By NIGEL POTTER

Most churches disapprove of dancing, even if they don't actually forbid it. They see it as licentious and immoral. Not so most indigenous religions, where dance plays an integral part in most spiritual ceremonies and celebrations.

That is not to say that indigenous dancing cannot be licentious, it's that indigenous cultures are not as obsessed with the divisions that non-indigenous cultures tend to be: work/leisure, school/play, body/spirit, the sacred/the profane, everyday life/religious life.

In the indigenous world these definitions hardly exist. They are not even different sides of the same coin but more or less integrated into one harmonious whole.

Of course, indigenous dances are not necessarily erotic either. One only has to think of the Lenca group of dancers: "Los Negritos" based in Santa Elena, La Paz with their endless shuffle as they dance in a circle or lead a procession through the town.

But they are always exciting, with their brightly colored and heavily decorated wooden masks, rattle in one hand, horse tail in the other held behind their buttocks. They let out small cries, whoops and hollers as they occasionally break ranks to chase some terrified yet delighted child back into the crowd.

The feria days that celebrate their saint (James, Santiago) or the town's patron saint or the maize festival would be unthinkable without the Negritos, and would certainly be a lot poorer without them. Yet from time to time church authorities have tried to suppress them or put them down as godless, pagan, indian rites.

Such a shame really when the indigenous themselves have no problem at all with certain aspects of Christianity, the crucifixion for instance. The Plains Indians of North America can get into that and go one better. They offer themselves up in a Christ-like sacrifice for their people to redeem the Native American world. And they dance while they do it.

It's hard to imagine dancing during a crucifixion but they manage it. Tied to a tree by long thongs attached to their bodies by skewers piercing their chest or back, they dance for hours until they pull away and the flesh holding the skewers gives and they drop bleeding to the ground. This true sun dance is a very holy time but also a very sociable one with much feasting.

Our dancing in the non-indigenous world is kept at arm's length from the religious. Except for some African churches or churches in the deep south of the United States, never shall the twain meet.

For us religion is serious, our souls are at stake, so it is also joyless and lifeless. We may feel "uplifted" or "holy" (holier than thou) but it is a grim feeling, no one is having a good time. If we want a "good time," we rather guiltily have to sneak away from the church to cross to the other side of the tracks to the night-club, the discotheque, the theater.

Dancing has been defined as doing perpendicularly what you would rather be doing horizontally and when you go to a night-club you get the point. But you don't join in, just gawk: a young woman gyrates up and down a pole, maybe whips off her knickers, a flash of bush and she is gone. It is neither sacred nor profane, just obscene in that it is basically boring and insulting to both the stripper and to the ripped-off.

Much more erotic are dances where no one takes their clothes off. Witness the Argentinean Zamba where a very fully-clothed couple circle round each other, passing scarves or handkerchiefs over one another, never once touching. It is so beautiful, the ecstasy is almost spiritual but the physical isn't far behind.

And what about our own Honduran folkloric dancing? Watching skillful adult dancers for instance in Tegucigalpa's Central Park is an exciting experience in every sense of the word: it is a playful and joyful and I always feel happier and pleased to be alive after seeing them but there's never any doubt what these energetic and youthful dancers are after.

And I celebrate that. Isn't that, after all, what most of us, are after? Sex is, or should be, joyful and carefree and a part of all our lives. The best/worst kept universal secret that brought us all and our children into this life.

Still, if sleazy night-clubs or raucous dancing isn't up your street, you can always go up-market and watch a ballet. But it is much the same thing only more "respectable," though sometimes I am at a loss to understand how or why. Certainly the music is usually "classical," the lighting wonderful and the movements so graceful and beautiful as to be spiritually uplifting.

But it's soaked in sex too: the men in those tights, all bumps, buttocks and balls, and the women in the miniest of mini-skirts, throwing themselves around (or being thrown around) every five minutes spreading their legs wide revealing to all the holy-of-holies covered by a little strip of white satin. Naughtily but nice and ever-so-arty. How can anyone think ballet is prim and proper?

