National

French Cay family dedicated to saving Roatan iguana

By CAPTAIN TERRY CLYMIRE

ROATAN -- You see their pictures on street signs and T-shirts, hear about them in songs, and there are even businesses named after them. They are not super stars, generals or presidents. They are iguanas.

This is one family's story of a near life-long struggle, almost a mission against all odds, to save the green iguana of Roatán. It's hard to say what was more impressive: watching these amazing animals or the warm relationship that has developed over the years with this one special caretaker family.

The Arch family of Brooksey near French Cay are, like many families on the Bay Islands, very closely knit. They have always worked together on land and the sea, as layman farmers and boat wrights. Sherman and James felt, as young boys in the 50s, like many of us, that the sea and the land would always be bountiful. As the years past and their youth turned into manhood, they noticed that they no longer observed the island iguana, not in the rainy season when the trees are laden with fruit, nor during the dry season where, in the boiling hot sun, the females had once been plentiful, laboriously burrowing in the rock hard, cracked hillside to deposit their eggs from swollen bellies.

IGUANA PACT

So, 15 years ago the Arch brothers, while clearing small sections of land for their homes, made a special pact to protect all the iguanas on the family's 10 acres.

Five years ago, Broken Tail arrived at Sherman Arch's house. Old and with a broken tail, he became the first of nearly a thousand iguanas that are now fed on a daily basis. The farm is still in its humble initial state, so don't expect to find the Taj Mahal. Everything you see is from their own pockets, although donations are appreciated to help feed the ever growing number of animals.

There are laws that restrict the hunting of many Honduran animals and this includes the iguana. But there is no law enforcement. From the beginning of April until mid May, the dry season is their breeding season. It is also the time when they are hunted most.

Both males and females are territorial. Males will fight to the death to defend their territory while the females usually stay in a general area with the same male. They, too, will fend off other females from an area that becomes overpopulated. During the dry season the iguanas have a dusty brown color, which aids in their blending in with the red earth color found in much of Honduras.

Being cold-blooded, when the rains come and the trees and flowers begin to bloom, they leave the muddy ground and move up into the trees. Here they shed their skins and the females become a bright green and the males a glowing brownish red. The males are always larger with bigger heads, large spikes down their backs and a pronounced skin flap under their chin. They are excellent climbers and easily balance their large bodies from vine to vine with a tail that is even longer.

The six-week breeding season terminates with the females finding a suitable mound and digging a 20'-24' hole. Here the eggs will lay, warmed by the earth for 70 days. Young 2-year-old females lay between 8 to 10 eggs, but when they are 8 to 10 years old they can lay as many as 30 eggs. Iguanas can live to be 25 years old, if protected.

MANY ENEMIES

During the first six months of life, the babies have a 10 percent chance of survival. After six months it increases to 50 percent. Babies always hatch between 6 and 10 p.m., as it is most dangerous for them to move around during daylight hours. They become easy prey for dogs, cats, chickens, snakes, woodpeckers and blackbirds. However, their most dangerous predator at any age, day or night, is man.

The Archs are trying to protect the iguanas during the breeding season by bringing truck loads of dirt into their yard to form mounds. These dirt mounds are protected with the help of wire fences to keep the iguanas safe from predators while at the same time preventing the babies from going out until they can be moved to wire pens. Sherman Arch also constructs wooden entry boxes, neatly spaced, for each burrow.

Those of you who really want to experience a wonderful part of nature with friends or the family while visiting Roatan, stop by the Arch's Iguana Farm near French Cay. Say "Hello" to Brokentail, Stumpy, Big Red and all their friends. And before you leave, dig deep into those pockets and leave something meaningful for the animals. In return, you will take something away that will touch your very soul. Oh yes, and bring your camera!

WEEK IN REVIEW
Albright to visit Honduras

Madeleine Albright, the current U.S. Representative to the United Nations, will visit Honduras September 6-7, according to Foreign Minister Delmer Urbizo Panting in a La Prensa report. The official visit is part of her 5-nation jaunt that also includes Guatemala, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay. Among the topics on the ambassador's agenda are reforms to the United Nations and, in the specific case of Honduras, the future of the Security Council. Honduras is currently one of 10 non-permanent members to the 15-seat council, which it will preside this October.

