To commemorate the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and US Southern Command published an edited collection of essays, Twenty Years, Twenty Stories: Women, Peace, and Security in the Western Hemisphere, that reflect the inclusion of women across mission areas including cyber, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. This book elevates the voices of talented women and men working in defense and security across the Western Hemisphere and highlights Perry Center alumni.
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For a special report on the Commission, the Perry Center Publications Editor-in-Chief Patrick Paterson met with Professor Richard Wilson, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law, to discuss the most important cases or reports in the history of the Commission. Professor Wilson, a frequent lecturer at the Perry Center, is a longtime observer of the Commission and Court, where he and his students have presented more than 30 cases. Of the thousands of cases and reports of the Commission, Professor Wilson selected a few that he thought were especially important or influential.
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This article sets out to examine the removal of President Zelaya in Honduras in 2009 and the impeachment of President Lugo in Paraguay in 2012. Many comparisons have been drawn between the Honduran and Paraguayan cases, but a full analysis of the similarities and differences is important to show the differences in the Western Hemisphere of perspectives regarding military involvement in political life and constitutional flexibility and interpretation. This article begins by briefly reviewing the concept of coup d'état and its evolution in order to establish a working framework. Before investigating each case on an individual basis, cultural and historical factors are considered. Although legality, constitutionality, and legitimacy of the processes of presidential removal are indeed a significant portion of this investigation, the importance of perspective remains a prominent facet of the analysis.
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The June 2009 military coup that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya resulted in the international isolation of the interim successor government of Roberto Micheletti and months of political turmoil that did not subside until after the election of current President Porfirio Lobo in November 2009. Honduran politics have stabilized in some important respects since Lobo's inauguration: The economy has slowly recovered, and the 2011 Cartagena Accord signed by Lobo and Zelaya has politically reintegrated the leftist former president via his new Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) and reinstated Honduras in the Organization of American States (OAS). However, Honduras' reconstructed democracy is fragile. Rising crime and unrelieved poverty have decimated President Lobo's approval ratings and encouraged widespread distrust of democratic institutions. To the extent that Zelaya's LIBRE is able to capitalize on this discontent in the upcoming 2013 elections, these institutions will be seriously tested.
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