US Embassy E-Mail

Just so you know I'm not making this stuff up, this is the e-mail I received.

Subject: Warden Message - State of Exception Imposed
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:16:33 -0600
From: usahonduras@state.gov

U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa
Avenida La Paz
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

To: All American Citizens
From: American Citizens Services Unit, Consular Section
Date: September 28, 2009
Subject: Warden Message – State of Exception Imposed

The Embassy advises citizens residing in and visiting Honduras that the de facto regime issued a decree suspending certain rights under the Honduran constitution on Sunday, September 27, 2009. This decree affects all people in Honduras, including non-Hondurans. Specifically, the following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):

Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _

For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest individuals for the following reasons:

Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in suspicious activities Gathering in public without prior approval from police and military forces Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official

The de facto regime has also stated the following:

Individuals that are arrested for violating the above listed restrictions will be detained
All public installations which are occupied by demonstrators or which are occupied by persons carrying out activities prohibited by law will be cleared.

The de facto regime has been imposing a curfew of varying time periods affecting various cities throughout Honduras since Monday, September 21. It is expected that this practice will continue for the foreseeable future. The Embassy recommends American citizens monitor local television and radio for updates to constitutional and travel restrictions and other security measures. The Embassy strongly recommends that American citizens abide by these restrictions. Barring a change in the security situation or the imposition of a daytime curfew, the Embassy and the Consular Agency in San Pedro Sula will remain open to the public. Non-immigrant visa services remain suspended for all but emergency medical cases.

Honduran airports re-opened September 24 for domestic passenger flights and international cargo and mail flights. Most International passenger flights resumed on Friday, September 25. Those whose flights were cancelled due to the curfew should contact their airlines for further information.

The U.S. Embassy distributes its warden messages via email, and posts them on its website.

Update

Mounting pressure and outrage over the human rights violations, and your prayers of support, have led to the possible rethinking of their opressiveness. According to the AP, Micheletti may soon get rid of his order which removed all the rights and freedoms of the people here. Thanks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Bad to Worse Human Rights in Honduras

There has not been violence, but the political problems here are terrible. The coup leader, Micheletti, is now pretty much acting like a dictator in running the country and taking away rights as he pleases without the congress voting on anything.

All the curfews have been dictated by him personally, not the congress. Last night, he declared that the right to free speech has been taken away, the right to free assmebly has been taken away, freedom of the press has been taken away, arrests without warrant are now allowed, all acts or speech against the current government or in favor of the ousted president, Mel Zayela, are now illegal and punishable by jail. He announced that the military took over and closed down the radio and t.v. stations that did not support his regime and broadcast info in support of Mel. All newspapers are also prohibited from publishing anything against him and his regime.

What countries of the world does this sound like? North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan. Now add Honduras to that list.

Yesterday, the teachers had announced they would strike Monday and Tuesday in opposition to the current government. Striking is speech against the government and they could now be jailed for this, thus school is in session today. This is from the same government that allows teachers to strike about 1/3 of the time normally. Anyone who has read this blog for the past 2+ years knows how often the teachers strike without any repercussions from the government ... up until now. I am glad the kids are in school, but not that it is under threat of arrest of the teachers.

Analogy: Imagine if Obama declared the same in the US. No one could speak against him or his policies or his government. Fox news taken off the air. Rush, Hannity, Olly North all taken off the air and told they will go to jail if they speak anything against Obama. Anyone living in the US who says anything against health care reform can be arrested and jailed because that is speech against the current administrations policies. I wonder how those people who have warmly embraced Micheletti as the democratically appointed president of Honduras would feel about living under his dictated rules in our country.

Saturday, Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica who was mediating with both sides before, trying to resolve the problem, told the AP that he cannot help any further because on Friday Mecheletti refused to allow him and representatives of the Organization of American States to enter Honduras to speak to him. Micheletti responded that it was a misunderstanding and they are free to come here to talk. They came yesterday, Sunday, and at the airport all were refused entry and forced to get back on their plane and leave the country. Micheletti's statement about this was that he was not ready to talk yet.

The international community is now probably going to turn up the heat and sanctions on Honduras. This is a very poor country that is very dependent on foreign aid from all over the world. These people who have been civil and going along with the whims of the current regime, although protesting against it, are going to break if things don't change and they have their basic human rights restored.

Don't worry about me, I don't go out and get involved in any of this political stuff. Though, having been born and living my whole life in a free, democratic country that allows all sides to openly speak their opposition to each other, it is difficult to watch all of this and live under it while the people in charge still claim to be "democratic." They have a lot to learn. The kids and I are all still safe here in the casa. We never went out at night anyway so the curfew has not affected us too much. Church has been cut short and the time moved up because of the curfews, but other than that we have not needed to get out for anything the past few days. We continue to pray for a peaceful resolution of this and restoration of all the human rights lost.

