Kidnapping the president is a crime, admits Honduran military lawyer

The top legal adviser to the Honduran military admitted that, yes, it was a crime to kidnap the pajama-clad President Zelaya and force him onto a plane bound for Costa Rica:

'We know there was a crime there,'' said Inestroza, the top legal advisor for the Honduran armed forces. "In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there is a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us.'' [McClatchy]

Fans of the rule of law will be heartened to learn that the military has plans to exonerate the military for any crimes the military committed in the course of the recent Glorious Patriotic Struggle to Prevent a Public Opinion Poll.

It's one thing to overlook the violation of a simple kidnapping statute. It's quite another to disregard the constitution itself--especially since the whole justification for the coup was that Zelaya was disregarding the constitution.

Since the military are big fans of the constitution, they probably know that Section 2 of the constitution stipulates that usurping popular sovereignty is "treason against the fatherland." If they're going to exempt themselves from treason charges, they're going to have to rewrite the constitution. Ironic, eh?