Mammoth water tank inaugurated

Government officials last Saturday (August 24) inaugurated an enormous water tank in the Colonia Honduras that will supply potable water to more than 300,000 persons in 18 residential districts, the daily El Heraldo reported. The "Tanque Kennedy," the largest water storage facility in the nation, cost $1.1 million and has a capacity to hold 1.3 million gallons.

New U.S. envoys arrives

New U.S. Ambassador James Creagan arrived in Tegucigalpa on Friday (August 23), succeeding William Pryce who recently concluded his 3-year stint here, the daily La Prensa reported. A career diplomat, Creagan previously served as commercial attache at the U.S. Embassy in Italy. Ambassador Pryce and his wife returned to the United States August 15.

Free, unlimited energy brightens rural Honduras -- but at a cost

By LARRY LEE

MARCALA, Honduras -- In some Central American countries, including Honduras, only 4 in 10 residents have electricity.

Complicating the problem are sparse populations in the mountains and forests of Honduras, which includes most of the country. Extending an electrical line to those areas would be highly unprofitable.

In fact, some Hondurans say they doubt the National Electric Co., ENEE, will ever illuminate the country's remote areas.

In rural Marcala, the home of high-quality Honduran coffee production because of its altitude, no light at night is bad for business. That's particularly true during the peak coffee harvest months of October through February when the work isn't over just because it's dusk.

Business isn't all that suffers from lack of light. Children cannot study past 6:30 p.m., when it gets dark in Honduras. Also, smoke and fumes from candles, kerosene lanterns and other cheap light sources are blamed for innumerable health problems, not to mention environmental damage.

For all those reasons, the coffee cooperative Comarca decided three years ago to help rural producers obtain solar energy systems by getting a $20,000 loan guarantee with the help of the Fondo Solar managed by Enersol. A nonprofit NGO, Enersol has ties to Harvard University.

Today Marcala, which rests in the mountains near El Salvador in the Honduran department of La Paz, has left other rural communities behind. Marcala leads the rest of the nation in this alternative form of rural electrification, and producers have paid off most of the loan ahead of schedule.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Enersol's Honduras project was one of seven approved in the initial rounds of the U.S. Initiative for Joint Implementation, a mechanism to encourage private investment in foreign countries in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Enersol is looking for more money to provide even more rural Hondurans with sun power. Finding investors for such a social project, though, is an admittedly difficult task. Returns, although positive, aren't as high as those usually found in overseas investments.

One hope is that technological advances will help bring down the cost of solar energy while increasing the efficiency of systems.

In rural Honduras, a $900 or $950 outlay is quite a shock, even though the energy afterward is free. Many Hondurans don't make that much money in a year's time. The average monthly loan payment runs about $90 for one year, although that can be extended.

The systems consist of a 35-, 50- or 70-watt panel connected to a 12-volt deep-cycle, high-amp battery that charges up during the day. At night the system provides enough electricity for a black-and-white television, lights, a blender for tropical fruit drinks (a Honduran tradition) a radio or stereo and an electric cooler.

Like the rest of Central America, Honduras enjoys sunshine nearly every day of the year, particularly early in the day. But when the clouds move in during the rainy season months of June through November, families benefiting from solar energy learn to conserve and not use so many appliances and lights.

On another rural power front, members of the Honduran National Congress are pressuring President Carlos Reina to solicit private offers to electrify 20 far-flung communities in seven departments. They say ENEE is unable to perform the job.

The government says it has set aside $1.8 million for the stalled project.

WEEK IN REVIEW: New municipalities created in La Mosquitia

The National Congress last Thursday (August 15) approved the creation of four new municipalities in Gracias a Dios department, the daily La Prensa reported. The new municipalities, administrative areas into which Honduras' 18 departments are divided, are Juan Francisco Bulnes (Walumugu), Ahuas, Wampusirpi and RamOn Villeda Morales. The department's other two municipalities are Puerto Lempira and Brus Laguna. Honduras now has 297 municipalities.

Gracias a Dios, originally created as the Departamento de la Mosquitia in 1869 but later fused to Colon department in 1880, was created on February 21, 1957. It has an area of 16,630 km², Honduras' second largest department.

Other municipalities created during the Reina administration are San Francisco de Opalaca, Intibuca and San Marcos de Caliquin, Lempira.

