Briefings & Intelligence

30-04-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

Honduran supreme court lifts constitutional ban on re-election

Events in Honduras in late April have begun to look like a mirror image (that is, an image in reverse) of those that led in June 2009 to the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009). The constitutional panel of the supreme court has ruled ‘inapplicable’ the very constitutional provisions whose violations by Zelaya triggered his removal from office. As in 2009, the course of current events has been anything but straightforward — to the point that Zelaya has become one of the most vocal critics of the court’s ruling, on the grounds that it is “illegal and arbitrary”.

At stake are the so-called artículos pétreos (“articles cast in stone”) of the 1982 constitution excluded from the legislature’s power to reform the constitution by a two-thirds vote — particularly the core Article 239 which bars the reelection of anyone who has served as President and penalises anyone seeking to change this (a provision strengthened by Article 42 and Article 330 of the penal code).

More recent briefings & intelligence

Politics and the Military in Latin America

The recent anniversary of the end of the Porfiriato, the 30-year period in which Mexico was ruled by the military dictator Porfirio Díaz, and the beginning of the Mexican Revolution offers us a chance to reflect on how relations have changed between civilian governments and the military in the century since his regime was ended at the hands of Mexican revolutionaries - writes Joe Brandon.

  • Joe Brandon, Policy, Research and Operations Officer
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