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Senate panel clears Negroponte as U.S. representative to U.N.

Members cite need to get ambassador in place in current crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved President Bush's nomination of career diplomat John Negroponte to be U.S. representative to the United Nations, with committee members citing the need to fill the post quickly at a time of crisis.

The vote to recommend confirmation came by a 14-3 margin Sept. 13, immediately after a hearing at which Negroponte was questioned extensively about longstanding reports that he had suppressed information on human rights abuses in Honduras while serving as ambassador there in the early 1980s.
Three Democrats -- Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin -- voted against Negroponte because, they said, they remained concerned about his role in the Central American nation.

But those senators made clear that they would not try to block Negroponte's confirmation by the full Senate, because it is vital to have a U.N. ambassador in place as the United States seeks international cooperation in a newly-energized fight against terrorism.
Committee sources said a Senate floor vote to confirm Negroponte was likely to follow by week's end.

The United States has been without an ambassador at the United Nations since Richard Holbrooke left office with the end of the Clinton administration, on Jan. 20.
Bush announced his intention to nominate Negroponte on March 6, but did not actually submit his name to the Senate until May 14. Delays in considering the nomination continued after that point, as the committee sought Central Intelligence Agency and State Department documents relating to the nominee's tenure in Honduras.

Chairman Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware) said the committee's focus had been on "the extent to which the embassy was aware of, and was reporting on, human rights abuses committed by the Honduran military in the early 1980s" -- abuses that included disappearances, kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial killings.

And, Biden said, the committee wanted to know whether Negroponte had testified fully and accurately on the issue in prior congressional appearances.
In his most direct response at the Sept. 13 hearing, Negroponte declared under questioning by Senator Mike Enzi (Republican, Wyoming), "I never sought to suppress human rights reporting" on the situation in Honduras.

"I don't think there's any concrete evidence that you did in fact alter reporting," Biden told Negroponte.
"I think that you were in a tough position," Biden said. "I think that you were caught a little bit between a rock and a hard spot, but the evidence shows to me that you constantly attempted to push the Honduran government in the direction it should be moving."

Boxer questioned Negroponte closely about at least four acknowledged meetings he held during his time in Honduras with leaders of the Contras -- the Nicaraguan opposition group that the Reagan administration was supporting in its fight against the Sandinista government.

Negroponte did not deny Boxer's contention that he held such meetings after Congress passed the so-called Boland Amendment, which barred use of U.S. funds to help the Contras. But he insisted that "I never engaged in any activity that violated the Boland Amendment."

The hearing was briefly disrupted when an audience member rose to accuse Negroponte of involvement in state terrorism. The man offered no resistance as a Capitol policeman swiftly removed him from the room.
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, the committee's senior Republican member, declared in his opening statement that "the disasters in New York and at the Pentagon this past Tuesday" demanded swift action on the nominee.

"President Bush needs every possible member of his senior foreign policy team in place to deal with the perpetrators of the murders of thousands of Americans," Helms said.

"The president needs and deserves to have in place, at the United Nations, his nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.... Because the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. plays such an 
important role in communicating with our friends and allies, it is urgent that he be at his post as soon as humanly possible," he declared.

Helms said other priority items needing attention at the United Nations include "U.N. conferences run amok; Iraq's defiant despotism; the ongoing attacks, both physical and rhetorical, against the Middle East's only democracy, Israel; and locking in and extending U.N. management reforms negotiated by Ambassador Holbrooke."

In his own opening statement, Negroponte declared that "the despicable and tragic acts of terror perpetrated in New York and Washington the day before yesterday dramatically underscore grave challenges to our fundamental values."
But, he said, "We do not face these challenges alone. All the civilized nations on earth join us, and indeed already have joined us, in condemning these hideous crimes. Through the United Nations, we can and must work together to prevail over threats that confront us all."

Negroponte steered clear of citing other specific policy priorities. Instead, he focused on the mechanics of establishing strong working relationships with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and with delegates from other member nations, and developing a "close and fruitful dialogue with Congress."

With congressional action not yet finalized with regard to the promised payment of some $582 million in back U.S. dues to the world body, Negroponte did observe that "the United Nations both needs and deserves consistent support from America, including full and timely payment of our dues."