British citizen murdered in El Paraíso

The body of William James Ronald Wates, a 19-year-old British citizen, was found last Friday (August 16) near the community of El Arenal on the Danli-Tegucigalpa highway, the daily La Tribuna reported. According to medical reports, the Wimbledon, England native received gunshot wounds to the head and thorax. The British tourist had previously traveled to several Central and South American countries before entering Honduras from Nicaragua on August 10. Police believe the motive of the crime was robbery.

Meanwhile, businessman Andrew Wates, the deceased's father, arrived in Honduras this week to arrange to have the body flown back to England and to obtain information on the police investigation. Law enforcement authorities on Tuesday stated that they now have at least one suspect.

"All I did was create a political scandal to defend the interests of the Honduran people and now I find myself in prison."

- María Martha Díaz,
The key witness in the Chinazo passport scandal

Key witness in passport scandal arrested in Miami

The key witness in the Chinazo passport scandal, María Martha Díaz, was arrested August 8 by U.S. authorities as she entered Miami International Airport.

According to local reports, Florida's Dade County Court issued a warrant for her arrest when she failed to comply with a custody ruling on the three children she had with Nicaraguan businessman René Contreras, the suspected head of an international ring that sold Honduran passports and U.S. entry visas to Asian immigrants.

Wilfredo Alvarado, the director of Honduras' Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC), said in a La Tribuna report last Saturday that the DIC contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation prior to arranging Díaz' trip to find out whether she could enter and exit the United States at will. He was told by FBI agents that there were no current warrants out for her arrest, he said.

But Alvarado and others blame Contreras cronies for the misinformation, not the FBI, alleging in a La Tribuna report that the Chinazo's prime suspect arranged "under the table" for a new arrest warrant to be issued "at the last minute."

Díaz had travelled to Miami to remove what she calls important evidence in the Chinazo case from a safe deposit box registered in her name at a local bank. Alvarado says Contreras and others behind the Chinazo want to tie Díaz up in the U.S. court system so she will be unable to testify in Honduras.

"Regardless of whether they have [Díaz], [the Chinazo suspects] will be summonsed, the documents will be made public and sooner or later the people of Honduras will know what happened. No one can stop that from happening," he said.

Díaz' attorney, Oscar Siri Zúniga, said individuals involved in the Chinazo offered to arrange for Díaz' release and to pay her a substantial amount of money if she agreed to keep quiet about the details of the case. He also said during an interview with the Honduran television news program Abriendo Brecha that Díaz has asked to be named Honorary Consul of Honduras in Washington, D.C. so that she can travel with a diplomatic passport and obtain immunity from Dade County court proceedings.

Díaz faxed Zúniga a letter Tuesday in which she explained, "my lawyer came today and he says I must ask the Honduran government for all of its collaboration to make this case federal because if the FBI gets involved things will be better."

Describing her incarceration as "humiliating," she wrote Zúniga, "I authorize you to make this letter public so that the people know what's happening to me."

"All I did was create a political scandal to defend the interests of the Honduran people and now I find myself in prison," she continued.

Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares said in a La Tribuna report Tuesday that Díaz' family affairs are one thing and the Chinazo is another. U.S. officials have the right to proceed legally if Díaz has broken the law, he said, and the Chinazo investigation will move forward with or without Díaz.

Díaz wasn't scheduled for a hearing until late this week. According to La Tribuna, Contreras told the Dade County Court that he will drop charges against his ex-wife if she agrees to return to Miami with their three children and allow him to see them. The children are currently staying with relatives in Tegucigalpa.

Contreras' attorney, Margarita Rivera, says Díaz hasn't allowed Contreras to visit with the children or talk with them on the phone. He has no intention of taking them away from Díaz, she said, he only wants the right to see them.

Díaz said in her letter to Zúniga that she's afraid once her children return to Miami Contreras will kidnap them and send them to Hong Kong, where the Chinazo scandal began.

