Goings on in Honduras

Hello, I'm back. Most people don't know that I was gone, but I had to leave the country for 3 days. If you have been reading this blog for over 2 years, then you may recall all the problems I went through in 2007 to get my residency visa to live here. Many problems, lots of paperwork, money, and months of waiting. Seems they don't like foreigners coming to their country to stay, regardless if they are here to help out or not. Kind of "its impossible for our people to go to your country legally so we're going to make it hard for your people to come to ours too." In the end, I was given a visa with a maximum stay of 2 years from the date it was approved, Oct. 29th, 2007, no more. This expired on Thursday. So in order for me to stay any longer, I have to do it the tourist way. Each time a tourist enters the country, they are given a 90 visa. The original 5 Central American countries (Panama and Belize excluded) are in a pact to make the borders open for all here, thus entry in one country is considered entry into all and they can cross the border freely. The down side of that is you have to leave all of Central America to get a new 90 day visa. In the past you would just cross the border to Guatemala, get a new stamp for a new 90 days. Inconvenient, but cheap. I was planning to go to Belize to spend 3 days on vacation and return with my new 90 days. The cost of getting to Belize is outrageous now. The airline ticket from San Pedro Sula to Miami was almost half the price of going to Belize and 1/3 of going to Panama. So I went to the US, Miami, for 3 days and got back here on Thursday, legal again to stay up to 90 days as a tourist. I stayed in a cheap hotel in North Miami but it was a very nice, relaxing 3 days.

I got back to the good news of a supposed agreement to resolve the political problems here. The news here is not as positive as I have seen and heard it was put out in the US. They are still saying there is no deal here, but the interim president, Micheletti, agreed to the San Jose Accord, which would return the ousted president, Mel, to power, with limitations and restrictions, until his term ends in Jan. The former pres., Mel, supposedly agreed to this as well. The international media has reported problems resolved. However, the not so fast part, is Micheletti says it is the Congress and Supreme Court who both must approve the agreement for it to be effective, not only him. I thought that would be like a rubber stamp thing and it was a sure thing, but lots of people here are saying the Congress may vote no. Maybe Micheletti wants them to vote no but take the heat off him, who knows. I am more hopeful and think they will go along because he has been the leader and voice of the "coup" all along so when he agreed to the accord, I think they will follow. We should know soon. I think the Congress is to meet on Monday. The head of the Congress said he wants the Supreme Court first to say if the agreement is constitutional or not. The military deported the president which the supreme court said was unconstitutional and he is worried that returning him to power may not be constitutional??? Big head scratch on that one. However, the paper said they are talking about the interim unity government being set up as early as Nov. 5th if approved so hopefully they are thinking it will be approved and it will be soon.