In an unusual departure at the hearing, Biden instructed staff members to contact the State Department to seek previously unscheduled committee appearances later in the day by several nominees for other high-level posts. He said they would receive just "a very brief hearing" as a "formality" before being approved by the committee, in an effort to get the president's foreign policy team in place "in light of the situation that exists in the country today."

The committee later announced that such abbreviated hearings would be held in late afternoon on the nominations of Patrick Kennedy to be representative to the United Nations for U.N. management and reform, and of Laura Kennedy, Ronald Neumann and Marcelle Wahba to be, respectively, U.S. ambassadors to Turkmenistan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Bomb scares at SPS airport, foreign ministry

Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport was evacuated last Thursday morning (Sept. 13) after an anonymous caller claimed to have placed a bomb in the offices of TACA airlines, causing apprehension among travelers and employees in light of the terrorist attacks two days earlier in the United States.

According to the daily La Tribuna, authorities immediately ordered all travelers and employees to leave and cordoned off the air terminal, while members of the 105th Brigade's bomb squad were brought in to search the facilities for the reported explosive device. At the moment the bomb was reported, two TACA airliners were making their approach to the airport. Passengers in both planes had to wait more than an hour before authorities determined the bomb was a false alarm and allowed them to disembark.

La Tribuna also reported that travelers were even further alarmed when two Iraqi citizens wearing their traditional headdress arrived to check in for their flight, but returned to the hotel at which they were staying after the airport was closed.
On Monday (Sept. 17), the report of a bomb in the foreign ministry also proved to be a false alarm. La Tribuna stated that a anonymous call reporting a bomb was received at 8 a.m., forcing authorities to evacuate the building. However, nothing out of the ordinary was found following a thorough search of the ministry. Police suspect that both incidents are the work of pranksters.

Leptospirosis claims second victim

A deadly infectious disease has claimed the life of a second victim in less than two weeks at the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula, the daily La Tribuna reported.

The victim was identified as Marco Antonio Ayala Zaldivar, a 14-year-old youth from Quimistan, Santa Barbara department, who died from compilations caused by leptospirosis last Wednesday morning (Sept. 12).

Attacks cause increase in fuel prices

The first economic repercussions of the terrorist attack in the United States on Sept. 11 were felt this week with price hikes at the gas pump. As of Sunday, premium gasoline jumped from Lps. 39.26 to Lps. 41.21, an increase of Lps. 1.96. Regular increased by Lps. 1.62 to Lps. 39.20, while the price of diesel is now Lps. 28.33, up Lps. 1.02. Kerosene also increased by 0.91 to Lps. 24.61 and a tank of LPG now costs 116.54.

The daily La Tribuna reported that the new fuel prices are due in part to cutbacks in the supply of oil to the Caribbean and other markets as a direct result of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

USAID employee commits suicide

An American citizen and employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Tegucigalpa took his own life on Sunday (Sept. 16), the daily La Tribuna reported.

The victim, whose body was found hanging from a metal beam over the garden of his residence in the exclusive Lomas del Guijarro neighborhood, was identified as Ronald Keith Mason. A handwritten note left by the 51-year-old lawyer cited marital and economic problems as his reasons for committing suicide.

Teachers strike over...for the moment

Teachers across the nation returned to their classrooms after negotiating a deal with government authorities, ending a five-week strike. According to a report in the daily La Tribuna Tuesday (Sept. 18), the government agreed to pay teachers in accordance with the Manual of Posts and Salaries.

However, a union leader stated that the teachers' struggle won't be over until the government complies to the letter with the Teachers' Statute.

Honduras condemns terrorist attacks in U.S.

President Flores expresses solidarity with U.S. people

TEGUCIGALPA -- The people of Honduras watched in shock on Tuesday morning as the horrifying events leading to the destruction of the twin World Trade towers in New York City and part of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. were broadcast by the international media. Hondurans felt the pain of watching innocent victims die and the anger of the assault against civilization, as it is now being called by nations around the world.

In his letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, Honduran President Carlos Flores expressed his most "energetic rejection and condemnation of these barbaric acts." Flores was "dismayed by the loss of innocent lives, [sharing] the pain and suffering of the affected families." Similar thoughts were expressed in his message to all Hondurans.

