NATIONAL

Monday, April 19, 1999 Online Edition 153

President Flores says government unable to give them the 5 percent of the budget that by law is theirs

TEGUCIGALPA -- The budget for Honduras is currently Lps. 18 billion and according to the Municipalities Law, 5 percent of this amount must be distributed among the 298 Honduran municipalities for social and development projects.

AMHON, the Honduran Association of Municipalities, last week held a general assembly where once again its members and Mayor of Tegucigalpa Vilma de Castellanos urged Congress and the president to make the payments.

In response to the request, President Flores stated, "those who are aware of the pain suffered by the Honduran people must also be aware of the efforts that the government has done to mitigate it; quite frankly at this moment the country is going through one of the most difficult times it has ever faced and this is not the time to play political demagoguery, but rather the moment to patriotically adjust to the limitations we face."

He added that, "Economic and fiscal realities impose austerity and, unfortunately, more sacrifice, and with all sincerity...I can't commit resources...and make promises that are impossible to keep.

"Those who are able to appreciate the titanic efforts made toward the decentralization and autonomy of our municipal governments will acknowledge our permanent interest in conserving these advances."

"Unfortunately," said Flores, "the hurricane interrupted the program and some of the priorities have been changed, postponed and temporally canceled."

In response, AMHON President Arnold Sanchez, said he fully understands the president's position on the issue and the problems facing the nation as a result of Hurricane Mitch.

He also said that President Flores has included a Social Investment Plan (channeled through the municipalities) to be part of the Master Plan that will be presented at the Stockholm summit later this year. The Social Investment Plan was prepared by the municipalities last year and includes financing for 5,000 programs at a cost of US$100 million.

Four people including a top-ranking police official were brutally murdered in an ambush near the community of El Cantoral, Yoro, the latest in a wave of unrelated vicious crimes afflicting northern Honduras.

According to La Tribuna, Police Subcommissioner Luis Alonso Reyes Barahona, 41, his pregnant wife Dr. Johana Elizabeth Claudino, 31, and his chauffeur Roger Martinez were returning from a farm owned by Ruben Martinez (Roger's brother) in Yoro around 4 p.m. last Saturday (April 10) when six men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and shotguns hidden behind a wall opened fire on their vehicle, which received at least 34 impacts.

The killers also fired on a second vehicle driven by Ruben Martinez, who received five gunshot wounds. Two persons accompanying Martinez managed to escape.

The assassins then reputedly set fire to the vehicle, burning its three occupants. However, Regional Police Chief Cesar Augusto Somoza, who had previously warned Reyes that this area was extremely dangerous, said investigators discovered the shells of incendiary bullets at the crime scene. These bullets, he said, could have caused the fire inside the vehicle.

Due in part to the testimony of the two persons who escaped the massacre, the police have so far arrested four suspects: Hector Puerto (60), Tomas Arnulfo Georges (60) Johnny Enrique Puerto (23), and Arnaldo Urbina Puerto (18). All four deny any involvement in the murders.

A feud between the Martinez and Puerto-Urbina families could be the motive of the murders, according to police investigators. Moreover, both Ruben and Roger Martinez had shady pasts. Ruben was reputedly the intellectual author of several homicides in Yoro, and a prime suspect in the murder of Yoro Mayor Dario Urbina Fernadez. Roger was allegedly involved in the murder of two persons last July.

Police also strongly suspect that Reyes was not the killers' intended target but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Police sources revealed that the intended victim was ret. Col. Arnoldo Cabrera Padilla, whose former bodyguards were the Martinez brothers.

La Tribuna also reported that Reyes, who was assistant director of the prison system at the time of his death, had received death threats from the Calona brothers, who had put out a Lps. 500,000 contract on his life.

Security Minister Elizabeth Chuiz Sierra described the crime as "abominable," and called for stiffer prison sentences for persons who kill law enforcement officials. Chuiz added that on Monday she met with Attorney General Roy Medina and prominent attorneys to discuss ways to fight crime.

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With the start of the rainy season less than two months away, work crews have finally begun dredging the section of the Choluteca River that passes through downtown Tegucigalpa, the daily La Tribuna reported Friday (April 9).

The work will include the removal of debris and excess sediment, deepening the river's channel, a drainage project on the El Berrinche hill, and the demolition of several buildings along the river. The Lps. 50 million project is scheduled to be completed before the rainy season begins at the end of May.

