OAS oddly silent on 'coup' in Caracas

It's a good bet we won't here a word from the White House either.

While the Organization of American States is rightly denouncing the coup against ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, there are growing questions about why it hasn't said a word about the coup against Antonio Ledezma in Venezuela.

Ledezma, you may recall, is the opposition mayor of Venezuela's capital, Caracas, who was elected by a landslide in November 2008. Yet after his victory, President Hugo Chávez effectively ignored the election results by creating a position of ''super-mayor'' of Caracas, appointing a loyalist to the new job and stripping Ledezma of his offices and the bulk of his budget.

In a telephone interview from the San Román Clinic in Caracas, where he was recovering from a six-day hunger strike to draw international attention to his case, Ledezma told me that while the 34-country OAS acted decisively to demand the restoration of the rule of law in Honduras, it has not lifted a finger to demand the same thing in Venezuela.