A congressman from Michigan is grilling President Barack Obama about his open advocacy for the ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, including whether the U.S. knew of Zelaya's alleged narcotics trafficking.
Zalaya was taken by members of the Honduras military from his home on June 28 and put on a plane to Costa Rica. They accused him of attempting to violate their own nation's constitutional limitation to one term for a president.
While President Obama has condemned the action as a "coup," the military quickly stood down and in place of Zalaya a member of his own political party was named by legislators to replace him.
Since then there have been arguments over Zalaya's actions, the military's response, and whether the result still is a democratic system.
Now Rep. Thaddeus McCotter has written to Obama, questioning the president's "personal, public demands" that Zelaya be returned to power in light of the accusations against him.
"On June 30, the Associated Press published an accusation by a current Honduran official that Mr. Zelaya's government 'allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States,'" McCotter wrote.
He continued, explaining the report quoted Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez, "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds … and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking. … We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it."