Coup won't fly

The United States has joined with other Western nations in declaring the military coup in Honduras illegal.

That is the right call. Honduran soldiers stormed the national palace in Tegucigalpa and flew President Manuel Zelaya into exile Sunday, shortly before a constitutional referendum was to be held on whether he could run for another term.

The Honduran Congress voted to accept the president's letter of recognition and appointed congressional President Roberto Micheletti as the new president. These moves were supported by the country's Supreme Court.

But Mr. Zelaya said that he did not write a letter of resignation and was still president.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the coup was "not legal."

He elaborated: "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections. The region has made enormous progress over the last 20 years in establishing democratic traditions in Central America and Latin America. We don't want to go back to a dark past."

The administration made the right decision — to work through the Organization of American States and other international bodies to resolve the conflict peacefully.