Letters to the Editor

We the members of Amigos of Honduras travel twice a year throughout Honduras. We go from Roatán to La Ceiba to Copán to Comayagua and finish in Tegucigalpa. We have been doing this the last six years. We are careful and don't go out at night. We have had zero incidents in the 18 times that I have personally been down there. For us, the good that we feel we are doing providing clean water to Hondurans living in the mountains is worth the risk. I have not heard of any incidents with the myriad of colored t-shirt groups that we see on the planes coming home from Honduras.

Honduras was a nasty corrupt violent country six years ago and, as gringos trying to help, we have seen no difference. We hear tons of stories from people we meet and friends down there, but we've just have never felt like targets. The Honduran people whom we meet are incredible and so thankful when they receive help or even a smile. I am not saying nothing will happen, but I would send my college aged daughter with a group that was well supervised and had with strict rules. Yo creo que vale la pena!

Dave Riley
Centerville, Utah
Amigos of Honduras
January 25, 2012

A great way to begin the new year would be to offer a deserving student a full scholarship to a university. Art For Humanity is offering full scholarships, but in order to be considered, students must be recommended by someone involved with a charity or NGO in Honduras. You could be the one to recommend a student which would open new doors of opportunity for their life. The following link has the details regarding how to recommend a student: http://www.artforhumanity.org/tlc/recommenders

Glen Evans
Arlington, Virginia
Art For Humanity
January 12, 2012

We have a boat that we keep on the Rio Dulce during hurricane season and we used to go to Belize. Belize has instituted fees that we consider outrageous (approximately US$300 per 30 days) so we started going to Honduras. We truly love Honduras, the Bay Islands, La Ceiba, Copán, San Pedro Sula... all of it. he cruising community is not huge but probably comprises around 200 private boats each year that spend 90 days in Honduras. I know that we alone spend in the neighborhood of US$2,000/per month, and there are others who spend a lot more. The proposed US$17 tax is not outrageous but I'm afraid it will lead to yearly increases and if that happens the small business's that depend on the cruising community will cease to exist. Your country already has enough problems, don't add to it by driving away another segment of tourism economy. Respectfully.

Kent Trompeter

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I offer this to correct some misinformation about the Zetas in your editorial. So far as I can find, no members of the Mexican Special Forces trained at the School of the Americas. Some of them received some training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but I have no idea the length or subject matter of that training. I contend that neither does anyone else, so to link US training with the leaders of the Zetas is a stretch, suggesting with no evidence whatsoever that the training has something to do with their later behavior.

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