Other suspects in the scandal include Julie Ng, the former Honorary Consul of Honduras in Hong Kong, Herby Weizemblut, the former Consul of Honduras in Hong Kong and Jerry Stuchiner, a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Seven will vie for Liberal candidacy

Despite the heavy rainfall, seven presidential hopefuls turned out last Saturday (August 10) to submit their paperwork required for participation in December's primary to the Liberal Party Central Committee (CCEPL). Unlike the National Party registration, which led to weeks of controversy surrounding the elimination of five candidates, the Liberal event was marked by good humor and celebration. "Here there are neither big movements nor small ones; everyone is treated equally," said CCEPL secretary Gloria Oqueli de Macoto in a La Tribuna report. The leading Liberal candidate is Carlos Flores, the current president of the National Congress. He is also highly favored against the Nationalist candidates. Also running in December's primary will be Aníbal Delgado Fiallos, Rosario Godoy de Osejo, Tito Livio Sierra, Jorge Roberto Maradiaga, Jaima Rosenthal Oliva and Ramon Villeda Bermudez.

Honduras among worst 10 for road safety

A recent study of road safety by the Association for Safe International Travel (ASIRT) places Honduras among the world's ten most dangerous countries for driving, reported CNN International August 7. ASIRT spokesperson Rochelle Sobel helped found the Association after her son was killed in an automobile accident in Turkey. The group's goal is to promote awareness among travellers about driving dangers worldwide and to encourage the governments of unsafe countries to make their roads safer. Also among the 10 worst countries are Costa Rica and Mexico. The nation with the safest driving conditions is Canada, according to the ASIRT report. Other safe countries include Ireland, Great Britain and Denmark. The United States ranked tenth. The report included only those countries where driving safety information was available.

Police investigate alleged child porn ring

Tipped off by an ad in a London newspaper offering pornographic videos featuring Honduran children, police in La Ceiba are looking into what spokespeople say could be a well established child pornography ring there. Although police gave few details, the Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) is following leads on an underground video production studio that tapes children performing sexual acts for sale on the international porn market, reported the daily La Tribuna Wednesday. The most likely victims are street children lured into performing for food or a few lempiras, say police. Also in La Ceiba, U.S. national Daniel Gary Rounds was arrested last Saturday (August 10) when he was found sexually abusing two children in his hotel room. According to the La Tribuna report, police are investigating whether the two events are related.

Stolen 18th century painting found

A valuable religious painting that was stolen from the La Merced Church in Gracias, Lempira, was recovered this week from the restoration workshop of the Museum of the Honduran Man. The painting, an 18th century depiction of the Virgin Mary titled La Dolorosa, was brought to the workshop by an amateur art collector, who said he bought it from a man in Gracias for Lps. 150. The piece's true value is Lps. 100,000. The painting will be on display at the newly-opened National Art Gallery in Tegucigalpa's Plaza La Merced for the next several months until Culture Ministry and Catholic Church officials decide whether to return the piece to Gracias or keep it in the National Gallery, where it will be safer. A member of the Gracias congregation has been charged with the theft.

"As long as U.S. troops are welcome, they will remain in Honduras."

- Gen. Wesley K. Clark, New chief commander of the U.S. Southern Command

U.S. sends more troops to Palmerola to heighten war against drugs

By BLANCA MORENO

Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the new chief commander of the U.S. Southern Command, announced this week that additional U.S. troops will be sent to the Soto Cano Airbase in central Honduras, more commonly known as Palmerola.

The reinforcements, he said, are part of a plan to increase anti-drug trafficking efforts in Central America. The increased troops have nothing to do with next year's transfer of Southern Command headquarters from Panama to Miami under the Panama Canal treaty, which will return control of the canal to Panama in 1999.

"As long as U.S. troops are welcome, they will remain in Honduras," Clark said at a press conference Monday. " They perform a useful and important job here that is independent of the situation in Panama."

He gave no further details regarding persistent rumors that the U.S. military plans to transfer its Panama troops to Honduras, except to emphasize that the transfer of additional troops here is unrelated to the transfer of Panama operations to Miami.

"We are evaluating the move [of U.S. troops to Palmerola] based on our own merits and in coordination with the wishes of both governments," he said. "This is a topic that is still being studied by both countries."

Clark, who succeeds Gen. McCoffrey as chief of the Southern Command met for the first time with President Reina this week to discuss joint efforts to combat drug trafficking. They also discussed civil cooperation and assistance.

There are currently 500 U.S. soldiers at Palmerola.

Gen. Clark has a long history as a commanding officer in the U.S. Army and has overseen small companies and entire divisions. He helped train many of the troops that fought in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.

The U.S. Southern Command is currently based in Quarry Heights near the Panama Canal outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The Command's area of influence covers 19 countries and stretches from the Guatemala-Mexico border into the Antarctic Circle.

