Drew Honduras Project

"The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the current uncertain political and security situation in Honduras, and recommends that American citizens exercise caution when traveling to Honduras, while deferring all non-essential travel to the capital city of Tegucigalpa until further notice. This Travel Alert expires on December 20, 2009."

The alert is in response to demonstrations following the ousting of elected President Manuel Zelaya and his replacement by former head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti. Although most of the demonstrations have been in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, the warning expresses concern that they might spread as the data of the electon approaches.

Below is an attempt to explain this sequence of events, updated as new developments are reported.

On June 28, 2009, the elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was taken to the airport (allegedly in his pajamas) and put on a plane for Costa Rica. Under the constitution, the next in line was the head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who took power, with the support of the military in what many term a military coup. The impetus for the ouster was a "non-binding consultation" Zelaya planned to hold on his proposal to set up a comission to revise the Honduran constitution. If the comission met with popular support, it would probably have been voted on in the November presidential election. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the "consultation" unconstitutional and blocked the distribution of ballots; Zelaya ordered the ballots to be distributed anyway, and that night found himself escorted by members of the military to the airport. (See the BBC for a fuller background story; the citizen news source Groundreport offers video and images of events on June 28).

Since then the interim government, headed by Interim President Roberto Micheletti has been running the country, imposing road blocks and curfews, and even closing the airports for a time and shutting down media outlets "sympathetic" to Zelaya. Most Western nations along with the Organization of Americna States (OAS) called on Micheletti to step down and reinstate Zeleya. Micheletti, backed by the miltary, refused. The OAS suspended Honduras' membership in the organization and the World Bank suspended much-needed aid. European Union member nations withdrew diplomats from Honduras, as did Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. There have been protests, escalating when Zelaya returned to Honduras and took up residence in the Brasilian embassy in Tegucigalpa on September 21. Various presidents of other nations, most notably Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, and organizations have tried to broker some kind of power-sharing agreement, so far to no avail. Zelaya appealed to the United Nations for help, saying that it is Micheletti who has created a "dictatorship," and that he only wants peace. The Organization of American States (OAS) was reported to be close to a deal in early October. On October 29 a peace accord brokered by the US was signed under which the two leaders were to set up a national unity government by November 5 to administer the election. That did not happen, and on November 6 the US State Department issued the Travel Alert above.

On November 19, President Micheletti said in an address to the nation that he would to take a "leave of absence" from the Presidency from November 25-December 2, the period of the election--reserving the right to return to power in the event of increased violence. Zelaya has dismissed the decision and called on his supporters to boycott the elections if they cannot be delayed until after the decision about his return to power for the remainder of his term. Several governments have said they will not accept the outcome of the election (most notably Argentina and Brazil). The US and Panama have said that they will recognize the outcome of the election. Still to be decided: who will run the country until the new President takes office on January 27, 2010. The October 29 deal requires the Honduras Congress to decide, but that vote will not be held before December 2-- after the election.

Why the big deal?

It depends who you ask. Was Zelaya (elected as a member of the Liberal party in 2005), as he says, looking to improve the conditions of the people by finding ways to increase their representation and raise the minimum wage, or was this a bold-faced effort to change term-limits and allow Zelaya to be re-elected as his oponents claim? Micheletti claimed in an interview that Zelaya wants to "establish a dictatorship" (BBC). Zelaya, although a businessman and rancher himself, was certainly closer to left-wing politicians in the region than many business people liked and as his term of office progressed, he took an increasingly anti-American stance even though the US is Honduras' major trading partner. He is reported to have been praised by Cuban president Fidel Castro. He was supported by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who himself used constitutional reform to accomplish many of the social programs Zelaya claimed to favor. And to increase term limits to allow him to accomplish those changes.

Well, for a start, neither Zelaya or Micheletti, who are actually from the same political party. That party, the Liberal Party, is running a candidate though: Elvin Santos, a business leader and Zelaya’s former vice-president. The major National Party candidate is Porforio Lobo, who lost to Zelaya in 2005 by less than 70,000 votes. In October the the Tegucigalpa-based newspaper La Prensa reported that according to a CID-Gallup Poll of 1,420 adults Lobo was leading Santos by 16 points.

Who is the real loser?

Well, it could be the fragile democracy of Honduras. Or the poor who could have been helped by Chavez-like reform. But most agree that the main contender for the title is the Honduran economy, which Honduras This Week says has been "set back ten years" by this series of events. Reuters also reports that the freeze on aid from foreign nations is harming health and welfare programs.

You can learn nore about Latin American politics in a Latin American Studies class, and by reading the media coverage of events like this online.

To read about the impact this is having on the children and organizations we work with, check out the newsletter by the Reverend Richard Kuntz, the Director of El Hogar Projects, based in Tegucigalpa (the nation's capital).

