Things in Honduras have been calm for the most part since the military removed Mel Zelaya from the Presidency a couple of weeks ago. Aside from last Sunday, the 5th when Zelaya made an attempt to re-enter the country at the airport in Tegucigalpa, we haven’t heard much about violence or protests in Tegus or other cities. Through all of this though, we learned some important lessons. We learned more about the politics and corruption in Honduras, and how these perpetuate all the social and economic problems here. In just his first 4 days outside the borders of Honduras, Zelaya had managed to spend somewhere around $80,000 (U.S. dollars) on who knows what… money belonging to a country that has so little… money that could’ve been used to pay the teachers’ salaries so they wouldn’t have to strike and cancel classes all the time, or pay for medications and nurses in the Public Health Centers that have no resources or personnel, or even buy food, water or proper shelter for so many of the people here that have none of the above. But, while Mel is gallivanting from country to country pleading his case, the vast majority of Hondurans here are happy with what has happened and with the new government under the control of Micheletti. The Honduran people and the military took matters into their own hands by removing Mel from the country, raising eyebrows because of the way it was done, but from what we have heard, there isn’t a formal impeachment process written into the Constitution here, so it’s very possible their method was the only practical way.
We also learned some lessons about the influence of media, as we watched the stories unfold in Honduran news and international news. The biggest lesson though was that you can never completely trust what you read. The Internet sources that I rely on for news, like MSNBC or CNN, were all reporting from a pro-Mel viewpoint, and how the democratically elected president had been forcefully ousted by the military early in the morning… and for what reason? They showed photos of the few thousand people who were protesting and rioting in favor of Mel’s return, and in reality they were the only ones causing the violence, but at the same time, they talked very little of the some 100,000 Hondurans all across the country who marched all that week for peace. Even Cardinal Rodriguez, arguably the most influential and well-respected man in this country, pleaded for peace and for Mel to stay out of the country in order to avoid a potential bloodbath as he called it, that could ensue if he returned. But basically, what we saw was that the news reports we read online, didn’t really reflect what we saw happening here in Honduras or the views of the people. Granted, we also can’t trust that we’re getting the full story here because of censorship, we do have the added benefit of hearing what our neighbors and friends have to say about it all. But, despite the fact that things have calmed down, the unfortunate part is that there still hasn’t been any formal resolution to the conflict. Mel still says he intends to return, and if he actually follows through, things could quickly heat up again.
Other than that, life has been pretty routine, if not a little more boring than usual on those days we were advised to stay close to home or couldn’t leave Talanga because of actual, and supposed gas shortages. Curfews, which we tried to abide by J , had us home by 6:30 some nights, and our typical bi-weekly trips to Tegucigalpa were cancelled because of the instability there… meaning we missed out on our “tastes of home” (aka- fast food) and sadly a salsa dance club night that we were planning as kind of a going away party. (And no, we have not learned how to salsa dance, but it’s still fun to watch others and make fools of ourselves on those occasions we feel like trying.)
The days are flying by too quickly, and in less than 3 weeks I’ll be back in the States- which is hard to believe. We had to say good-bye to Joe and Sean last weekend as they headed home to prepare for med school, leaving our house more quiet and our lives more boring without our nightly pinochle games and our main source of entertainment… thus leaving me with Mike, gato, a bunch of mosquitoes and tons of biting ants that are waging war on our house now more than ever... making them the scariest part of living in Honduras right now. But for now, it's life as usual... building up my stores of tortillas, beans, mantequilla and coffee and dreading the good-byes that are just around the corner.
1 comment:
Great blogs, Melissa and congratulations on a successful year. You've accomplished alot and met many friends. Have a good return trip, we'll see you soon.
Tony
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