Some Freedom Today

They finally took away the curfew today (temporarily). We were allowed to go out for 6 hours, 10 am - 4 pm. I tried to go to the supermarket to get food, which I normally do every Tuesday. The traffic and lines in front of 4 differnt stores I went to were horrendous to say the least. I was at a complete stop in traffic for a half hour, a block away from the store I usually go to. When an opening finally allowed me to pull through and get out of the area, I could see about 1000 people in front of the store waiting for it to open. I went to the other stores and all had the same thing. I have no patiences for huge lines and we still have food in the house, so I headed for home. All the gas stations had long lines as well spilling out into the streets which caused the traffic to back up all over town. I figured I would try again after a couple of days on Friday. Gigo also went to the supermarket with the girls and they had more patiences than I did. They waited in line from 10 am and finally got back to the casa at 3 pm. Each time a person left freeing up a cart, the next person could go in with it.

When I checked the news this afternoon, the headline from the AP was exactly what I saw here: "Curfew-trapped Hondurans seek food amid crisis" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup
One line from that article really sums up how I see most of the people feel here: "Many Hondurans feel caught in the middle of a fight between two leaders — neither of whom they support." That says it all. I don't think there are that many people who actually like Mel Zeyala and probably even fewer who like Micheletti.

The casa in San Pedro Sula is 4 hours north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, where most of the political problems are. There are rallys and protests here, but nothing like what is going on down there. Today was somewhat normal for 6 hours, just jammed with everyone going out at the exact same time to do the same things, get food and gas. Life inside the casa is just like any other Saturday or Sunday. No school and if you don't listen to the TV or radio you would never know there are any problems going on in this country. I think thats a good thing.

Curfew

We are still stuck at home in the casa due to the nationwide curfew that started yesterday afternoon and will continue until at least tomorrow if not longer.

The interim president, Micheletti, in a letter in the Washington Post today, arguing that he did not take power in a coup, said that, "Coups do not allow freedom of assembly. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights."

Freedom of Assembly: At this moment it is illegal to leave your house and go out in the streets. The government closed all the airports and borders.

Freedom of the Press: The public radio station broadcasting support for Mel Zayela was taken off the air.

Respect for Human Rights: The supporters for Mel gathered in front of the Brazil embassy were disbursed with tear gas and battons as were rallys here in San Pedro Sula (ditto Freedom of Assembly).

It seems that Micheletti's definition of what freedoms are taken away after a coup is exactly what has been taken away here and now.

Very unfortunate for Honduras and the people here who have to live under repression from the government from carrying on their daily activities or speaking out against the people in charge. Reminds me of the news stories from Iran, but this is Honduras where I live.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Honduras Gov't.

The ousted president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, returned to Tegucigalpa today and is organizing his people to take back the government. Keep an eye on the news for updates because my internet connection may be cut soon.

News as of Tuesday morning:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Día del Niño

Yesterday was Children's Day here in Honduras. Unlike the U.S. where we only have Mother's and Father's day, they also have a special day set aside for children. The kids all had parties in their schools and were alowed to wear regular cloths rather than their normal uniforms. In the afternoon after they got home, a local radio station came to the casa and broadcast live for about an hour or two. They had a piñata, cake and food for the kids and gave each of them a gift. They also let several of the kids talk on the radio and sing along with a couple of songs. The kids were all very excited. The visiting groups will continue throughout the weekend. There are groups scheduled for today, Sat. and Sun.

The kids at Amor y Vida got a visit from the San Pedro Sula professional soccer team, Maraton. There was an article in the paper today about the visit and this photo of the kids with the players.

Church

Here are some photos from church last night. Normally this church has services Friday and Sunday nights, but last night was a special one. Each of the home groups put on little skits or sang or some kind of presentation. All of the members of each group wore matching colored shirts so the church was really segregated by color last night. My group wore yellow, but since I don't own a yellow shirt I had to wear tan which was okay because a few others in the group did the same. If you think the inside of the church looks a little unfinished, the last photo is the outside of it. It has looked like this outside since I started coming to the casa in 2002. A work in progress ... progress is a little slow.

Washington at 6:00 a.m.

I am back at the casa in Honduras. I got back shortly before 11 am today after a 6 am takeoff from DC today. I took a video out the window of the plane during the takeoff so you can see the view of downtown Washington and a few of the monuments.

I was met at the airport by Mauricio, Maynor and Masbely. It was really great to see them there. She told me there were a few problems while I was gone, but nothing too bad, but they are glad the kids have a supervisor again. I had to wait to see the little kids after their naps that go until 3pm. They were all happy to see me. It was great seeing all of them also. Juan practically choaked me hugging my neck and not letting go for a long time. He wasn't talking and initially told me he was mad at me, but after about 20 minutes sitting with me he said he was not mad anymore and started talking a little more. I will have to find out all the details of what has gone on the past month while I was gone.

Swimming again

The big pool has been taken down for awhile but we filled the two baby pools today for the little kids. They had a blast splashing around. It was tough getting a photo of their faces because there was so much splashing going on.

Talks end without any agreement

Unfortunately, the current Micheletti government refused to budge and the mediation ended yesterday without any agreement. The mediator said he will continue working, but it does not look of much use.
Link to video news report: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=108253&newsChannel=worldNews

Link to article detailing current situation. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1749101420090720

Mel's wife had said he will return on Friday, the day I am planning on leaving. This article says the weekend. Regardless I am probably getting out at a good time because the expectations are not that he will return to a calm happy homecoming.

No Resolution in the Talks

The two sides in the Honduras governmental battle spent the day in mediation Sat and did not resolve the dispute by the deadline Mel Zelaya set for returning to the country as president. The president of Costa Rica is the mediator trying to reach an agreement. He put out a seven point proposal that suppoesedly Mel's people are somewhat willing to agree to but the current people in charge have not been willing to accept. They said they will try to talk more today, but Mel already said he will take his own actions if there was not agreement Sat. night.

The seven points are:
1. Reinstate Mel as president to finish his term in Jan.
2. Install a national unity government with representatives of both sides governing until Jan.
3. Mel gives up his efforts to amend the constitution to seek another term in the future.
4. The elections get moved up from Nov. 29 to Aug or Sept. supervised by international authorities.
5. The control of the armed forces is transferred from the president to the election tribunal one month before the election so Mel has no control over the election process.
6. All parties involved are given amnisty for anything either side did politically in this crisis, i.e. they don't prosecute Mel and he can't prosecute them when he returns.
7. An international pannel with representatives from the OAS is put in place to monitor the government and make sure everyone is in compliance.

It seems like a workable resolution to the problem, returning him to power, but limiting his power and having watchdogs supervising. So far the people who removed him are not willing to accept it because they said they would not agree to any proposal that reinstates him as president under any conditions. That's a strong line in the sand that may not move.

Mel has said his plans are to return this week to take back the presidency one way or the other. I don't plan on sticking around to see all that go down. I will be leaving on Friday to go home for a month and hopefully the problems here will resolve during that time so I can return to a stable country once again.

School

Fifth week without school. The teachers think that by continuing their strike it shows their opposition to the current governments overthrowing the elected president.
The support of the two sides in this matter really falls on class lines. Better off class favors the new president, poorer class favors the old president. The better off class all send their kids to private school so the strike is not affecting them anyway so I really don't know what the teachers think they are accomplishing with the strike.

Still Calm Here

Not much change in the political situation here. There were lots of problems in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, 4 hours to the south of here, but nothing in our area. I took the boys to the movies on Sunday and everything is business as usual in town. You would never know there were political problems going on from the looks of things here in San Pedro Sula. That's a good thing.
The private schools started back yesterday after 3 weeks out of school. That is the majority of the kids here at the casa. However, the public school strike goes on, The 12 kids who go to public school are now in their 4th week without school, 2 weeks closed for the flu outbreak and 2 after the president was ousted. That is not expected to change soon, but hopefully it will. The ousted president is in Washington talking with Hillary and the new government said they are now willing to "talk" but won't reinstate the old president. That's progress at least.

Happy 4th of July

This is the 7th time I have been here in Honduras on the 4th of July over the past 8 years and this time I appreciate the democracy that our founding fathers started more than ever.

Things here are still very, very calm, but part of that is due to the removal of several constitutional rights. The pro-Mel (ousted president) people have not been allowed to protest anymore. The new government got rid of the right to assemble in public and have prohibited them from passing on highways towards the capital for rallys. The press has been 100% in favor of the new government, very different from what I hear here in the neighborhood. They covered extensively a big rally in favor of the new government yesterday that the military did not break up as they have with the pro-Mel rallys the past 3 days. I am trying not to take any sides in this, but the taking away rights from one side and not the other is very bothersome. Both sides need a voice in any democracy for it to be legitimate.

Imagine Obama coming to office and getting rid of all Bush supporters in the congress, state and local governments and prohibiting people from rallying in support of Bush. Or imagine the impeachment of Clinton taking place in secret one night without him there nor the media and the result carried out by the army at 5am the next day, and Clinton supporters not being allowed to protest against this.

I didn't like Mel as a president and still don't, but even more I don't like the way he was taken out and the current system denying basic rights of the people to express themselves and travel freely in this country. Let freedom ring. God bless the USA and our great form of government, lasting over 230 years now. Sure there are problems and issues at times, but those founding fathers way back when really got it right. When you look around the world at all the other countries and how they are doing it, some places may have a few things better here and there, but overall we have it great and are the shinning light on the hill for all the world to see and try to emulate.

Happy 4th of July. Give thanks for our wonderful form of government and pray for Honduras.