As commander, Clark will be responsible for supporting the objectives of U.S. national security in Central and South America, in coordination with the U.S. diplomatic corps.

"I have never met that man [Stuchiner], nor have I communicated with him over the phone or through written notes"

- Judge Castro Avila

Ousted Foreign Relations Minister says he'll sue Honduras for passport scandal injustices

Former Foreign relations Minister Ernesto Paz Aguilar announced Monday that he plans to denounce Honduras before the Interamerican Human Rights Commission because he was treated unfairly when he was dismissed from office last year.

It was Paz Aguilar's sister, and not the minister himself, who was ultimately tried for the illegal sale of passports and visas to Hondurans wishing to travel to the United States. But Paz Aguilar was jailed and removed from office during the investigation. This, he said in an interview on Radio America Monday, was a blatant violation of his own human rights, as well as the American Human Rights Convention and the American Declaration of Citizen Rights and Duties.

He says he's going to the IHRC to "clean my honor."

"The persecution was such that they even investigated what brand of underwear I use," he said of last year's passport scandal, dubbed Pasaportazo I in the local media.

But Paz Aguilar says officials were investigating the wrong man. He fingered Jerry Stuchiner, a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, as a prime player in the Pasaportazo II scandal. Stuchiner has been a suspect in the sale of Honduran passports to Asian immigrants since the case broke several weeks ago. He is currently in custody in Hong Kong. Paz Aguilar added, however, that Stuchiner "didn't work alone" and urged authorities to investigate additional embassy employees.

The former minister told Radio America that he believes he was imprisoned and forced out of office at the urging of Judge Rafael Castro Avila. He says he has proof that Castro Avila visited the U.S. Embassy prior to his arrest and believes those who are involved in the scandal convinced the judge to help keep the former minister quiet because he was fighting to reclaim the honor of Honduras -- and to get to the bottom of the scandal.

In a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Honduras William Pryce, a copy of which was sent to President Reina, Paz Aguilar wrote, "at the time, I energetically criticized the inadmissable and intolerable pressures [those who were involved in the scandal at the U.S. Embassy were putting] on a sovereign and friendly nation like Honduras." He also said told officials last year that they should begin their investigation with Stuchiner.

What hurt him most last year, continued Paz Aguilar, was seeing the pressure exerted personally by Stuchiner "against certain [Honduran] judges so that [I] and other fellow Hondurans would be persecuted, incarcerated and humiliated."

Judge Castro Avila categorically denies that he was pressured by Stuchiner or anyone else.

"I have never met that man [Stuchiner], nor have I communicated with him over the phone or through written notes," he said in an El Heraldo report, adding that if Paz Aguilar was arrested it was because authorities found sufficient evidence against him.

Attorney General Edmundo Orellana said Wednesday that it is difficult for Honduran authorities to investigate Stuchiner because he is a diplomat and enjoys immunity. He added that any action taken by the Honduran government against Stuchiner will have to wait until his case has come to an end in Hong Kong. Efforts are being made to obtain information about the case from Hong Kong authorities, he said.

In other passport scandal news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a box of evidence from Hong Kong authorities late last week. The evidence, collected in the Honduran Consulate in that country, included 57 blank Honduran passports seized from the possession of Herby Weizenblut.

The whereabouts of Weizenblut, the former Honorary Consul of Honduras to Hong Kong and another suspect in the passport scandal, remain unknown.

Current Foreign Relations Minister Delmer Urbizo Panting says Weizenblut's diplomatic Honduran passport has been canceled and that authorities around the world have been notified that he is wanted.

"The difference between toluene and cyclohexane, is like the difference between a .44 [caliber] and a .357 magnum. They're both deadly."

- Dr. Tim Rohring,
Oklahoma City medical examiner

A Fear of Life

Thousands of homeless children in Central America prowl the streets, scavenging to stay alive and sniffing shoe glue to forget they were ever born. Selling amnesia and death, glue manufacturers conspire in an ever-widening cycle of infanticide.

By W. E. GUTMAN

In Guatemala it's cobbler's glue. In Honduras it's Resistol. In Mexico it's Activo, a potent industrial solvent. When inhaled, all devour sinuses and lungs, produce hallucinations, destroy vital organs, cause irreversible brain damage and ultimately kill. And yet, life on the street drives thousands of Central American children to surrender to these toxins in order to calm their spirit, to quiet their hunger, to embolden them against the perils of homelessness and "to forget," as 13-year-old Luisa, who has been sniffing glue for the past three years, explains. "When I feel nothing I feel good."

Inhalant use, especially glue-sniffing, is now pandemic among street children. Orphaned, rejected or abused, often abandoned by parents too poor to feed themselves, they seek shelter under bridges, in doorways and garbage dumpsters and face a future of larceny, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, chronic illness and early, often violent, death. They will sell themselves for a meal, a hot shower, a clean bed, the next bag of glue.

YOUNG VICTIMS

Amanda, a fourteen-year-old Nicaraguan mother, sniffed glue during her two pregnancies. The glue is laced with toluene, a neurotoxin. Her first daughter was stillborn. Her second was born prematurely and suffers from seizures. Amanda abandoned her and is back on the streets.

Ten-year-old Sergio sleeps in a small cardboard box. Every morning he folds up his "home," straps it to his back and moves to another part of town. He has been cruising the streets of Tegucigalpa for nearly half his life. He sniffs glue to stop feeling hungry. His eyebrows and patches of hair were shaved recently to remove the glue a policeman poured on his head in a fit of rage. Some of the glue ran into one of his eyes, burning the cornea.

"A shaved head brands him as an addict," says Bruce Harris, the executive director of Covenant House Latin America, known locally as Casa Alianza, an organization that champions the cause of street children. "He inspires no pity, only suspicion and disgust. He is now fair game for every self-righteous enforcer of civic morality or public order. He is the new pariah on the block."

This perception, bolstered by indifferent or openly hostile governments, has inspired a wave of bloodletting against street children. Once reactive and sporadic, intimidation, threats, beatings, rapes, torture and summary executions at the hands of city and national police are now routine.

These indignities have since come to international attention largely through Harris's tireless efforts. Casa Alianza is now prosecuting 200 cases against 125 policemen, 48 army personnel and several persons "in plain clothes" charged with horrific acts of brutality against children.

BUSINESS FIRST

Viewed as "vermin," unwanted and unloved, street children are invariably accused of being "bad for the country." But they are far from being bad for business. Sales of the glue they use continue to boost the profits of multinational corporations, incrementally increasing as the numbers of street children rise. The St. Paul, Minnesota-based H. B. Fuller Co., for example, commands such a prominent position in the glue market that its Resistol brand has become the imprimatur of glue-addicted street children, the Resistoleros.

H. B. Fuller is quick to point out that it is breaking no laws. It also steadfastly denies responsibility for the chronic illnesses and deaths its products continue to exact. After learning of the imminent airing of an "NBC Dateline" TV exposé largely based on evidence gathered by Harris and his regional directors, H. B. Fuller's board declared in 1992 that the company would "discontinue production of solvent adhesives where they are known to be abused." The proclamation elicited an outpouring of praise from the media and others. An update by NBC a year later revealed that H. B. Fuller had then boasted to its shareholders that an "insignificant fraction" of the Resistol stock had been removed from shelves.

ADDICTING EUPHORIA

Toluene, a common constituent in shoe glue, can best be compared to opiates -- and to certain snake venoms that attack the central nervous system. The euphoria it produces results from toxic effects on brain cells and other organ tissue. Reacting to this onslaught, the brain is flooded with soothing endorphins which temporarily dull pain, hunger and cold. Withdrawal symptoms are swift and unmerciful. A sudden and frightening onset of lucidity leads to more glue sniffing and, in the long run, to addiction.

Insisting H.B. Fuller's are "good products put to bad use," company chairman Tony Andersen says "the problem is not our product." He blames society and the children.

Curiously, H. B. Fuller has long understood the potential value of non-solvent-based adhesives. Its 1980 Annual Report states: "Growing concern over the use of environmentally safe adhesives and sealants is creating market opportunities for [our] line of hot melt and water-based adhesives, a better alternative to solvent-based products." Hot melts require no solvents and are applied with a glue gun.

While H. B. Fuller has been letting this "market opportunity" go unexploited, the company has spent several million dollars in publicity campaigns designed to exculpate itself from allegations by international watchdog organizations ranging from predation to negligent homicide.

Predictably, the company has since become the target of a precedent-setting lawsuit in the death of Jesus Linares Polanco, a 14-year-old Guatemalan street child addicted to Resistol. Brought on by the boy's family and currently being heard in the U.S. District Court of St. Paul, Minnesota, charges include failure to warn users of the products's addictive properties, failure to add available inhibitors and wrongful death.

H. B. Fuller seeks to have the case dismissed on the grounds that Resistol is manufactured by its Guatemalan subsidiary and that the parent company is [therefore] immune from prosecution.

NOT ENOUGH

While the company's longtime German competitor, Henkel, voluntarily pulled its solvent-based adhesives out of Central America in September 1994, H.B. Fuller switched the sovent in its adhesive from toulene to cyclohexane for its commercial line and began selling cyclohexane contact cement in Costa Rica in January 1995.

Suspected of being both a carcinogen and a mutagen, cyclohexane is on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund List of hazardous toxins.

"The difference between toluene and cyclohexane," says Oklahoma City medical examiner, Dr. Tim Rohring, "is like the difference between a .44 [caliber] and a .357 magnum. They're both deadly."

H. B. Fuller has also been experimenting with Bitrex, a bitter additive used to discourage children from ingesting household chemicals. Why would anyone add a taste inhibitor to a product that is inhaled, not swallowed, is unclear.

"Street children know shoe glue tastes foul," says Harris. "They may be desperate, but they're not stupid. They have no intention of eating it. Besides, Bitrex does not deter inhalation."

Asked why H.B. Fuller refused to add such deterrents as mustard oil (allyl isothiocyanate, or AITC) to cobbler's glue, Dick Johnson fired back, "that's a bandaid solution. AITC is useless."

Not so. AITC has been successfully used by the Testor Corporation to end the model airplane glue-sniffing epidemic that swept the United States in the 1960s. H.B. Fuller has failed to research the efficacy of mustard oil. But the company continues to lobby hard against legislation in Honduras and Guatemala that would mandate the addition of AITC to Resistol. Instead, H.B. Fuller has told shoemaker syndicates that mustard oil is a carcinogen, a claim dismissed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Only a minute amount of AITC is needed to deter inhalation.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

"While the use of inhalants by Latin American street children is not the cause of the social ills preying upon this vulnerable population," says Harris, "escaping into a drug-induced stupor only compounds the risk of permanent mental damage and encourages the escalation of risky behavior that further threatens their welfare and life. We must put in place an effective social policy to end these inequities and stop the producers who are making money off the backs of homeless children."

At the conclusion of an H.B. Fuller stockholders' meeting in a posh San José, Costa Rica hotel, Tony Anderson waved off a request for an interview, saying, "Talk to Kissling. He's in charge."

H. B. Fuller CEO Walter Kissling, a Costa Rican, says, "we're not in the business of killing children. We're just in business." When asked whether that meant H.B. Fuller's policy is "Let the buyer beware," he shrugged, looked at his watch and ended the interview.

It has been 17 years since cases of severe injury and death from solvent adhesives were first reported among Central American street children. Countless impassioned appeals and strongly worded injunctions have failed to touch H.B. Fuller. The company continues to market products long since banned in the United States, products that are sold to children who continue to partake, get sick and die.

These children are in search of a final exit from their wretched existence. H.B. Fuller, patron of the arts and protector of the environment, obliges.

A Connecticut-based journalist, W. E. Gutman is currently on assignment in Central America.

"The President authorized me to make public that he is looking for mechanisms to remedy the economic situation. This is something that cannot be resolved through a coup,"

-Gen. Hung Pacheco

Military coup thwarted

By BLANCA MORENO

An apparent attempt to overthrow the leader of the Armed Forces last weekend (July 27) has prompted a promise from President Reina to find a way to increase Honduras' military budget.

Three lieutenant colonels were arrested last Saturday for allegedly plotting a golpe de barracas -- or internal coup -- against Chief Commander, Gen. Mario Hung Pacheco. Although military spokesmen later downplayed the event, calling it less of a coup and more of a disagreement, economic difficulties and decreased power have sparked growing dissatisfaction within the Armed Forces and insiders say there have been rumors of a plot to oust Hung Pacheco since he succeeded Gen. Luis Alonso Discua in June.

There have also been rumors of a plot to kidnap the president.

The Armed Forces have argued all year that this year's Lps. 384 million budget isn't enough to cover the military's needs. Reina says he knows the budget hike will be put to good use -- to render Honduran military service voluntary and more educational, a change he has been promising since he took office.

The size of the Honduran military has declined sharply since Reina revoked a long-standing law that every Honduran male serve in the Armed Forces. Now that military service is voluntary, the Armed Forces are finding it difficult to fill their barracks.

Many soldiers and officers are also angry that they haven't been paid yet for serving on last year's United Nations peacekeeping forces in Haiti and that military salaries are low compared to the degree of difficulty of military jobs.

The three officers arrested after the foiled coup were Carlos Eduardo Andino Cobos, Amilcar Flores Hernández and Reynaldo Paz Sevilla. After questioning they have since been released and no punitive action has been taken, say military spokesmen.

Insiders say Hung Pacheco was never in danger because none of the officers behind the alleged coup carry the support of enough soldiers to carry it out.
Although Honduran history is wrought with military coups, they have always been launched by high-ranking commanders of entire battalions.

A special investigative committee will remain on the case to find out whether any "big fish" are behind the alleged coup.

"The President authorized me to make public that he is looking for mechanisms to remedy the economic situation. This is something that cannot be resolved through a coup," says Gen. Hung Pacheco.

Hurricane Cesar ravages isthmus

By the time Hurricane Cesar calmed to a tropical storm Sunday, more than 30 Central Americans were left dead, dozens more were missing and some 600,000 were affected in its wake. The storm approached Nicaragua's Caribbean coast Saturday night and raged across the isthmus, causing flooding and mudslides and uprooting trees and houses for an estimated $30 million in damages region wide. Although the eye of the storm remained over Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the death toll reached as far north as El Salvador and as far south as Panama. According to official reports, Cesar killed 22 in Costa Rica, 10 in El Salvador, four in Nicaragua and two in Panama. Although Cesar caused minimal damage and no deaths in Honduras, more than a dozen Tegucigalpa neighborhoods were evacuated for fear of mudslides and flooding, and several more remain on "red alert." In addition, the Pacific island of El Tigre was left without electricity for several hours Saturday night and weekend flights were canceled out of the capital's Toncontin International Airport. The Permanent Contingency Committee says it's prepared for a long season of intense tropical weather and is getting a head start on setting up temporary housing for storm victims.

La Ceiba protestors block roads for 10 hours

Representatives of community and labor organizations blocked traffic on the La Ceiba-Tela highway for 10 hours Tuesday until the Ministry of Communications, Public Works and Transportation (SECOPT) agreed to meet with protest leaders next week. With transit frozen between the two busy North Coast port cities, an El Tiempo report estimated business losses in the millions of lempiras. Although the protestors apologized for the inconvenience suffered by the general population, they say the roadblock was their only chance to have their complaints heard by municipal authorities. Slated for discussion at next week's meeting is a list of 14 demands, which includes the repair of a major La Ceiba roadway, an end to the disposal of toxins in the local river by the La Blanquita bleach and detergent company, a potable water system that operates 24 hours a day and the construction of a municipal sports center.

Police one step closer to civilian control

The National Congress agreed Wednesday to move forward with plans to complete the transfer of the national police force from military to civilian hands. Although the transfer itself was ratified several months ago, the details of the shift have yet to be laid out due to disparities between the approaches of the National and Liberal Party members of Congress. With those differences ironed out, however, Congress will begin to define the new force's constitution next week. Although the police will be a single institution, spokespeople say the organizations will probably be divided into a series of forces to cover specific areas like immigration, forest and municipal security. Whether the new police force and the Department of Criminal Investigation will work jointly or separately remains to be decided.

Officials fight dengue without pesticide

The Ministry of Public health announced Tuesday that only as a last resort will it turn to pesticide as a weapon against disease-carrying mosquitos. Enrique Gil, Chief of the Vector Control Division, says even though health officials expect record mosquito populations will accompany the season's heavy rainfall, "the idea is to use insecticide as little as possible...because it's an aggression against the environment." It also allows mosquitos to develop resistance, he added. Last year, when the nation faced a large-scale epidemic of the mosquito-spread dengue fever, the Health Ministry's greatest weapon against the spread of the disease was community organization and city clean-up campaigns. With an early start on the same kinds of tactics this year, Gil says "we can close the year with 2,000 to 2,500 cases of dengue." Last year at least 27,000 Hondurans were infected and some experts estimate this number may have been as high as 100,000.