The American Embassy also expressed horror at the series of terrorist attacks against the United States. Emergency precautions were taken immediately by the Embassy in Tegucigalpa. According to daily El Heraldo, most personnel were evacuated and security was increased. In the streets surrounding the U.S. Embassy, special Cobra units patrolled the sidewalks and kept an eye out for potential threats.

According to the statement in the U.S. Embassy's web-page <http://www.usmission.hn>, the offices in Tegucigalpa will remain open, but "at reduced staffing levels." All telephone lines are open to U.S. citizens, but any of these looking for specific information on the terrorist attacks are prompted to rely more on the international media.

After four planes were hijacked, the international skies were quickly cleared of most flights. Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa was closed and, so far, flights to the United States have not yet resumed.

Honduran soccer champion Platense was forced to cancel an upcoming match. According to the daily La Prensa, the team from Puerto Cortes was scheduled to compete against a Salvadoran team in New York City in the Independence Cup. The event was supposed to commemorate Central America's Independence today, Sept. 15.

IAPA says press freedom endangered 

A high-level delegation of the InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA) met with President Carlos Flores in San Pedro Sula last Thursday (Sept. 6) to express concerns over legislation that would threatens press freedom in Honduras.

According to a Sept. 7 IAPA press release, the center of contention is a legislation bill that "contains provisions endangering press freedom by removing journalists' ability to keep their sources confidential." Flores, the owner of the daily La Tribuna, said he was aware of the issue and promised the delegation that he would seek the removal of any provision that would curtail press freedom in Honduras.

Members of the IAPA delegation also participated in a public forum at the Northern Regional University Center, where they discussed a number of important restrictions of press freedom including the licensing of journalists.
Rafael Molina, who headed the delegation, stated that IAPA does not oppose associations that seek to improve the quality of journalism, but "we do oppose making such membership compulsory, because that violates a fundamental human right, the right of freedom of expression, which belongs to all the people." Molina is the chairman of IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.

Remains belong to ex-Contras

None of the human remains unearthed at the former El Aguacate military base in Olancho belong to persons who disappeared during the 1980s, according to human rights activist Liduvina Hernandez in a La Tribuna report Saturday (Sept. 8).

Hernandez, president of the Committee for the Relatives of Detained-Disappeared Persons in Honduras (COFADEH), claims that the remains found in the 28 graves by forensic anthropologists two weeks ago belong to former Nicaraguan Contras.

Lawmaker seeks to punish trigger-happy individuals

Trigger-happy individuals who fire their weapons into the air could face stiff jail sentences if Congressional Deputy Mamilio Rodas Gamero has his way. According to the daily La Tribuna, Rodas Gamero last Friday (Sept. 7) announced that he will prepare legislation that would allow the justice system to criminally prosecute individuals who fire shots into the air.

The proposed legislation comes two days after two children died from stray bullets following the World Cup soccer qualifying match between Honduras and Jamaica. Ten-year-old Verlics Ivonne Moran Maradiaga received a bullet wound to the head in the living room of her home, while 13-year-old Melvin Manuel Cruz Zuniga was shot in front of his home.

Maquilas coming and going

Twenty-two new companies are expected to establish maquila operations in the nation's industrial parks, providing thousands of new jobs, the daily La Prensa reported Saturday (Aug. 8).

On the down side, however, 24 maquiladoras -- plants that specialize in assembling finished goods for export -- have closed operations, leaving 16,000 persons unemployed, according to Jesus Canahuati, president of the Honduran Maquiladores Association (AHM).

Approximately 117,000 people are currently employed by maquiladora plants, compared to 125,000 employed at the beginning of the year. 

Student kills teacher

A ninth grade student of the Honduras Patria School in the community of Barra de Cuyamel, Cortes department, fatally wounded his teacher with a knife on Monday (Sept. 10)
According to the daily La Tribuna, Omar Amilcar Echeverria, 19, was asked to quit taking cookies that were going to be served to students during the celebration of Children's Day. Angered at being reprimanded, Echeverria took out a knife and stabbed Jorge Humberto Maradiaga Montes in the stomach.

Maradiaga, a 30-year-old elementary school teacher, died immediately.
Sources say that Echeverria, who is believed to have fled to Guatemala, was a deserter from the Puerto Cortes Naval Base.