The dredging comes five months after torrential rains accompanying Hurricane Mitch caused serious flooding in the capital, particularly on the Comayaguela side.

Nearly 300 soldiers and policemen have joined fire fighters to battle an enormous fire bordering La Tigra National Park that has so far destroyed more than 100 hectares, the daily La Tribuna reported Saturday (April 10). A spokesman for the fire department said the blaze is also threatening the community of El Hatillo, an exclusive residential area north of Tegucigalpa.

Meanwhile in the capital, nearly 1,000 soldiers and representatives of the Honduran Forestry Development Corporation (COHDEFOR) and National Forestry School (ESNACIFOR) took part in civic parade along Boulevard Morazan as part of a government campaign to increase public awareness on the importance of conservation and forest resources. Instead of guns, the soldiers carried hoes, rakes and other implements used to fight fires.

In related news, Deputy Manager Salomon Martinez of the Forest Administration (AFE-COHDEFOR) said 215 fires have destroyed 2,720 hectares of forest land this year.

Miguel Balderramos Rivera, an executive of two export-oriented assembly plants located near San Pedro Sula, was shot to death while driving to work last Friday morning (April 9), the daily La Tribuna reported. According to witnesses, two assailants aboard a blue sedan with shaded windows fired their AK-47s on Balderramos' vehicle, instantly killing the businessman.

Balderramos, who is survived by his wife and four children, worked for Zarina Industrias and Mass Power in the Zip San Jose and Zip Bufalo Industrial Parks, respectively.

The remains of a Honduran Air Force Curtis CT-32 Condor that disappeared more than 57 years ago have been found in a remote area of the Nombre de Dios Mountain Range, the daily La Tribuna reported Tuesday (April 13).

According to records, the aircraft and its five-man crew took off from Tegucigalpa on Feb. 27, 1942 to deliver a cargo to La Ceiba. However, the plane never arrived and until its discovery by a campesino 6 weeks ago authorities believed it had crashed into the ocean.

Although a sizable amount of wreckage has been recovered, searchers so far have not found any human remains.

The computer systems of three out of every four businesses in Honduras are not prepared for the year 2000, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the Inter-institutional Committee on the Y2K Problem. Of the 94 businesses polled, reported El Heraldo last Friday (April 9), only 23 answered that they were ready.

Moreover, 85 percent of the government agencies have not taken any measures or developed contingency plans to prevent disruption in services in the event of Y2K problems.

Monday, April 12, 1999 Online Edition 152

Vulnerability and determination in mayor's office

Mayor of Tegucigalpa Vilma Reyes de Castellanos. (Photo by Ketzi Chacon.)

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

TEGUCIGALPA -- Vilma Reyes de Castellanos feels vulnerable as the mayor of the capital city. Well, why wouldn't she. Consider her circumstances. The world knows the tragic conditions under which she became mayor. What the world does not know is that it is widely speculated in Tegucigalpa that the helicopter crash that killed her husband, the immensely popular Dr. Cesar Castellanos, was no accident. Does she believe her husband was murdered?

Her eyes meet mine when I asked this question, and there is fire in them. She does not answer the question directly, but clearly conveys the fact that she has the gravest suspicions. She speaks of various irregularities in the accident report. The observation of an eye-witness was repressed and distorted. It has been revealed that the pilot had only 40 minutes of flying time. One week after the event, Gen. Oscar Servellon, at the time the head of the air force, was suddenly retired.

To Señora Castellanos, understandably, these things point to a government cover-up. She feels that her husband interfered with the plans of the Liberal Party for controlling Honduras. She must wonder if the speculations and questions that torment her are madness. She speaks calmly, but with great determination.

"Hondurans wish to and need to know exactly what happened." Even as we spoke, there was a report that the U.S. embassy has turned down a request to supply an "expert" investigator, saying that none are available. It seems that this is too sensitive an issue for them to touch.

Time magazine has reported that according to Mayor Castellanos the city of Tegucigalpa has received no money, "not one cent" of reconstruction international money, and that she is charging that this is meant as an act of retribution, of revenge against her husband. Time also reported that government officials say that they will get around to the capital when other more important projects are completed.