The same goes for ballroom dancing. When I was a boy my mother insisted on my having lessons. Full of teenage rebellion, I revolted against such boring bourgeois customs. What a chance missed. At least you get to hold the girl, talk to each other or dance cheek-to-cheek as you prefer. Have you ever seen a tango well danced?

But the best dancing, like most indigenous dances, is communal. Many times I have danced Scottish reels in fields, barns or houses. You have your own partner but you dance with everybody else's.

The sex is there of course, but so is the joy. You jig, skip, spin and whirl, the sweat pours off you, you feel good. Resentments, irritations, worries, disappointments and depressions melt away.

I once danced with a million other people in the streets of Washington D.C. Surrounded by heavily armed troops and police, it was a spiritually ecstatic experience. I never felt more at peace or closer to my fellow human beings. Recently I danced in the Parque Central of Siguatepeque with my two-year-old daughter to several marimba bands. Everyone was doing it: the good, bad and the ugly; the old and the young; the skillful and the incompetent shufflers. Nobody gave a damn. For a moment we could forget the problems that beset Honduras and beleaguered our own lives. As we danced in the night air we were celebrating; we were giving thanks, it felt good to be alive. And isn't that what religion is supposed to be about?

Trouble is I don't find this spiritual vitality in conventional religion but I see at all the time in indigenous cultures. Those shuffling dancing Indians little know how they inspired this white, middle-class Englishman. I dance the whole time at home. When I am down and blue, I dance my troubles away. When I am happy I dance to celebrate my job and give thanks. Sadly it's a private hole-in-the-corner affair: people think I am weird. It definitely doesn't attract women, rather it frightens them off. Still, my children are young and open enough to enjoy it, so we all dance together.

I never danced with my parents which I think was a shame. I danced when my father died though. Just as the churches have decried indigenous ceremonies as blasphemous, lacking in spiritual devotion, no doubt many would condemn my behavior as outrageous, lacking in all respect for my poor dead father, not to mention my mother lying in the next room in the throes of Alzheimers.

Still, that is the way it was. Feeling as if I were the saddest most lonesome son in the world, I poured myself a large whisky,laughed and wept through a Marx Brothers' movie on the T.V. then put on some music and danced. My brother suddenly arrived and caught me in the act. He joined in and so there were two grown men leaping around the room like dervishes. It gave us the comfort and courage to face the days ahead, bury our dad and sort out our mad, old mother.

I hope when I die people will dance on my grave. If they want to whisper a prayer for my spirit too that's fine by me. But I hope they will eat and drink and be merry-sad. There's nothing like another's death to make one feel really alive and glad to be so. Yes, the time will come for each and everyone of us but, Phew! Praise to the Lord, not this time, so be good Indians and dance on!

On several occasions, articles have been printed in the Spanish daily La Tribuna about the high birth rate in Honduras and its incongruence with the nation's future. The average number of children per family is four and there are many cases of families with 10 or more.

To this, we have to add the "irresponsible paternity" rate that reaches the sky-high mark of 70 percent, which means that seven out of 10 children do not know what a father is.

Then, statistics show that when a child goes to school, 70 percent of the teachers are female. At the university (where only 1 percent of high school graduates assist), the average is 65 percent female teachers.

When will a Honduran child learn from male role models when there are so few men at school and fewer at home?

Much is said about Latin machismo but is it not in part perpetuated by women? When asked about family planning and why she had so many children, a single mother replied that the children helped her at home and with the errands.

Many have tried to confront this social phenomenon where religious beliefs and confusion substitute the real sense of family. Modern theory contends that an executive employee should have no more than seven people under his or her charge so that the chain of communication is strong. So how can an uneducated mother or father give his or her weak orientation to a large number of children?

The clergy continues to preach that family planning is un-Christian. Can those who preach this not see that it is also un-Christian to have a huge family oriented toward begging, suffering and crime?

It is the state's obligation to watch over the Honduran family and the hospital infrastructure where there should be more education for families regarding the optimum number of children, which is two. They should be taught that life in the family depends on quality, not quantity.

At the Vatican, where population growth is zero, the theory that produces the practice of large families may be applicable. But here, where the problem is out of control, it is not recommended. We want the best for our country, and the best is family planning. For this next millennium, the concept of family must be restored.