Maradiaga's murder is the second such incident this year. Previously, a student shot a teacher to death in a school on the Bay Islands. 

One on one with the presidential hopeful Ricardo Maduro

Ricardo Maduro, presidential candidate for the National Party, shakes hands with supporters during a recent campaign activity.

By DON PEARLY

GUANAJA -- Imagine sitting in a comfortable chair with plenty of time and the man of the hour, Ricardo Maduro, ready, willing and able to answer your every question. Well, I had such an experience and learned a lot about the man and his political platform.

Although I tried to stick to the questions I had previously prepared and some that readers submitted, we did wonder off the beaten path now and again. Here are the questions and the answers.

HTW: What priority will you give to tourism?
MADURO: Top priority! Along with forestry, light assembly and the agricultural industries, tourism will be in the forefront for sure. 

He was eager to elaborate and could have for hours on end, but we both realized the limiting size of my column and moved on.

HTW: Do you have a plan for bringing competition to the Honduras airway sector?
MADURO: Yes.

He went on to say the first place they will begin looking is at the high to exorbitant landing fees, fuel taxes, night landing light charges and astronomical parking fees. He saw a first hand report giving exact numbers showing these fees that make the term "open skies" a joke in the industry.

He also pointed out the 'demand factor.' We do not have an enormous amount of international travel to offer the big airlines and they must face the fact that they need feeder airlines to pick up the travelers from our five or six gathering airports, thereby increasing the operating costs.

He realizes the importance of this subject and will energetically peruse it to its conclusion.

HTW: A plan for the protection of tourists?
MADURO: Yes, tourist police. Especially trained, designer dressed and equipped to make the tourist feel welcome and as if with a friend. No machine guns, no camouflage, no dark sunglasses, only friendly English-speaking travel advisors secretly ready to defend their subjects if necessary.

HTW: How about making certain tourist destinations duty free zones?
MADURO: Absolutely, this was something we were working on several years ago. The Bay Islands would be perfect, isolated from the mainland making it easy to control. Land on Guanaja or Roatan or Utila and you are not really facing the aduanas or customs people. When you go to the mainland, then you are entering Honduras proper, if you will.

Maduro did say other places that have implemented duty free zones faced another problem, that of making "centers for contraband." He said this is a problem that must be addressed before they proceed but it is one that can be controlled.

By the way, this was the question that drew the most support from the Internet readers with 92 hits, absolutely all in favor of the duty free status for the Bay Islands. Thank you world.

HTW: Thoughts on housing?
MADURO: Again, very delicate, especially for the Bay Islands where the ecological balance is so frail.

To sum up, Maduro is aware of the housing shortage among the lesser fortunate citizens and he will continue to try and solve it by giving away government land through the "land titling" process, trying to find a way to interest more foreign investors by making foreclosure and other technical problems easily remedied, and by promising to continue looking into successful sweat equity plans in effect around the world today.

In other words, he is interested in this universal problem and was very interested to hear that Stewart Title Company of America was now in the country and issuing title policies as if the property were in downtown Dallas. I could see the wheels turning. Maduro calls abogado Luis Bueso at his e-mail address, <lbueso@netsys.hn>. He does all of our Stewart title work on the Villas Escondidas sub division.

HTW: How do we go about ridding ourselves of the corruption now assumed by the world to be liberally sprinkled throughout our government, our police departments and our customs agencies?
MADURO: Transparency. Publish every government transaction, try to arrange for telecasts of the local government sessions in process, make the controlling bodies responsible for audits and investigations independent of the governing powers and independent of any political party.

In my opinion, Maduro seemed to think they already had a handle on fixing this important problem. It was as if it was a done deal. He also added the main cure is that we will be appointing honest people to important jobs and projects.

One one-on-one down and one to go. Thus far I have heard nothing from Rafael Pineda Ponce or the Liberal Party in response to these same questions. Have lap-top, will travel.

New airline takes flight this month

A new Honduran airline will begin operations later this month, offering domestic and limited regional flights, according to Civil Aeronautics Director Luis Rolando Leiva in a La Tribuna report last Thursday (Aug. 30)
The new airline, called Honduras Airlines, will initially offer a variety of tourist packages to Guatemala. To this end, stated the report, Honduras Airlines has formed an alliance with Tikal Jet Airlines of Guatemala.
Air service is scheduled to begin Sept. 24 with Honduras Airlines and Tikal Jet Airlines offering three daily flights between Guatemala and Honduras. Senior citizens will receive discounts on tickets, said the report.

Nurses return to hospital wards

Auxiliary nurses returned to work last Wednesday (Aug. 29) after voting to accept the government's final offer, ending a three-week old strike that had crippled the nation's health system, the daily La Tribuna reported.
According to Thelma Mejia, president of the Auxiliary Nurse's Association at the Teaching Hospital in Tegucigalpa, the Ministry of Health agreed to all the nurse's salary and work demands. 

Now that their demands have been met, said Mejia, nurses are back on the job, and she assured authorities that they will not support the health workers strike. SITRAMEDHYS, the health workers union, is demanding a monthly pay raise of Lps. 1,680 for each worker.
In other strike related news, tens of thousands of children are still waiting to return to school as the nationwide teacher's strike entered its fourth week.

Security vice minister resigns

Wilfredo Alvarado Madrid, vice minister of Security, resigned last Thursday (Aug. 30), the daily El Heraldo reported. It is speculated that Alvarado will return to his former post as director of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DGIC).

Gasoline prices up again

Just hours before the key World Cup qualifying match between the U.S. and Honduran national soccer teams, the government notched a goal against the Honduran people by approving new fuel price hikes.

As of Saturday, reported the daily El Heraldo, the price of premium gasoline is Lps. 39.25 per gallon in the capital city, up Lps. 1.65. Regular jumped from Lps. 35.77 to Lps. 37.58 and diesel increased by Lps. 0.70 to Lps. 27.31. Kerosene now costs Lps. 23.70 a gallon, while a tank of LPG is Lps. 114.30.

Leptospirosis claims first victim

Despite intense efforts by medical personnel to save her life, Bessy Carolina Galeas died from leptospirosis in the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula on Monday (Sept. 3), the daily La Tribuna reported. The victim, a secretary, was 20.
Galeas' death was the first from leptospirosis since an outbreak occurred in November 1998 following Hurricane Mitch that claimed the lives of seven people in the northeastern part of the country.
Elliethe Giron, vice minister of Health, said nine cases have been confirmed so far this year -- three in Health Region 3, four in Santa Barbara and two in San Pedro Sula.

10% of all Hondurans live abroad

Approximately 10 percent -- 655,000 -- of all Hondurans live abroad, for the most part as legal or illegal immigrants in the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to a representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Miguel Angel Trinidad, head of the IOM delegation visiting Honduras as part of Migrant Week celebrations, said only one of every 20 Hondurans who seek to enter the United States illegally achieves this goal. Roughly 35,000 Hondurans make the attempt, he added.
Trinidad said 8,000 Hondurans were deported by the United States between 1998 and 2000.

Judges give themselves fat raise

While government officials continue to tell low-paid health workers and school teachers that there is no money in the budget for pay raises, well-paid appellate judges secretly gave themselves hefty raises several weeks ago.
According to a report in the daily La Tribuna on Tuesday (Sept. 4), appellate court judges got a Lps. 5,000 retroactive pay raise and now earn Lps. 35,000 per month. The minimum wage in Honduras is approximately Lps. 1,500.

Moreover, judicial employees earning less than Lps. 6,000 will reportedly receive a 20 percent raise, and those earning more than Lps. 6,000 a 15 percent raise; however, it was reported that these raises were selective and not across the board.

Grave count reaches 28 at El Aguacate

CATACAMAS, Olancho -- Twenty-eight graves have been found by forensic anthropologists in the area known as El Aguacate, to the east of the country. 

The circumstances surrounding this large number of bodies are all related to the Cold War, alleged communist rebels, and a CIA-base located in El Aguacate.

According to the daily La Tribuna, the excavations began when former guerrilla commander Felipe Espino revealed the reputed location of the grave of Father Guadalupe Carney. The priest, who was involved in the guerrilla movement of the 80s, was said to have died in a clearing next to the Patuca river. However, Guadalupe Carney's remains have not been found, but those of 28 other people have. The bodies inside the graves belonged mainly to hospital patients.

Forensic anthropologist Jose Samuel Suasnavar, in charge of the digs, reported that most of the bodies still had hospital ID bracelets, or insulin containers with their name or some kind of identification written on them. Most of these people were involved with different left-wing movements in the
80s.

According to Olancho residents, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency took these people to the El Aguacate base. Rumors have it that many of them were tortured for information, which is why the base needed hospital installations.

Human Rights Commissioner, Victor Moreno, has been supervising the excavations, ascertaining that all information possible will be maintained. Not all the bodies were identified, some lost their name tags, or had no form of ID with them. La Tribuna reported that, though most bodies were of middle-aged
adults, among those were the bodies of a 60-year-old woman, a few teenagers and a newborn baby.

No course of action has been announced with respect to the mass grave found. Once all the bodies are identified, they will be returned to their relatives, who have not known the fate of their family members for over a decade.

Aussie "missionary" in jail accused of rape

Police in Danli find 22,000 job applications filled out by Hondurans who hoped to travel and work in the United States and Canada, sponsored by Seppings' bogus organization.

John Daniel Seppings, handcuffed in the offices of the Department of Criminal Investigation in Danlí, awaits to be brought before a judge.

TEGUCIGALPA -- Despite fooling local authorities and residents through an as yet unclear project, it wasn't until a capital city daily reported his dubious activities that the police and immigration officials took action in the strange case of Australian citizen Daniel John Seppings (35).

Seppings, also known as David John Seppings and Daniel Frank, made his true intentions known in early August after having lived quietly in Honduras for a few years. Apparently, he was planning to carry out a religious project called Project 2000 Zion Community, which he hoped to extend throughout Latin America in the future.

This new chapter in Seppings' troubled life began when he arrived as a Mormon missionary in Danli, El Paraiso department, 96 km. southeast of Tegucigalpa. A couple of months ago, he opened an office there with a sign that read "Cristiana Americana Humanitaria Ayuda" (C.A.H.A.). But the organization was not legally constituted.

The blue-eyed man with curly, blond hair came with the promise of finding jobs for campesinos in the United States, Canada and in Honduras, where he intended to create large farms. Through the local media, he invited people to meet with him to obtain more details.

He also took out classified ads in the daily La Tribuna, requesting security guards and offering salaries between Lps. 5,000 and Lps. 16,000 a month. La Tribuna correspondent Luis Alonso Gomez told HTW that he found the offer rather exorbitant, considering that in the country's main cities security guards generally earn no more than Lps. 3,000 a month if employed by private security firms. If self-employed, salaries for watchmen are often even less.

ANGER AND CONFUSION
When the appointment date arrived, Seppings found himself amidst an impressive crowd of people who he just could not handle. After a while, some of those who came from the smaller villages of El Paraiso looking for the "American dream" became impatient.
At one point his excitement turned to fear. Word that the "gringo" had tricked them and that they were about to be the victims of a collective swindle spread quickly (he was going to request Lps. 200 for each job applicant).

The meeting ended abruptly with the arrival of the police, who took Seppings away before he was mobbed. In the end, the campesinos left empty-handed and confused.

On Sunday, Aug. 5, Gomez wrote about the unusual event in Danli, bringing it to the attention of national authorities and the U.S. Embassy. The next day, Seppings visited the immigration office in Tegucigalpa and was ordered to remain in the facilities for investigative purposes.

SURPRISING TWIST
On Aug. 17, however, the already tangled story took a more surprising twist, as agents of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DGIC) arrested Seppings on charges of sexually assaulting two minors in El Paraiso.

According to a DGIC press release, Seppings was accused of disappearing a Danli family last year. Subsequently, authorities located the family in a sector of Jamastran Valley and learned that Seppings was having sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl of the same family.

Afterward, states the report, Seppings moved to Danli and from that point he was frequently visited by the minor and a 15-year-old cousin of the girl. Seppings used to lodge them at the El Dorado hotel and had sexual encounters with both of them.

The day he was presented to the press in Tegucigalpa, Seppings burst into tears in front of the cameras. Speaking poor Spanish, he said that everything was a "mentira" (lie).

He claimed that powerful people in the government wanted him out of the country since he was about to reveal their acts of corruption. Then, he accused the press of conspiring against him, prompted by La Tribuna's first report.

BOMB THREAT
Meanwhile, a report sent by the U.S. Embassy to the DGIC states that Seppings arrived in the United States from Australia in November 1995. Three years later, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) opened a file on Seppings who was accused of illegal permanency.

While in the United States, Sepppings married M.L. Frank in Missouri. When she applied for residency for her husband, she received a negative response from the INS, as they found out he was still married in Australia. Subsequently, he was accused of bigamy by his first wife.

A report by the Independence Missouri Police Department states that Seppings was arrested on April 2, 1999, "for disrupting a church service and threatening about 50 people in the congregation with a hand gun and a bomb."

"He claimed to be Jesus Christ at that time," continued the report. Seppings was formally charged in State Court with "Making a false bomb report." According to the report, the handgun turned out to be a pellet gun and the bomb was a fake. Seppings left the United States with a voluntary departure order.

MORE CONTRADICTIONS
The date and circumstances under which Seppings arrived in Honduras are still not clear, but presumably he came from Mexico. HTW confirmed that once in Tegucigalpa, Daniel Seppings tried to fly to Canada twice -- on Oct. 25, 1999 and Aug. 19, 2000. On both opportunities he was sent back to Honduras from Houston the following day. INS officers delivered him personally to Honduran immigration authorities at Toncontin airport, and then he was set free.

However, the version provided by the DGIC states that Seppings arrived in 1998 on a 30-day tourist visa and, when this expired, Immigration issued an illegal permanency alert.

In addition, it was established that Seppings lived in Col. Miraflores Norte, a middle-class neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, before going to El Paraiso. Seppings was seen a few times attending services at the temple of the Later Day Saints located in Col. Palmira.
At that time, the Melbourne native made business cards that presented him as architect and project manager of an organization called American Social and Welfare Services (A.S.A.W.S.), headquartered in Independence, MO.

But the address of his "regional office" only mentioned the name of the neighborhood in Tegucigalpa and Seppings' personal e-mail address. Apparently, ASAWS existed only in his mind.

SATANIC SOCIETY
In a promotional publication prepared by Seppings called The Evening & Morning Star, he states that "Honduras has become a slave nation for the Apostatate Christendom [sic]." He says that "after the [U.S.] civil war, the world bankers conspired against Abraham Lincoln to destroy the money system which was called Lincoln greenbacks and replaced it with a privately owned monetary system owned by the Satanic occult secret society called the Illumninati."

He refers to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the "Mystery Babylon." Moreover, he assures that "within every bar code of every produce is encoded the number 666 which is the number of the beast," and goes on mentioning a series of examples and biblical passages to "prove" his point.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Seppings wrote another, scripture-like work called "The book of Daniel," where he narrates his own version of his exploits in Australia and America.

He claims that he flew to the United States in search of religious freedom that the "fascist regime of the new world order" took away from him. In one of the chapters, he talks about how he could escape from the mental institutions he was sent to in Sidney.
But Daniel John Seppings hasn't been able to find any kind of freedom anywhere. On the contrary, he seems to carry a long list of illegal, immoral, and fishy acts on his shoulders.

At the moment of his arrest in Honduras, he held a passport issued by the Australian Embassy in Mexico City, effective from June 2001 to June 2010. When the police searched his office in Danli, they found 22,000 job applications filled out by needy Hondurans, as well as a plane ticket to Canada for Aug. 22. Seppings had also scheduled a job meeting for only women on Aug. 18.

DOUBLE MINDED?
The press was aware that the so called "revolutionary" religious man is being investigated for other felonies that cannot be revealed at this moment. Meanwhile, some people in town say Seppings had been conducting rituals involving animal sacrifices, and other have gone further, claiming that he is actually the anti-Christ, as the number six is repeated three times in his birth date (Dec, 16, 1966.)

At this moment, as Danli residents celebrate their traditional corn festival, Seppings is locked up in a small jail cell accused of rape. So maybe, when he quoted in his writings that a "double minded man is unstable in all his ways," he was, after all, just referring to himself.

Tourist complex to open next year

Honduran vacationers will soon no longer need to travel to Nicaragua's Montelimar to enjoy all the amenities of a five-star tourist center with the construction of the Barcelo Palma Real on the North Coast.

According to a report in the daily El Heraldo on Saturday (Aug. 25), the new tourist center is scheduled to be completed in February 2002 at a cost of Lps. 50 million. Built by the Spanish consortium Barcelo International, the center will initially have 118 habitations, swimming pools, a golf course, tennis and basketball courts, a discotheque, restaurants, bars and other recreational areas.

The new center, located just 20 minutes from downtown La Ceiba, will also offer packages that include transportation in modern buses, meals, drinks, horseback riding and other recreational activities and tours.

Prior to this project, Honduras was the only Latin American country in which Barcelo International did not operate a tourist center.

Riccy Mabel's murderer released

A former Honduran military official convicted of murdering 17-year-old Riccy Mabel Martínez in July 1991 is now a free man after completing his prison sentence, the daily La Tribuna reported last Friday (Aug. 24).

Col. (ret.) Angel Castillo Maradiaga was recently granted his freedom after serving 10 years, the last part of his sentence under house arrest in his residence in the community of Guaimaca, Francisco Morazan. In 1999, Castillo was eligible for parol but declined it since he would have been required to acknowledge having killed Martínez and ask for the family's pardon.
Castillo has always maintained his innocence and claims that Gen. (ret.) Luis Alonso Discus Elvir knows the identify of the real killer.

Sgt. Santos Eusebio Ilovarez Funez, the other serviceman convicted of murdering the high school student in the highly publicized case, was released on probation in 1999.

Armed Forces gets three new generals

For the first time in Honduran military history, three Army colonels will receive their general's stars at the same time, the daily La Tribuna reported Wednesday (Aug. 29). The nominees are Col. Julian Aristides Gonzalez Irias, deputy chief of Joint Staff of the Army; Col. Jose Isaias Barahona Herrera, chief of the Army; and Marco Antonio Bonilla Reyes, deputy director of the Inter-American Defense College based in Washington, D.C.
Congress and the Defense Ministry have not yet set a date for the promotions to take effect, but possibilities include Sept. 15, Independence Day; Oct. 3, Francisco Morazan's Birthday; Oct. 21, Armed Forces Day; and Dec. 11, Army Day.

Another gringo killed

Another U.S. citizen was killed this week in Puerto Cortes, in the north of the country. John O. Quinn, originally from New York, was shot to death last Saturday (Aug. 25) in the San Isidro neighborhood of this city.

According to the daily La Tribuna, Quinn began the evening of his demise drinking with a friend at a local bar called "La Abuela." Quinn and his friend arrived around 9 p.m. that night and encountered the presence of Noe Edgardo Cubas Esquivel and Daniel Edgardo Cruz Menjivar, a.k.a. "Mantena." The latter individual had been accused by Quinn of stealing some CDs from the American's house.

Witnesses say, that in a state of inebriation, Cubas Esquivel and Cruz approached Quinn and his friends and began harassing them. Cruz, a 19-year-old gang member, was said to have shown anger at Quinn's accusation, which was still being processed by the Department of Criminal Investigation. At this point, La Tribuna reported, Cruz pulled out a gun and fired a round at the floor. Quinn responded by grabbing the gun and trying to wrestle it from the youth. The conflict ended with Quinn getting mortally shot in the head and thorax.

Cruz and Cubas Esquivel quickly fled the scene. The police were quickly called, and the two individuals were apprehended quickly. According to the daily La Prensa, they were hiding in an alley of the same neighborhood and boasting about the cold-blooded murder.

John Quinn, 33, was a teacher of a local Puerto Cortes middle school. He was also the director of the local Action for Community Transformation (ACT) program. Through ACT, Quinn was trying to transform local underage criminals and gang members into productive members of the community.

Often, Quinn allowed recovering gang members to sleep in his house. Cruz was one of these individuals, and it was on one such occasion that he reputedly took the compact discs.

Cubas Esquivel and Cruz Menjivar remain behind bars pending trial. The U.S. consulate for the city of San Pedro Sula, Gregory Werner, is working with local police in the investigation.

John Quinn is the second American to die in the Puerto Cortes area in a fortnight. Thomas Francis Giblin, aged 62, was killed during a kidnapping attempt. The retiree's body was found four days later after a confession by one of the culprits lead to a makeshift grave.

According to the daily La Tribuna, the police report showed that marijuana was found in a satchel belonging to Quinn. His body will be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible.