009, in which Zelaya was removed from office as President, was, or was not, a coup?

But yet, it may still be, as I suspect, that what occured in Honduras was not a coup.  At the same time, even if it were not a coup,  many human rights abuses may have followed the incidents and change of power there.