Crime has taken a dangerous leap in our society. Returning to the family would be a good remedy for all our problems.

The indignation expressed by Elizabeth Nutter Valladares and Howard Rosenzweig, et al (in your Aug. 14 edition) is reminiscent of the protests of the emperor and his legion. Both clearly demonstrate greater concern for their own financial interests than for the safety of foreign visitors. All parties would be better served by seeking solutions, rather than fervently denying the obvious.

Jesse W. Jamison
Copan Ruinas

[I wish to add] further to the discussion on the horrendous crime rate here in Honduras and Mr. Gutman's excellent observations on how things really are in this poor country. The rebuttal by Mr. Rosenzweig and 53 residents of Copan Ruinas is obviously self-serving and unrealistic.

I'm sure that Copan does not have the problems we have here in the big cities yet, and just as obviously Mr. Rosenzweig et al have not been the victims of any crimes or suffered the incompetence (which we all hope is only temporary while they reorganize) of police. I can assure all of them that when these chickens do come home to roost in their neighborhoods they will think again about taking such ostrich-like attitudes.

Practical anarchy reigns in many areas of Honduras, police protection at this time being nonexistent (try calling 991 here). Murder rates are higher than in most major U.S. cities including New York, and rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc. are all out of control. Never a day goes by in San Pedro Sula when somebody you know does not suffer from a major crime. The U.S. State Department is concerned for the safety of its citizens in Honduras.

Get your head out of the sand, Mr. Rosenzweig, this is no time to play the "sweep it under the carpet game." We all need to add our outrage to prevalent conditions. Waving pieces of paper with "peace in our time" written on them will only lead as it did before to worse violence and deteriorating conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Gutman, for telling it like it really is. I found it ironic that the letter written by the poor tourists whose son was robbed and beaten in Tela appeared immediately after Mr. Rosenzweig's silly letter. And in that lies the reality of conditions.

Roy Stratford
San Pedro Sula

The article by W. E. Gutman on why tourists stay away from our country will take away food from the mouths of all hard-working Hondurans for years to come. Mr. Gutman professes to be a social activist concerned with problems such as poverty, yet he has done irreversible damage to the best option Hondurans have for decent employment and wages. Rising crime and violence is occurring at all tourist destinations including the United States. Although we should all be concerned about these issues, unbalanced negative articles also contribute to reduce the benefits we urgently need from tourism.

The state of Colorado has one of the most vibrant ecotourism industries in the world yet crime is a fact of life and pollution is rampant in many areas due to toxic waste, uranium tailings and the famous Denver "Brown Cloud" from automobile emissions. Having done my master's thesis on migrant farm workers and Native Americans in Colorado, I can assure you that human rights' violations are committed daily while the level of poverty of these two groups is similar to Third World levels. The Littleton School massacre was much worse than any shoot-out in Honduras. Nevertheless, the solution to Colorado's problems is not to viciously attack its tourism industry so that tourists will stay away and hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs, be unable to pay their mortgages and end up hungry and destitute.

We were hit with one of the most devastating hurricanes in history and we need foreign investment to get back on our feet. The dirt that Mr. Gutman throws upon our people destroys our future well-being. As the president of a non-profit environmental organization that manages a wildlife refuge (Fundacion Cuero y Salado) and generates half of its funds from tourist visits, I can assure you that Mr. Gutman's article has done incredible damage to the conservation movement in Honduras. His article will reduce our ability to have the resources to protect our national parks and watersheds. He says that visitors are scarce and a vigorous and thriving industry is but a distant dream, but the statistics indicate the opposite.

In 1996 we had 263,000 tourists while in 1998 we had 321,000. In 1996, tourism generated $115 million while in 1999 it went up to almost $170 million. Tourism is the biggest industry in the world and Honduras has one of the biggest potentials in eco-tourism which would generate employment and the hard currency necessary to buy our fuel, medicines and other vital imports. We are one of the most spectacular countries in the world with the most beautiful mountains, rivers, and waterfalls of Central America. I founded the first whitewater rafting company in Honduras and now there are many more proving to the world that we are a world-class rafting and kayaking destination.

How can someone who comes from a country where black churches, schools, day care centers and synagogues are attacked with gunfire and burnt down accuse Honduras of having a monopoly on crime and violence?

To attack the best chance we have to improve the socio-economic situation of our people in such an unbalanced manner constitutes a crime against the humanity of all Hondurans.

One of many tourism destinations

There are many voices in the tourism sector crying out for effective promotion outside our country to create more investment and development. To this effect, some of these voices have called on media like us to be accomplices in communicating only the benevolent aspects of our country. They want us to show only the good parts and to edit out the not-so-nice.

Gringo meets Hondurena: 
prelude to blessing or disaster?

One thing above all must be understood. Honduran life is a survival of the fittest, and women are its most vulnerable segment, especially poor women, which is to say something like 80 percent. The family is their only bastion of support and protection, and in many cases that does not amount to much. So they become what they must be, tough, wary survivors. That is not incompatible with sweetness and charm, though it can be in tension with it. It is the way that things are, and lacking much change, will be. But many a Gringo has become a victim from not knowing or understanding. Too many of them think that they, along with Alice, have stumbled into Wonderland.

By W. E. GUTMAN

Understandably, many readers, especially those protective of their commercial interests, were upset with the data presented in my recent article on Copan; the conjectures these facts elicit left some positively livid.

The data are just that. Culled from various State Department documents, they can be independently verified through the Internet or obtained at the U.S. Embassy and consular offices. Based on careful observations of daily life, police reports and other sources, these warnings are intended to inform and counsel. Conscious of escalating crime and violence, the Honduran government has been careful not to contradict these admonitions.

The inferences that pepper the article -- and for which I offer no apology -- are a distillate of intimate experience, anecdotal field notes and intelligence from trusted sources that, in my absence, act as my eyes and ears.

Pointing fingers at recent violence in the United States (Columbine High School, etc.) is sheer obfuscation, a reflex designed to deflect from the incident in Copan, or to find in it some desperate rationalization. The shootings in the United States are aberrant acts by tormented individuals, some of whom had the wisdom to surrender, others the civility to take their own lives. The thugs who sprayed the small pulperia with assault rifles are incapable of such gallantry.

Dramatically down (unlike Honduras) crime in the United States invites instantaneous and massive police response, and becomes the focus of intense and persistent media scrutiny. Characteristically, the Copan police ran the other way and the incident was either ignored or given suspiciously marginal coverage. These realities should raise a red flag about the integrity of Honduras' criminal justice system and warn stridently of the pusillanimity of its media.

In both journalism and "show-biz" one is only as good as one's last offering. Whereas a bad script or a weak performance is eventually forgotten, a journalist earns acclaim -- or calumny -- less for his adherence to form than his devotion to substance. So long as he steers clear from the truth, or "sanitizes" it, he has nothing to fear, not the ire of some readers, nor the respect of others.

Fickle and self-serving, the public entombs what it need not remember and enshrines what it will doggedly not forget. Anyone familiar with my work knows that succor, praise and compassion have steadfastly tempered my occasional polemics. I've applauded, rhapsodized, commiserated with, and wept for, Honduras. I've elegized Copan in words and photos. Mr. Rosenzweig's establishment, La Casa De Cafe, where I stayed on three separate occasions, was the subject of a fittingly flattering write-up in HTW and other publications. I gave other establishments similar accolades, in writing and by word of mouth, locally and abroad. Mr. Rosenzweig and his co-signatories clearly suffer from selective amnesia, a pardonable offense under the circumstances. Designed to discredit and silence me, their scurrilous attack on my motives and professional integrity, is not. Their lack of objectivity reflects a region-wide aversion for investigative journalism. They are unwittingly playing straight into the hands of those who would gag a free press.

The incident in Copan, I repeat and affirm, is symptomatic of the turmoil gripping Honduras. The very fact that it took place in normally "laid back" Copan should be all the more alarming and inadmissible. The timidity of my detractors in the face of incontrovertible facts may be precisely what is wrong with Copan and, by extension, with Honduras as a whole. Notwithstanding the half-truths, innuendos and outright fabrications dished out in their truculent epistle, I stand by my article, by my sources and by my instincts. An upcoming perspective will offer further elaboration.