I asked the mayor about the relationship which her husband had with President Flores, and about her relationship with him. She answered that the late mayor and President Flores had a professional respect for each other. She, on the other hand, has "absolutely no relationship with the president, and has had no communication with any member of the Cabinet of Reconstruction or any member of the president's staff. We have never been asked about what we need."

By law, Tegucigalpa is supposed to receive 5 percent of the federal budget, the mayor informs us, and it has to date received slightly over 1 percent. Just getting this money would be a big help, she adds.

Clean-up work and bull-dozing along the river have been arranged through contacts the mayor's office has been able to make on its own. The World Bank is planning to spend US$5 million to clean up stretches of the Rio Choluteca, but this concerns the river basin and not the city itself.

She is aware that Tegucigalpans feel that little is being done to clean-up or to re-build and is clearly frustrated that she is not able to do more. The pressure to repair roads and respond to many other needs is very great.

So, the widow of "el Gordito" who would have been happy to pass through history at his side, now suffers its full glare. She sits in the office of the mayor, in the mayor's chair, at the center of the city, with the dream she and her husband shared of constructing a beautiful new capital city collapsing around her head. The city is still ragged and exposed from the hurricane, and is apparently being held hostage by a government that presumably wants the city re-built, but with nobody named Castellanos getting any credit for it. The Nueva Agenda is intended to make capital residents forget about the Nuevo Capital. Or so it is in the mind of Vilma Castellanos. No wonder she feels vulnerable.

Mayor Castellanos does not appear to be an ambitious woman. She does not appear to have any inclination to get involved in the labyrinth of National Party politics. She is not suspicious about the motives or activities of former President Callejas, who she describes as "always very supportive." It would not seem that she presents any great threat to the ambitions of anyone. Indeed, it is difficult not to feel sorry for her. Not that she is asking for sympathy. She does not cringe or whine like a victim, but rather exudes strength, calm, and determination. She is every bit the mayor. She sits in the chair as one who shared her husband's vision, and who properly inherits his mantle, but also as one with the will and the capacity to fight on alone.

The Nuevo Capital is still a palpable vision in her mind and imagination, and all her energy gathers towards that direction. The problem is, however, that the transformation of Tegucigalpa cannot be the work of one man or woman. It must be the endeavor and aspiration of a generation. And that, difficult under any circumstances, is not made easier by the suspicions of a widow and a city that the man who personified that hope may have been murdered.

Earthquakes rock south of Honduras

By ROSIBEL PACHECO DE GUTIERREZ

TEGUCIGALPA -- "We felt a strong movement, but what most got to me was the noise..." says a young mother who spent Easter vacation on her family's beach house on the island of Zacate Grande.

This earthquake that registered 5.5 on the Richter Scale happened on Saturday, April 3, at approximately 4:25 a.m. "There was another strong quake on Friday. My daughter, who is 18 years old, felt the strong shock waves on the sand."

The island of Zacate Grande is located in the south of Honduras, in the Gulf of Fonseca near Isla del Tigre and the port of Amapala. The epicenter was located close to Amapala.

In an interview with HTW, Dr. Gonzalo Cruz, director for the last five years of the Geophysics Section of the Physics Department of the UNAH, detailed all the seismic activity that has occurred in Honduras over the last few weeks.

Gonzalo Cruz said, "After analyzing the geological sequence of the formation of Central America, we deduce that Honduras formed part of the original crust, making it one of the oldest formations in the isthmus. The process of subduction had started millions of years ago. This means that the blocks or tectonic plates are sliding underneath each other in such a way that tension is present in the contact surface. Since these are plates in the upper 80 km., they are part of the lithosphere. The pressure generates a pattern of stress in the upper region so we have faults which are a part of seismic activity."

Honduras is on the Caribbean Plate, which is relatively small. In the south there is the Cocos Plate, which is an oceanic plate; there are also the South American Plate and the Nazca Plate. Toward Guatemala is the North American Plate. The seismic plate with the most dramatic phenomena is the Cocos Plate. It is colliding against the Caribbean Plate and is composed of ocean crust and is heavier. It is experiencing a geophysics process called subduction in which the Cocos Plate submerges below the Caribbean Plate causing seismic activity.

It is known that seismic activity can be associated with the specific region where the plates collide but there can also be activity all along the region. The stress factors are different and so is the energy release mechanism.

"We are observing a very superficial seismic activity in the Gulf of Fonseca. There have been more than 200 tremors in the seven days prior to the 6th of April. The most intense happened on Saturday, April 3 with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter Scale," said Cruz.

"But there has also been seismic activity all over the country. Since December 1998 there have been approximately 900 tremors in all of the country. The Geophysics Section has made a profile of the tremors in the Gulf of Fonseca. In these maps you can see the depth at which they are occurring. The epicenter is the part of the earth's surface directly above the focus point, it is the projection toward the surface.

"There are several indicators associated with earthquakes. The magnitude is calculated as the energy that is released. Another is the intensity which is defined in terms of how it affects and how it is felt by the people: there could be a very deep earthquake of a very high magnitude that is not felt by people. Measuring the intensity is very subjective. Intensity is measured in the Mercalli Scale, magnitude with the Richter Scale.

"The gulf zone has volcanic cones. These are the product of energy that is being accumulated: they are the product of subduction. Friction of the plates causes a lot of heat and energy that creates volcanoes. It cannot be said that volcanoes are appearing now, because those are formed in geological time spans."

This current activity is unusual, he said. "After 30 years, it is the first time we have many events in a short time that have been felt all over the country. It doesn't mean there weren't any in the past, but there was no way of measuring and recording them."

Cruz said the first time Honduras possessed the technology to measure earthquake activity was in the 1970s. "In the past century there were about 30 events with magnitudes above 5. This is normal because there is a continuous movement of the plates. It is normal that a lot of stress is generated in the structures, not only in the contact surfaces but in all the region and we are watching the manifestations of nature in these phenomena."

According to Cruz there are no sure methods that can let scientists predict earthquakes. "A big event can occur without warning, without previous seismic activity," he said. "Sometimes there have been big events with warning activity, but not always.

Cruz added that they have observed a decline in seismic activity. "We are registering about 20 to 25 quakes daily (since Tuesday, April 5). We started registering 120 daily but the frequency and the size have been diminishing. We have concluded that the tremors with an intensity above 3.7 can be felt by the people in this seismic area, the Gulf of Fonseca."

Honduras has only three seismic stations that are located in the central area: Tegucigalpa, Lepaterique and Cerro de Hula. Because of this, the movements in the Gulf of Fonseca were detected and analyzed with high precision due to its proximity to the stations.

The rest of the country does not have this coverage which makes it necessary to increase the number of stations. Finding the epicenter of an earthquake is done with computational algorithms and the precision is increased with the number of stations. These last tremors were felt in Nicaragua and also in El Salvador.

"To sum up, what is happening in Honduras can be defined as relatively big events, and afterward there will be aftershocks that are of a minor scale."

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has canceled his tour of Central America due to the situation in Kosovo, according to Foreign Minister Roberto Flores Bermudez in a La Tribuna report Wednesday (April 7). Chretien was scheduled to tour the Central American countries including Honduras that were devastated by Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. Flores said the prime minister's tour of the region will be rescheduled at a later date.

TEGUCIGALPA -- In a show of solidarity toward Honduras in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, President Mary McAleese of Ireland recently visited Honduras, announcing more aid and cooperation from her government for the reconstruction and transformation of the country.

During an intensive five-day tour of the country that began in Tegucigalpa, President McAleese met with President Flores and reiterated her desire to continue cooperating with Honduras in development programs as well as in the rehabilitation of national production.

"We have come to encourage the Honduran people in their reconstruction efforts," she said. "Ireland is committed to rehabilitation and we will also encourage the international community to continue its support of Honduras during these difficult times," she said during a tour of the Social Security Hospital in downtown Tegucigalpa where hurricane damage is still apparent even after five months.

Aid from Ireland, which currently totals US$1,399,979, has been channeled through the World Food Program, the World Health Organization and the Honduran Red Cross but does not include aid provided through the European Union.

Over the next three years (2000-2002) Ireland will donate US$5 million toward road and housing repairs and the reactivation of the agricultural sector.

On April 1, the Irish President traveled to Comayagua, Santa Rosa de Aguan, and Trujillo. Before leaving for Mexico on April 2, she traveled to El Negrito and La Guacamaya in the department of Yoro, accompanied by presidential candidate Billy Handal.

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