Editorial

The Marriage of Hugo Chávez and Manuel Zelaya

He had gotten himself way too wrapped up with the smooth-talking wealthy guy from the south and was hopelessly smitten.

By Marco Cáceres
It is unclear when the lovefest between Hugo Chávez and Manuel Zelaya actually began, although you can assume that it has been ongoing at least since their formal engagement on August 25, 2008 when Mr. Zelaya signed Honduras up for Mr. Chávez's ALBA arrangement. The signing took place at the Presidential House in Tegucigalpa, complete with all the requisite pomp and circumstance and witnesses, including Evo Morales of Bolivia, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Carlos Laje of Cuba, and even Roberto Micheletti. It has been a whirlwind engagement that began with Mr. Chávez showering Mr. Zelaya with all sorts of presents to demonstrate his affection. (3/9/10)

Textbook US Diplomacy and Geopolitics: The Case of Honduras

By only focusing on the superficial and short-term aspects of the State Department's official policy toward Honduras following Mr. Zelaya's ousting, many people failed to distinguish between tactics and strategy in the game of geopolitics.

By Marco Cáceres
Today, former president Manuel Zelaya is in Venezuela meeting with President Hugo Chávez and President Porfirio Lobo is in Guatemala visiting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In a pitiful display of political paranoia, you have Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro complaining that Mrs. Clinton's goodwill tour through South and Central America during the past week is an egregious effort to intervene in Latin America and destroy the sense of solidarity that exists among the countries of the region. In the meantime, the political situation in Honduras has stabilized with the peaceful election and inauguration of Mr. Lobo -- both of which were made infinitely more likely by the US-brokered Tegucigalpa-San José Accord between representatives of interim president Roberto Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya. Further, the US has recognized the Lobo administration, restarted its economic and military aid programs, and willingly served as an enthusiastic and powerful advocate around the world for normalizing diplomatic relations with Honduras. (3/5/10)

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Rethinking Tourism in Honduras

If the slogan "Honduras is our home" is to mean anything worthwhile, then it has to be about more than admiring and taking pride in all the nice stuff we have. It has to also be about caring for all who live in our home.

By Marco Cáceres
I would like to amend the Ministry of Tourism's new slogan to promote tourism within Honduras. "Honduras is our home" is perfectly fine. It's a great idea to encourage Hondurans to get out and travel in their country (... rather than go abroad) and circulate their money to help stimulate the national economy. But while I think it is important to remember that Honduras is our home, it's equally important to create an awareness that Honduras is much more than just its antiquities, colonial towns, mountains, wildlife, rivers, and beaches and oceans. It's more than all the charming hotels, restaurants, and bars and coffee shops located in picturesque settings. It is perhaps more about its people... in much the same way as a church is more than its pews, icons, artwork, walls and roof. Thus, my revised slogan would go something like this... "Honduras is our home, and we are each others' brothers and sisters". (3/3/10)

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Deception, Fraud and Dynasties of Kleptocrats

By W. E. Gutman
Abuse of authority, fraud, misappropriation of funds, swindling, bribery, perjury, dereliction of duty and gross negligence, continue to top the list of complaints against various federal, state and municipal bodies in Honduras. Also cited are a culture of corruption fueled by fear, greed, apathy and complacency, and a conspiracy of silence on the part of a large segment of Honduran society that perceives corruption less as a misdeed than a rite of passage, a privilege earned by people in high places. Such skewed value system has in turn emboldened common folk to suborn public officials in schemes that have resulted in a convoluted and inextricable symbiosis of intrigue and crime.(3/2/10)

The Dilemma of the Guatemala Summit for Daniel Ortega

Coming on the heals of the Group of Rio Summit, the upcoming Guatemala Summit will help allay the perception that Honduras remains some sort of pariah in Latin America and the Caribbean.

By Marco Cáceres
Whether by accident or design, the summit with the presidents of Central America proposed by the US State Department for Friday in Guatemala City is a masterful geopolitical stroke that will both speed up the process of reuniting Honduras with its regional neighbors and force Nicaragua to choose whether it wants to align itself more with Central America or with Hugo Chávez and the ALBA alliance, which is more of a South American construct. It is notable that Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega is the only Central American president who has not confirmed he will attend the summit. (2/27/10)

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The Demise of Resistance

... by calling on teachers to leave their classrooms rather than perform the work for which they were hired, the National Resistance Front is fueling a perception among Hondurans that it is willing to use Honduras' schoolchildren as pawns in its political movement.

By Marco Cáceres
I have been willing to give the National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'Etat in Honduras the benefit of the doubt these past months because I know that it consists of many good people who sincerely feel that the ousting of Manuel Zelaya was wrong, unconstitutional, and illegal, and have thus felt obliged to exercise their democratic right to organize and protest. While some of the demonstrations have turned violent, caused the destruction of property, and interfered with the rights of others to go about their normal lives, most of them have been peaceful and caused relatively few interruptions in Honduras as a whole. (2/25/10)

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Unmet Expectations in Honduras

The time has come for us to decide if we are going to be a part of the problem, a part of the solution or, as always, just part of the landscape.

By J. C. Hernández
Every four years, the citizens of Honduras are filled with expectations when a new government takes office. Dreams of a better life, a stronger country and a society that gives all of its participants equal opportunity seduce us and make believers of us. We reconcile ourselves with our doubts and we give the newly-elected batch of public officials the benefit of the doubt -- most of the time, against our better judgment. (2/23/10)

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Journalism: When Truth is More Important than Optimism

Perched on the highest rungs of government, a crypto-fascist element continues to regard incorruptible and outspoken journalists as gadflies and muckrakers, meddlers, purveyors of social discontent, and blabbermouths who threaten the established order.

By W. E. Gutman
Journalism is the first draft of history. On the printed page, on radio and TV are seized, then frozen in time, indelible images of the human drama. Lucid and hard-nosed renderings discourage revisionists from tampering with fact. Alas, in an imperfect world, fact is calumny, reality is disgrace, and truth is scandal. For those whose only loyalty is to the truth, it’s a lonely world as well. The price for such devotion is often steep and those who are willing to pay it never lack enemies. (2/23/10)

A Measure of Misplaced Patriotism

While I am happy that Mr. Zelaya is gone and I see that there were few, if any, good options for ridding Honduras of this man, other than by force, I think it is unwise to publicly celebrate his ousting.

By Marco Cáceres
There is a decree before the Honduran Congress to declare June 28, 2009 "Day of the protection of democracy and defense of freedom in the country". The measure, proposed by Congressman Eliseo Mejía Castillo of Cortés, would recognize the date as a working civic holiday. Congressman José Ángel Saavedra of Copán has expressed his opposition to the decree because he believes that it would open up a "huge wound that is beginning to heal". Thank you Mr. Saavedra for your dose of sanity and just plain common sense.

Finding a Truth Hondurans Recognize

The job that is being given to the Truth Commission is an unenviable one, because it is an impossible one. It assumes that you can put together a neat summary of the facts that led to June 28, 2009 and all the events afterward. It assumes that facts are absolute, and thus that so is truth.

By Marco Cáceres
Perhaps the most difficult challenge facing the Honduras Truth Commission, led by former Guatemalan Vice-President Eduardo Stein, will be distinguishing between facts and interpretations that have been deemed to be facts. It is precisely this chasm between the "reality" of what led to and happened during the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya and the "perception of reality" of what transpired that divides Honduran society.