Keep it heterogeneous
There are more than 100 bilingual schools throughout the country teaching Spanish and English. We see in them a great educational advantage for our country since their system includes Honduran and the American-English cultures, which means a more ample input and in many cases, academic dedication and excellence. This is all managed well by most schools even if some do not achieve the goal completely.

Violence obstacle to triumph of democracy

Howard Rosenzweig and 53 residents 
Copán Ruinas

Jerry Whitmire
Tela

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

When I returned to Honduras a year ago last May, the nation was preoccupied with a crises of the environment. Returning to Honduras last week after an absence of nearly two months, is to find a nation preoccupied with the rise of violent crime, and seething with discontent. There is a wide feeling that things are becoming unglued and that the society teeters on the edge of the abyss.

As if to highlight this situation, the nation has just undergone what appears to have been an unsuccessful coup led by discontented military officers.

It does look as if President Flores and democracy have won an important victory over a military establishment that is obviously panicked over losing its autocratic hold of the society. However, unless security, tranquility, and equity can be established democratically in the society, and in fairly short order, this triumph will be short-lived, and will be revealed to be essentially hollow.

There have been a variety of rumors and reports. What is being said officially is that what has happened is simply that the administration carried out a shake-up of top military personnel, sending some individuals into retirement, demoting others. This created a tense situation, but nothing approaching an emergency. Almost nobody believes this interpretation of events.

An interesting and revealing aside to the story involves rumors that Col. Mario "the Tiger" Amaya had flown to Venezuela to seek advice from President Hugo Chavez about how to carry out a coup against a democratically elected government. Amaya denies this, but admits that he would very much like to meet Chavez and hear his account of the road he followed to the assumption of power in Venezuela.

Amaya further said he might himself like to become a presidential candidate, and that he would like to lead a "coup against the poverty, misery, and ignorance" within the Honduran society. He further asserted "in this society we have three groups: we have the poor, we have the miserable, and we have the corruptocracy, and I think this situation must be corrected."

It comes as no surprise that the Chavez movement in Venezuela is striking chords elsewhere. A few months ago this reporter wrote: "If the political parties do not change and become genuine parties of the people, expect a Honduran Chavez to rise from the rubble. Since Honduras has no wrestlers (as in Jesse Ventura, Reform Party governor of Minnesota), it is likely that, as in Venezuela, the popular hero will come from the military."

What we are witnessing in the wake of the collapse of socialist alternatives is an accompanying loss of faith in traditional two party democratic capitalism, for the simple reason that it is increasingly dominated by financial elites, and is not rooted in the will of the people.

Democracy is not a politically neutral concept. It is defined as a system of government which locates power in the people, and not in elites. Whenever a populace is denied power, is essentially disenfranchised in favor of elites, a lack of stability is predictable.

Symbolic victory is seen as first step to 
close the school

Status quo shaken, military stirred

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jorge Flores asked to respond to Mr. Larson's letter. "Al buen entendedor, pocas palabras." As stated in the interview, Mr. Callejas said President Reina persecuted him and his officials without presenting any hard evidence. What was I supposed to do? Insist on a futile quest? Gouge him to make him confess and hand over the proof? We thought the questions beforehand and omitted the ones that obviously would produce nothing fit to print. To allow for the continuing witch-hunt by those who feel the need for it, we insisted on printing his e-mail address to which he readily agreed. By the way, we forwarded Mr. Larson's message to him and he faxed us a judicial certification that exonerates several people implicated in said case. His name is not even included in the procedures.

The successor of the Chief of Joint Staff, Col. Daniel Lopez Carballo, has promised to follow to the letter the contents of the law and Constitution.

After a grave discussion about the succession of power, the Armed Forces with President Flores' approval, achieved consolidation in its order and ranks and propitiated a real change in its internal rules and regulations by removing Vice Minister of Defense Gen. Roberto Lazaruz. These regulations have historically been ignored or manipulated to create a kind of permanent state of rebellion until civilian power undermined their command and decision-making rights in matters of state.

The problems the Armed Forces face are varied. Two awkward examples are there are too many colonels for the small army and the deterioration of the army can be attributed in part to these colonel's insistence to command even if they are too young, some not being older than 40 years of age.

This, we find incompatible with our Armed Forces that need expertise, experience and analytical power. We need a military leader of the caliber of Gen. Collin Powell, a veteran of strategic thought and action, for example, or Gen. Douglas McArthur who took Japan at 65 and stopped communism at the 38th parallel in Korea at 73. We have met and talked with Honduran generals who have graduated from international schools, roaming the streets of Tegucigalpa, retired but still in the prime of their life, looking as if they could give decades more of valuable service to our country.

So, the weaknesses of the Armed Forces have not been caused by the intrusion of civilian power in its ranks and files. On the contrary, it is the constant internal purges that weaken the institution which is supposed to be the most disciplined. These in-house cleanings create antagonism due to a cabin fever in which everyone wants to have the power.

President Flores has had a hard time resolving internal affairs that for generations have plagued the military hierarchy and has asked publicly that there be no more confrontations or divisions inside the army.

A few days ago, a young man, when asked about his future in the army, said that since he was the best man in his group, he would be chief of staff in so many years. What we wanted to hear were his moral principles and virtues as a future officer, and his contributions to the institution and country in return for the high cost of maintaining the army.

In short, we want to state clearly that we do not wish the abolishment of the army, but order, real discipline and the execution of the principles for which it was created.

Why tourists stay away

Rising crime and violence, that's why

There's nothing like bad news from afar to spoil a well-earned sabbatical and coax a reporter back into the fray. Take the recent drive-by gangland-style massacre in Copan Ruinas, which claimed five lives and scorched the soul of a quaint and skittish village habituated to intermittent violence and accustomed to looking the other way.

Five people. Was it revenge? Were they victims of mistaken identity? Were they felled in a drunken rapture by giddy campesinos celebrating a soccer score? Or were they targeted for assassination in a drug deal gone bad? Speculations abound.

When the smoke lifted, dozens of spent AK-47, 40 mm. and 9mm. caliber shells lay on the ground, silent accessories in a drama that began and ended with lightning speed in the rain after dusk. They offer few clues. Everyone is armed in these parts.

Nothing like a community that hurriedly mops up the blood, plugs up the bullet-riddled walls with cement and seals its collective mouth in a terror-driven reflex -- to sharpen fear and blunt one's sense of well-being.

Nothing like a craven and slow-witted constabulary -- the murderers got away and the leads grew cold -- to cast grave doubt about the probity of the Copan police and resurrect rumors of criminal collusion.

Nothing like a timid, controlled press -- El Tiempo hid the story on page 56; La Prensa buried it on page 75; when contacted by this writer, La Tribuna and El Heraldo declined to talk about the case -- to reflect on a nation's health and moral fiber.

Nothing like yet another senseless crime in a country long tormented by lawlessness, traumatized by the greed, arrogance and ineptitude of successive regimes, and disgraced by the ceaseless suffering of its people -- to explain why visitors are scarce and a vigorous and thriving tourist industry is but a distant dream.

*

On July 9, one day before the tragic events in Copan, I received a call from a fellow journalist who routinely vacations in Europe. He asked about Honduras. I spoke from the heart and told him of all the intangibles, the unquantifiable virtues that had forever won my affection. I spoke mainly of the people, an underrated commodity the average tourist is either strangely oblivious to, or unwilling to sample. I also dwelt on the myriad issues that attract journalists to the region.

I added, sadly, that Honduras is not the tourist hotspot its promoters profess it to be. I cautioned against predatory airfares [you can fly round trip to Paris or London -- twice -- for the price of a single ticket to Honduras]. I cited extortionist exit taxes, unsafe domestic airlines, endemic diseases, crippling traffic, lung-crunching urban pollution, poverty, homelessness and rampant disquiet.

"What about the really bad news," quipped my colleague, now enlightened and clearly less inclined to squander his hard-earned dollars.

**

Crime is rising both in kind and intensity. Homicide, aggravated assault, rape, armed robbery, theft, fraud, kidnapping and drug trafficking top the list -- in that order. The U.S. State Department's latest advisory declares:

"Violent crime has escalated in the post-Hurricane Mitch environment, particularly in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. In the aftermath of Mitch, many Hondurans were left homeless and unemployed and the trend has been for these persons to migrate to large cities in search of food, shelter, and employment. Personal security requires a high degree of caution. Throughout Honduras, street crime is the principal concern. Incidents involving armed robbery, purse snatching and pick-pocketing increased in 1999. Criminals tend to more readily engage in physical abuse of their victims. In addition, kidnappings motivated by profit are becoming commonplace. U.S. citizens in Honduras may now be at greater risk from this type of crime. Criminals in San Pedro Sula, Tela, Trujillo and Tegucigalpa continue to target tourists."

The advisory also warns U.S. citizens visiting coastal resorts to exercise extreme caution in and around sparsely inhabited coastal areas, and to avoid walking on isolated beaches, especially at night. It also warns that armed robberies, bus and carjackings along Honduran highways, especially those leading from the San Pedro Sula Airport, have become a major trap.

"The advisory further reports that in early 1999, a bus traveling from San Pedro Sula to Guatemala was hijacked and driven off the main road to a remote area. The passengers were robbed, and a woman was raped. It goes on to say that organized bands of armed criminals with cellular phones have targeted tourists laden with luggage arriving at the San Pedro Sula Airport and exhorts "travelers bound for El Progreso, Tela, Trujillo, and La Ceiba by road to remain alert.

"The road through Santa Barbara is another area for concern. Although the police recently dismantled a criminal organization that preyed on travelers near Goascoran, department of Valle, on the Salvadoran border, visitors to this area should still exercise caution. There have also been incidents of highway assault on the Pan American Highway that runs through southern Honduras."

While not a primary tourist destination, the department of Olancho has now earned a reputation as one of the most violent areas in Honduras. Armed assaults of buses and private cars, sometimes involving rapes and killings, have been on the rise between the towns of Limones and La Union in Olancho. To complicate matters, the Honduran police, which has moved from military to civilian, is unable to provide a reasonable level of security. Owing to an acute shortage of trained personnel, equipment and financial resources, investigation of crimes is limited, ineffectual and often prejudicial to the victim.

According to the most recent U.S. Consular sheet, "road conditions have deteriorated throughout Honduras in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. Major cities are connected by a poorly maintained, two-lane system of paved roads. Many secondary roads in Honduras are unpaved. During the rainy season (May through December), even major highways are often closed due to rockslides and flooding. Many bridges throughout the country were washed out by Hurricane Mitch and temporary repairs are vulnerable to heavy rains. Four of the most dangerous stretches for road travel include: Tegucigalpa to Choluteca because of dangerous mountain curves; El Progreso to La Ceiba because of animal crossings and the poor condition of bridges from flooding; Limones, Olancho to La Union, Olancho because of frequent incidents of highway banditry; and Tegucigalpa to Copan (CA-22) because of armed bandits and extremely poor road conditions. For these reasons and because of the high incidence of crime, the U.S. Embassy strongly discourages car and bus travel after dark."

***

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a retired CIA strategic analyst and former faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with whom I worked in the mid 80s (he now runs a think tank in Washington) offered this sobering assessment.

"Growing discontent over the degradation of life in Honduras -- poverty, inflation, violence, human rights abuses and political apathy -- is chiefly responsible for the current unrest and is liable to bring the country to the brink of civil disorder. Only swift and massive reforms can reverse years of government corruption, incompetence and indifference, and expunge the ills brought on by decades of plutocratic dominance."

****

Corruption is not the only evil that vexes Hondurans. They are also outraged by the arrogance that accompanies it. Groomed to inherit, by political incest, the power, prestige and economic sovereignty forever shared by a handful of dominant families, tomorrow's elite, like yesterday's, will continue to dine together and offer each other jobs and trade favors and influence while asking the nation for time and patience.

Time is one asset Honduras does not have. The cost of putting off the reforms the country desperately needs is irreversible economic slippage. The potential for disillusion to turn to violence in Honduras should never be underestimated. This is a country which, it is said, cannot reform, but evolves through revolution. Meanwhile, it remains a violent and dangerous place both for Hondurans and for those in search of El Dorado.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The U.S. State Department Travel Advisory for Honduras can be accessed on line at <http://travel.state.gov>.