Much has changed since the DHP started going to Honduras two decades ago. When we first went the poverty was in your face all the time. The description below from Casa Alianza (Covenant House) was accurate--indeed on an early trip one Drew student challenegd a glue seller about his purposes and begged him to stop (to no avail, although the crowd that gathered clearly agreed with her).

"In the square in San Pedro Sula, right across from the McDonalds, is a man who sells nothing but glue. He sets up a card table and fills it with the little tubes of solvent-based glue. That glue is for street children to buy and inhale. It is made in and exported from the United States or made by US companies in Central America. Unlike glues of a similar kind (and brand) sold in the US, this glue does not contain nausea-inducing mustard seed. Men like this one can be seen selling glue to Honduran street children in every major Honduran city."

Street children purchased the glue because inhaling it reduced their hunger and numbed them to the emotional and physical pain they endured every day--both physical and sexual abuse in addition to the sense of hopelessness and abandonment.

In the early 1990s, the square described above contained an open market and the street children gathered there to beg for money and food scraps that the vendors dropped or donated at the end of the day. In the later 1990s we started reading press reports of police murders of street children in major cities, but especially San Pedro Sula. The market was banished to closer to the train tracks and the children vanished. Taxi drivers told us that if they were not killed or imprisoned they were simply driven out of the city and dropped off; left to fend for themselves miles from home and shelter. Large American chain stores filled the mall off the square, and now there is a fountain and flowers and on summer evenings old and young gather to dance to local bands.

On the face of it the problem no longer exists. But the fact that street children and general signs of poverty are not in your face does not mean they no longer exist. You just have to look. Go to the parts of the city were tourists do not go; check under the underpasses; visit the city dump; or go to rural areas and you will see them. And what you see will still break your heart.

After Hurricane Mitch the DHP volunteered in a number of village rebuilding projects. New houses replaced the temporary shacks built by the Hodurans displaced by the hurricane. The children helped us carry rocks and cider blocks up precariously steep and muddy hills--you can see pictures--of them doing so. We knew that their distended bellies were not a sign of good healt, but we wondered why so many of them had noticably lighter skin and hair than their parents. Being polite North Americans we didn't ask. Then a student learned about Kwashiorkor in a class at Drew. There are a number of nutitional deficiencies that cause changes in hair and skin pigmentation; coupled with the other symptoms we observed, it is clear these children were starving in front of our very eyes. The World Health Organization lists hunger as the most important world health issue and malnutrition as contributing to 50% of all child mortality. Malnutrition, in the form of iodine deficiency is also the the most common cause of mental impairment, reducing the world's IQ by an estimated billion points!

The point here? You don't have to see the children begging to understand that there is work to be done. And you don't always see when a problem is right in front of you. A second point: what you learn in classes that seem unrelated to volunteer trips like this one can help you understand what you see and experience, making you a more effective citizen of the world, able to assess problems and bring researched knowledge to bear on the process of finding a solution.

In the last half-decade, DHP has mostly worked in childrens homes that rescue children from a life of poverty. Some work with families who apply for children to be given a space in a home. Others include children who are placed there by the government or referree dfrom other organizations or churches when they are orphaned. We can't save everyone, but every life that can be improved is a step in the right direction.

The 2009 Eathquakes:

On May 28 at 2.25am local time an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude occurred off the northern coast of Honduras, about 80 miles from La Ceiba, where Drew students were staying as they volunteered at Helping Honduras Kids (HHK) in nearby Agua Caliente. A second quake measuring 4.8 followed 42 minutes later slightly west of the first, and additional quakes of 4.5 and 4.6 occurred on the same faultline at 8.45pm local time and 6.51 am local time on May 29th (see the U.S. Government Geological Survey website for information about the quakes, and maps, and USGS NEIC for a list of all recent quakes). The quakes occurred about 6 miles below the ocean floor, and a tsunami watch was announced after the first quake, but quickly cancelled. There were some power outages and email was down in many areas, but cell phone signals worked and the group reported no significant damage in La Ceiba or the surrpunding areas. Seven deaths were reported overall, mostly as a result of falling trees and everal bridges were damaged but it was determined that the students were not at risk and the trip continued. (See the L.A. Times for news coverage--there is basically one story that is being recycled in many media.)

Honduras is bordered on the north and south by fault lines, and small earthquakes are not usual as the plates move and settle. Prior to 2009, the last big earthquake on Honduras occurred in 1999 close to the site of the 2009 quake. That one measured 6.7 and occurred at about the same depth below the ocean floor. Both quakes--and many of the other earthquakes in Honduras, were on the Swan Island fault, which is the very steep southern boundary of the more than 5000 meter deep Cayman Trough. Read more--and track eathquakes--at the US Geological Survey website. Learn more in a Geology class!

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The 2009 military coup and the US State Depoartment Travel Alert to Honduras:

The 2009 Eathquakes:

Further reading: