Violence in Honduras is complicated and there are key aspects related to weak state institutions, impunity and longstanding social divides that aren't directly caused by the current epidemic of organized crime.

By James Bosworth
Last week I criticized [Elizabeth Dickinson's recent drug war article in the Washington Monthly] on violence in Mexico and Central America for placing it in the framework of the "war on drugs" while ignoring the many other aspects of organized crime that occur in the region. In a similar critique about media coverage of violence in Honduras, [Honduras Culture and Politics] takes it one step further: Impunity; the availability of guns; targeting of certain groups for political and structural reasons; and the ineffectuality and corruption of the police, who no one expects to actually investigate crimes professionally: all these factors should be the start of press coverage of crime in Honduras, not the end.

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Mr. Lobo clearly campaigned on the promise of national reconciliation, which made sense in light of how fractionalized Honduras had become following Mr. Zelaya's ousting and all the animosity Hondurans felt toward each other. Trying to unite Honduras and get people to at least start talking to each other so as to minimize the possibility of insurrection has been no small challenge...

By Marco Cáceres
One of the main criticisms of President Porfirio Lobo is that he has done too little too late to combat crime, violence, and narcotrafficking in Honduras. President Lobo is also being widely attacked for not acting quicker and more forcefully in dealing with corruption within the National Police and its ties to organized crime syndicates and foreign drug cartels. It seems that Pepe can do no right by anyone, and by many estimates his presidency may go down as a failure. This may not be fair, given he inherited an angry and unstable nation that had experienced the overthrow of an inept and divisive president just six months prior, had been condemned and ostracized by the international community, and was peeking at the early signs of a popular revolt. But ultimately Mr. Lobo is responsible for the job he took on and the current state of the country, regardless of whether or not he created the mess -- much in the same way it is for Barack Obama in the United States.

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Inter American Press Association
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Thursday voiced concern and surprise at an announcement by President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras that he plans to send to Congress a bill to regulate the practice of journalism and news media. Lobo made the announcement on Wednesday night during his speech opening the Congress’s third legislative session, but he gave no details of the bill’s content. After praising the role of the news media in exposing wrongdoing committed in his government Lobo justified the need to regulate the media so they would not be “at the service of special interests,” explaining that journalism is “a true vocation.” Gustavo Mohme, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, expressed surprise at Lobo’s announcement and said, “It is important that Honduras maintains its respect for freedom of the press and for the work of journalists as democratic values.”

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Within his dory, whether in smooth lagoon or rough seas, the islander is at home. He is a master at keeping such a frail craft afloat, having learned the art as a child.

Royal Navy Monday Evening Toast: "Here’s to our ships at sea"

By Jorge Agurcia Fasquelle
I would like to dedicate this article to the Volkswagen of Honduran watercraft: the dory. According to D.K. Evans, Honduras Bay Islands anthropologist and writer, a dory is carved from a single great tree, often mahogany or cedar. Sails are made of unbleached flour sacks, or whatever else comes in handy. Completing the necessary gear we have a hand carved paddle, a calabash for bailing, and a thwart or two for sitting. The size of the craft may vary, ranging between eight and thirty feet, and will, naturally, depend on the size of the original tree. Those who can afford it will have a carpenter finish the dory and possibly add a motor. The sides may be raised, the bow and the stern decked in, and a motor box built aft, with a sliding hatch to house the small engine. Such motor dories are known in the Bay Islands as "took-tooks", because of their characteristic chugging sound. A well-finished dory does not have a single nail or screw in her hull. All her trimming and decking will be finished with wooden pegs called "trunnels" (tree nails), a time-honored method.

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... in crypto-autocratic nations such as Honduras, where wealth and political power are confined to small, wealthy, all-powerful elites, people have a nominal voice, but no clout, especially where their vital interests -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- are curtailed and further compromised by endemic crime, violence and the appalling indifference and incompetence of their leaders.

By W. E. Gutman
Corruptibility is the mother of all vices. Without it we’d live in a fiction-like world of virtue, love and justice. It is as powerful an impulse as the reproductive urge or the survival instinct. Because we’re human, we’re all susceptible to its siren song. Self-delusion, the perversion of reality as a hedge against the sobering effect of reason, is its commonest form. People who search for (or believe they’ve found) paradise are the most deluded but their fantasies are usually short-lived and harmless -- unless they try to inoculate others against reality. Also predisposed toward corruptibility are those whose conduct can be manipulated: Pretending to be what our parents, teachers, spiritual leaders, employers and the tax collector expect from us can result in small rewards or, at the very least, protect from censure, reprimand or chastisement.

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Aside from the torrid last minute anti-Castro bashing in search of Florida’s electoral votes, the Republican presidential hopefuls have framed their stance on contemporary US-Latin American relations within the context of sterile Cold War-era doctrines and dated clichés.

By Robert Valencia
After President Barack Obama delivered the last State of the Union address for his current term in office, the Republican leadership and aspirants for the presidency immediately charged that his words read more like a “state of the presidential campaign.” This is an interesting claim to be making in light of the theatrical nature of the Republican candidates’ presidential debates that have characterized the party in recent weeks, not to mention challenger Mitt Romney’s issuing his own “pre-buttal” prior to the address, criticizing the President on any number of issues. Even amid the many instances of the two parties’ ideological-soaked clashes, one common feature is starkly clear -- they hardly have expressed a comprehensive approach on US-Latin American relations.

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It is common to hear shots at night in La Ceiba. This is most often guards shooting into the air as a warning. Yes, people are killed here daily -- most because they are into "bad stuff". Gang members and drug trafickers have short lives.

By David Ashby
We have five programs helping more than 200 children and teens in the La Ceiba area of Honduras. Except for our orphanage, these youths live with their caretakers, who may be parents, single moms, grandmas, aunts, etc. Some live in high risk areas. We also have local board members, a contractor, teachers, housemothers, maintenance men, volunteers, and work teams. Our nurse lives here, as does one of our volunteers. We help 18 teens in various high schools in the city and in the mountains. Those in the mountains ride bikes to the city to buy supplies and visit the orphanage. We take many children and teens, especially from the orphanage, on outings to the beach and various rivers, to Trujillo, to concerts and movies, and to visit family members in the countryside.

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Honduras Weekly
The president of the College of Journalists of Honduras (CPH), Juan Ramón Mairena, today issued an alert to Honduran journalists in response to a law President Porfirio Lobo will propose to Congress aimed at regulating freedom of the press. "We need to see what the measure intends so as to make sure that it doesn't trample on the right of freedom of expression," said Mr. Mairena. "We'll wait to see the initiative the President of the Republic will submit in order to analyze it in depth and understand what he is trying to do. We hope that what he wants to do is improve the manner in which the image of Honduras is portrayed internationally... of how the media, journalists, and everyone who has anything to do with this system support the country so we can come out ahead."

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Honduras Weekly
President Porfirio Lobo yesterday announced he will soon submit to Congress a proposed law to regulate freedom of the press in Honduras. "Get ready because I will be sending you a decree... you'll be getting it shortly," he promised. The President's comments came right after he had thanked the media for its work. "I want to express my appreciation to members of the press. Sometimes I don't tell you enough because I get a little embarrassed, but you make a tremendous contribution. The right to provide information in an impartial manner in order to help guide public opinion is something that should always be ensured in Honduras," stated Mr. Lobo. "I remain firmly committed to not denying anyone their freedom of expression. This is fundamental to me."

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Latinamerica Press
Indigenous groups in Honduras are demanding lawmakers scrap a bill to regulate and expand the country’s mining and hydrocarbon sectors, arguing that legislators would put the interests of large multinational companies ahead of the health and rights of the communities. The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, an umbrella group, led a march in Tegucigalpa in mid-January to protest the bill, which it says threatens indigenous, Afro-Honduran and campesino communities’ health and access to a clean environment, including safe water.

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With all the notoriety Honduras has been receiving of late because of its high recorded homicide rate (86 murders per 100,000 people), you would think that it'd be listed among the Top 10 most dangerous nations. Not so.

By Marco Cáceres
This morning's rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen in Somalia by US Navy SEALs was an amazing operation similar to the one that was responsible for killing Osama bin Laden on May 11, 2011, in Pakistan. The two aid workers had been held hostage in a desert compound by Somali pirates since October 25 when they were kidnapped at gunpoint. At the time, they had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council in northern Somalia. Hostage taking by pirates has become a relatively common practice in Somalia in recent years. Hostages are held for months in grueling conditions by pirates demanding ransoms of millions of dollars. On October 23, 2009, a British couple -- Paul and Rachel Chandler -- sailing in the Indian Ocean was captured by Somali pirates and held for more than a year.

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The gang members helped build the house. We get to know these kids as people. A lot of them are very sweet kids who have just had a very tough life.

By Joan Chrissos
Virtually the entire American Airlines flight going to San Pedro Sula in Honduras was clad in color-coordinated t-shirts, each representing a group doing good in the Central American country. Medical missionaries from South Carolina. College students from the Northeast. Church groups of kids, parents and pastors from across the country, including ours from St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Coral Gables. In the six summers I’ve traveled with my family to San Pedro Sula to volunteer at Nuestras Pequeñas Rosas (Our Little Roses), a home and school for abused, orphaned and abandoned Honduran girls, there has never been an empty seat on the planes. A handful of the passengers are Hondurans, the rest are Americans who are building homes and schools, running clinics, distributing food and bonding with the Honduran people.

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