Honduras This Week National

Monday, February 24, 1997 Online Edition 43 WEEK IN REVIEW

Castillo Maradiaga absolved of 1991 Riccy Mabel murder

Riccy Mabel Martinez

TEGUCIGALPA -- A second appeal has led to what many Hondurans believe is an alarming new verdict in the 1991 rape/murder case of coed Riccy Mabel Martinez.

In two prior trials, judges found Col. Angel Castillo Maradiaga guilty of the rape and murder of the 17-year-old student, while Sgt. Santos Ilovares was twice convicted of participating in her rape.

Last Thursday (Feb. 13), however, Judge Jose Octavio Calix of Tegucigalpa's Second Criminal Court absolved Castillo Maradiaga of all wrongdoing in the case, ruling that it was Illovares who murdered the young woman.

Although the verdict is an unpopular one, Judge Calix said in a La Prensa report last Friday that his ruling is "in compliance with the law and fair. I'm sorry about what Riccy's family must be feeling. I'm a father, too. But the truth is I acted like a judge, not a father."

The judge said he based his ruling on testimonies that Ilovares stopped to offer Riccy Mabel a ride as she left the First Communications Battalion, just outside Tegucigalpa, where she had gone to try to convince military officials to release her boyfriend, who had been forcibly recruited several days before her death in July 1991.

Soon after the young woman's body was found in a remote Tegucigalpa creek bed, Ilovares confessed to her rape and murder, but later retracted his statement, claiming that he had been pressured by his military superiors to cover for Castillo Maradiaga.

Judge Calix says Ilovares has been unable to prove that he was pressured into a confession and, based on other evidence, doubts that his superiors would have had any reason to force him to take the blame for a crime he didn't commit.

Likewise, the judge said he found no solid evidence that Castillo Maradiaga was in any way involved with Riccy Mabel's rape or murder. He pointed to testimony that the colonel was in the battalion at the time of the young woman's death as a major reason for his ruling in favor of the colonel.

He also said he discounted evidence that had been harmful to the colonel in previous trials, specifically, a report by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identifying a pubic hair found in the victim's underpants as similar to that of Castillo Maradiaga. The FBI report only confirmed that the hair sample had "microscopic conditions that are similar (not equal) to those of" the colonel, said the judge.

Castillo Maradiaga, who has been demonized in the local media and has been in prison for nearly six years, has always maintained his innocence. "They mixed me up in this problem because I'm the commander of the battalion and the most important person they could involve," he said in a La Prensa report.

Although the Castillo Maradiaga family is thrilled with Judge Calix's verdict, the family of Riccy Mabel says the battle isn't over.

"I have trusted in the laws of this country and it never even crossed my mind that Castillo was going to be found innocent," said the victim's mother in a La Prensa report. "He is responsible for the death of my daughter and he will always be seen as a rapist and a murderer."

The military official also showed reporters of the Abriendo Brecha news program photographs of a residence in the Colonia Reforma that allegedly was the office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Honduras and where he claims Riccy was assassinated. However, U.S. Ambassador James Creagan denies the allegations.

Vowing that she "won't rest" until justice is done for her daughter, Betty Sevilla de Martinez says she's prepared to take the case as far as the Supreme Court and even into the international tribunals, if necessary. She has been and remains strongly supported by local women's rights and human rights groups.

Last year, Castillo Maradiaga was sentenced by the First Criminal Court to 16½ years in prison for the rape and murder of the young student while Ilovares was sentenced to 10½ years for her rape. This, the latest ruling overturns Castillo Maradiaga's sentence and boosts Ilovares' to 15 years in prison, the maximum penalty for murder in Honduras.

Paya Bay is a charming, secluded resort of enchanting natural beauty

Prominent banker dies

Hondurans were saddened this week by the death of prominent banker and philanthropist Paul Vinelli.

The 75-year-old former president of the Central Bank of Honduras died Feb. 18, 12 hours after Houston doctors performed open heart surgery for a persistent cardiac problem. He is survived by his wife, Maria, and five children, Johnny, Robert, Richard, Gigi and Pia.

Vinelli was born in Naples, Italy and emigrated to the United States in his early 20s, where he worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Washington and the International Monetary Fund. It was in 1950 on an IMF mission to Honduras that Vinelli fell in love with the country and decided to stay. He has since called Honduras "my second fatherland."

A naturalized Honduran citizen, Vinelli has taught at the National Autonomous University of Honduras and served as president of Banco Atlantida, in addition to his post at the CBH. He has also held high-level government economic positions and was nominated by President Reina to represent Honduras before the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association.

It was Vinelli who filled the halls of his home and Banco Atlantida with Honduran fine arts and provided substantial support to the Honduran art world. He also served as president of the Honduran Red Cross and the Latin American Bank Federation and established a number of charity organizations, including the Gray Vinelli scholarship fund, where his family has asked that memorial donations be sent.

Among his medals of honor are Honduras' Order of Jose Cecilio del Valle, Panama's Vasco Nunez de Balboa award, Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins and the Brassavola de Oro of the Foundation for the Museum of the Honduran Man.

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WEEK IN REVIEW

Kidnapping victim returns home unharmed

Roxana Diaz, the daughter of Congressman Jose Heriberto Diaz (Nat.-Atlántida), returned to her family Tuesday (Feb. 18) after kidnappers abandoned the university coed in a Siguatepeque home, the daily La Tribuna reported.

Diaz's release followed two gun battles between police and her abductors -- the first on the Northern Highway near the La Paz turnoff while police followed two suspects in a car from Siguatepeque, and the second at one of the kidnappers' two safe houses in Siguatepeque. Two policemen and one bystander were wounded in the shootouts. Lt. Rafael Alonso Rodriguez received a bullet wound in the face, losing his right eye, while Cobras agent Victor Adán Cerrato was wounded in the abdomen and is listed in critical condition. Six suspects were arrested.

Diaz, who spent 6 days in captivity, was abducted the evening of Feb. 13 by six heavily harmed men as she returned to her Colonia Aurora home after classes at the Private University of San Pedro Sula, where she is studying marketing.

Security guards rob San Pedro Sula bank

Two security guards assigned to the main offices of the Futuro Bank in San Pedro Sula robbed more than Lps. 300,000 from the bank last Friday (Feb. 14), the daily La Prensa reported. Employees of the Compañía Institucional de Seguridad S.A. (COISESA), the robbers reportedly left a note saying that the firm "is trash because they didn't pay our salaries" and that they were headed for Guatemala. The robbery was the seventh this year.

Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities arrested two men in connection with the robbery of the BANCAHSA branch bank in Villanueva, Cortes. Both suspects were bank security guards.

No charges against Azcona for extradition - yet

Reports that former President Jose Azcona and former Armed Forces Chief Gen. Humberto Regalado Hernandez have been formally charged with kidnapping, abuse of authority and violation of the Constitution in relation to the illegal extradition of drug trafficker Ramon Mata Ballesteros are not true, Attorney General Edmundo Orellana said in a La Tribuna report. However, he said the case is currently being reviewed by the offices of the human rights and constitutional prosecutors. The United States and Honduras do not currently have an extradition treaty.

Claiming that he has a clear conscience in this matter, Azcona admitted that Mata was extradited to the United States with his consent, although he said the final decision was made by the U.S. government. Congressman Carlos Sosa Coello (PINU) described the proposed charges as "absurd," and called on the Attorney General's office to act "with more respect."

In April 1988, Mata was abducted by law enforcement authorities near his home, shackled and put on a plane, where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals. The incident sparked violent protests that led to the burning of the U.S. Consulate in Tegucigalpa. Mata is currently serving time in a U.S. federal prison.

Covenant House prez to visit Teguz

Covenant House President Mary Rose McGeady will arrive in Honduras Tuesday (Feb. 25) as part of a three-day visit to observe first hand the rehabilitation activities conducted by its Tegucigalpa branch, known in Spanish as Casa Alianza, for street children, according to a press release. McGeady will be accompanied by Covenant House executive director Bruce Harris, who recently received the 1996 Olof Palme Award. The announcement of the visit comes two weeks after Casa Alianza denounced that three street children, accompanied by a Casa Alianza worker, were illegally and arbitrarily arrested by the police. Two of the children were then reportedly beaten by members of the Public Security Force (FSP) at the 7th precinct.

Striking health workers shut down public hospitals

The government responds with tear gas and riot gear while thousands of poor Hondurans remain without access to health care.

By LILIAM BARAHONA

TEGUCIGALPA -- Efforts by the nation's 13,000 public health workers to flex their muscle and demand an additional Lps. 187 million in salaries were met head on by the Reina administration this week with anti-riot police and tear gas.

The conflict began Feb. 10 when the National Coordinator of Health Workers (CNTS) announced it would launch a series of increasingly severe work stoppages until the government agreed to meet their demands, which include shorter work days for nurses, the incorporation of natural remedies into national treatment standards and free consultations for women and children.

During prior negotiations, the government offered only Lps. 51 million to cover salary hikes.

Jorge Arturo Reina, Vice President of the National Congress, has accused the striking health workers of placing political interests before the health of the nation. He and others who oppose the strike say the conflict has more to do with making the Liberal party look bad before this year's elections than with the real needs of the health workers.

The government also argues that increasing the public health budget by Lps. 187 million will increase inflation nationwide and ultimately hit the poorest Hondurans -- 80 percent of whom live below the line of extreme poverty -- hardest of all.

But the CNTS claims that current health sector salaries are not enough to cover the cost of living and says they have been forced to take drastic measures because their prior efforts to negotiate with the Reina administration fell on deaf ears.

The progressive work stoppages that began nearly two weeks ago evolved into a nationwide strike early this week, shutting down the 28 hospitals and 516 clinics that provide free and low-cost medical care to poor Hondurans.

Health workers have cast off their green gowns and stethoscopes for banners and pickets that accuse the Reina administration of failing to lend a "human touch" to the government, as the President promised during his 1993 campaign.

Throughout the country, striking workers have set up road blocks, burned tires and placed boards filled with nails on highways to stop traffic.

While many sectors have criticized the CNTS for resorting to such drastic measures, and others have been angered by lengthy traffic jams, Virginia Figueroa de Espinoza, Vice Minister of Public Health, announced she would "impose order once and for all" and deduct all missing work days from strikers' salaries.

When the CNTS still failed to call off the strike, the government began taking measures at the Labor Ministry to fire all health workers who fail to report for work.

Infuriated strikers responded by taking over the Ministry of Public Health in Tegucigalpa, holding Health Minister Enrique Samayoa hostage for several hours until anti-riot squads dispersed the angry crowds with riot sticks and tear gas.

Fearing that the conflict can only get worse, Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares offered to serve as a mediator between the two factions. But President Reina has established his own special commission to get to the bottom of the problem.

Meanwhile, thousands of Hondurans who can't afford private hospitals remain without access to health care.

Dutch volunteers meet in Tela, question validity of foreign aid

By MASJA ZWART

Special to Honduras This Week

Twenty-four Dutch volunteers met in the North Coast city of Tela last week. All recent graduates, they have been working in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica since October, hoping to gain experience in their fields of work, experience they can't get in the Netherlands. They met in Tela to take a break from work, discuss their experiences and decide on the most effective way to spend their remaining five months in Central America.

Working in a different culture puts a heavy strain on the volunteers. No matter what their job -- lawyer, physical therapist or social worker -- all encounter the same problems: the hierarchical way of working; the language barrier; bureaucracy; colleagues that don't show up at meetings, or spend most of the day in front of the television.

"Usually I'm the only one working with the children," says Liane Volgers, a social worker in an orphanage in southern Costa Rica. "The others are busy in the kitchen watching T.V. and chatting about their boyfriends. Since my desk is in the hallway next to the kitchen door, I have a hard time ignoring the sound of Mexican soap operas."

Contrary to the volunteers in Costa Rica, who all work for the government, most of the nine volunteers based in Tegucigalpa are working for NGOs like Casa Alianza, the Committee of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) and Project Compartir.

Helene Ruygrok, a specialist in Latin American studies, presented her work to the group and posed the question: "Why do NGOs work more efficiently than government institutions?" She began her work in Honduras with PRONEAH, an organization of ethnic groups run by the Ministry of Education, but has since switched to Project Compartir, a French organization that works with street children.

"If I look around, only the NGOs seem to achieve something, and most of them are funded and controlled by foreign governments. How can Honduras ever develop if its government is so inefficient and bureaucratic that nothing gets done?"

Natascha Brantjes, a lawschool graduate, says Ruygrok's perspective is too negative.

"I think things will gradually change if the government acknowledges that it should put capable people in the right places instead of nominating someone because he has the right connections or a lot of money. Pressure from foreign countries will only accelerate this process."

Brantjes is interrupted by Katelijn Berghoef, a social worker in Nueva Suyapa, who fears foreign involvement and financial aid will make people lazy. "I'm afraid they'll think, 'the money will come anyway, so why would I do anything?'."

The Dutch volunteers came to Honduras through a 10-month professional exchange program of the Hogeschool of Utrecht, Holland. A special department of this school, Bureau IELAB, has been sending Dutch professionals to Central America for over five years. Recently, the bureau also set up exchanges with Spain and Indonesia. Prior to their departure, the volunteers, 90 percent of whom are women, take a Spanish-language course and spend several weeks learning about the history, culture, politics and economics of their host countries. Bureau IELAB pays special attention to problems related to underdevelopment. Most volunteers come to Central America with the ideal of contributing, in their own small way, to solving some of the problems of developing countries. In Tela it became clear that most volunteers had adjusted their goals these past four months. The last two days of their stay in Tela were dedicated to a "special session" of the International Court of Justice to question the theory that development aid is slavery. The volunteers formed small groups to represent organizations like the United Nations, the government of Central America, NGOs and the "internationally-renowned" OSIS action committee, which demanded an immediate end to foreign aid, arguing that it imposed unfair restrictions on Third World countries and, in the end, only served to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

After two days of heated debate, three bomb attacks and the kidnapping of a delegate of the Dutch government by a terrorist branch of OSIS, the "volunteer-court" reached the conclusion that although development aid fails in many ways, abandoning it is not the solution. After hearing the final pleas, the court reached the decision that "we should come to a new form of international aid in which the position and agreement of the developing countries is taken into account. Not charity but cooperation."

Monday, February 17, 1997 Online Edition 42 WEEK IN REVIEW

Teguz has ample water, assures SANAA official

SANAA caretaker Luis Reyes stands against the cement post of the rubber-like inflatable dam wall at Los Laureles reservoir. Reyes said that in November, when the rainy season ended, the reservoir's level was at 1,034 masl. By January, levels had dropped to below the dam wall's cement base. (Photo by Eric Schwimmer.)

By ERIC SCHWIMMER

TEGUCIGALPA -- With the first day of verano -- the dry season -- just around the corner, the local press raised concerns this week over low water levels at the Los Laureles reservoir, one of the capital's principal water sources.

For one National Water and Sewage Service (SANAA) official, however, there is nothing unusual about the reservoir's current level, which measured 1,027.42 meters above sea level on Monday (Feb. 10). Dr. Mirna Argueta, who works in SANAA's Water Quality Control Department, said its normal that water levels have dropped since the rainy season ended in November.

The maximum level for Los Laureles is 1,034 meters above sea level. At full capacity, the reservoir holds 12 million m³ of water. Currently, it has an estimated 8.5 million m³.

Argueta said SANAA has "sufficient capacity to satisfy the (water) demands of Tegucigalpa, even if it doesn't rain until June 15." The rainy season usually begins at the end of May or the beginning of June. At the very least, she added, SANAA will be able to provide capital city residents with the minimum water supply established by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- 20 liters of water per person per day.

She also said SANAA has prepared a water program for the dry season -- which calls for rationing when it is needed -- to ensure adequate water supply and use.

Even during the rainy season, Argueta said, SANAA is unable to provide 24-hour water service to certain sectors due to the deterioration of the city's water supply system. The water company is currently in the process of changing old piping at a cost of Lps. 120 million, she said, adding that more than 50 km of pipes were replaced in 1996 alone.

Although Los Laureles was overflowing last November, SANAA caretaker Luis Reyes said that at the beginning of January the reservoir's level dropped slightly below the top of the dam wall's cement base. At that time, he added, the collapsible rubber-like dam wall -- which increases the artifical lake's level by more than 4 meters -- was lowered.

In recent years, the capital and other parts of Honduras have faced severe water rationing due to low rainfall.

Paya Bay is a charming, secluded resort of enchanting natural beauty

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WEEK IN REVIEW

Six restaurants bombed in SPS

Terrorists threw grenades at six San Pedro Sula restaurants -- including five U.S. fast-food chains -- Tuesday evening (Feb. 11), causing minor damage to buildings and vehicles. No injuries were reported.

According to the daily La Prensa, the first grenade was thrown at the TGIFriday's restaurant on Boulevard Los Proceres, causing minor damage to the roof. Minutes later, another grenade was thrown at Don Udo's gourmet restaurant between Boulevard Los Proceres and 20th Avenue. Several blocks away, two men on a motorcycle then threw a grenade at Burger King, destroying glass windows. While police and reporters were investigating the Burger King bombing, a grenade exploded at the Pizza Hut on 1 Calle. No injuries occurred even though the restaurant was full. However, three vehicles did receive minor damage.

Despite the police presence, the terrorists did not let up, throwing grenades at Wendy's and McDonald's, both on Circunvalacion Avenue. Police also found an unexploded U.S.-made M406 grenade near McDonald's. No suspects have been arrested in connection with the bombings.

Daily La Tribuna goes online

The daily La Tribuna has become the fourth Honduran newspaper -- and the first Soanish-language daily from the capital -- to post a homepage on the World Wide Web. La Tribuna was founded in 1976 by Oscar Flores, the late father of Congressional President Carlos Flores. Online news and feature covering national events, politics, the economy, sports, society, culture and tourism can be found at http://www.latribuna.hn .

The San Pedro Sula daily El Tiempo http://www.tiempo.hn was the first newspaper to go online, followed by Honduras This Week http://www.marrder.com/htw and the San Pedro Sula daily La Prensa http://www.laprensahn.com

Congress reviewing immunity issue

The National Congress has received requests to lift the immunity of seven government currently officials under investigation, the daily La Tribuna reported last Friday (Feb. 7). Congressional Vice President Rafael Pineda Ponce said a special commission is reviewing the cases of Carlos Orbin Montoya, Honduran Ambassador to Nicaragua; Congressmen Carlos Kattán, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, Valentín Suarez, and Mauro Membreño Tosta; Nadina Lefebvre, Ambassador to Guatemala; and Rafael Leonardo Callejas, former president of Honduras and currently a deputy in the Central American Parliament.

Liberals to hold convention in March

The Liberal Party plans to hold its national convention March 14-16, the daily La Tribuna reported last Saturday. During the convention, held every four years, Liberals will elect new members to the Executive Central Committee (CCEPL) -- the party's highest authority.

Honduras' 184 Cold War disappearances have been reduced to 182
Second missing persons case solved with positive ID of Gustavo Morales

DNA tests have confirmed that one of three corpses exhumed from a clandestine grave in October 1995 are the remains of Gustavo Morales, former director of the National Children's Fund and one of 184 Hondurans missing since the Cold War.

Morales was abducted on March 18, 1984 on Tegucigalpa's Boulevard los Proceres. According to eyewitness accounts, he was forced out of his own vehicle and into another by two unidentified men. Police later found his car abandoned, the engine still idling at a stop sign.

Although authorities were fairly certain that the remains unearthed near the village of El Manguelar in El Paraiso department indeed belonged to Morales -- his driver's license was found near the grave and his dental records matched those of the remains -- Bertha Oliva de Nativi, coordinator of the Committee of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), said in a La Tribuna report last Friday (Feb. 7) that human rights workers and the Morales family decided to confirm Morales' identity through DNA testing in order to proceed with legal action against his alleged abductors.

Morales, known by his friends and family as Tavo, will be buried tomorrow in Olanchito, Yoro, where he was born in 1948. Once his remains are buried, the Morales family plans to bring charges against several former government and military officials, as well as two civilians, said Special Attorney for Human Rights Sonia Marlina Dubón de Flores in a La Tribuna report Tuesday (Feb. 11).

Although neither the Morales family nor COFADEH has specified against whom the charges will be brought, Oliva de Nativi told La Tribuna that several individuals who were in power at the time of Morales' abduction will be asked about the case. These include Col. Guillermo Pinel Calix, then director of the National Department of Investigation (DNI), Gustavo Alvarez and Walter Lopez Reyes, then military commanders, and Gen. Luis Alonso Discua, then commander of the 3-16 counter intelligence battalion.

A spokesman for the Honduran Armed Forces said last Saturday (Feb. 8) that, "we must wait for a trial in which all of the individuals who were supposedly involved can defend themselves. They must not be condemned in public opinion before they tell their stories."

Morales' widow, Rina Oyuela, says she's relieved to finally know what became of her husband, but that it's difficult to speak of happiness in a case like this. "We will not be fully relieved until we find the guilty parties and find justice for the death of Gustavo Morales," she said in a La Tribuna report.

In addition to his wife, Morales is survived by three children, two sons and a daughter, now aged 21, 15 and 19.

Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares said this is the second of 184 missing persons cases to be resolved since the end of the Cold War. In a La Tribuna report he encouraged all persons with information about 1980s disappearances to come forth. "What the people need is to know the truth so that we can reach a reconciliation and overcome this part [of the nation's past]," he told La Tribuna.

Valladares added that the Human Rights Commission would be willing to provide protection for "living archives" -- any person willing to come forth with information. Both Valladares and Oliva de Nativí say now is the time to get to the bottom of the missing persons cases, while the "living archives" are still living.

Saturday, February 8, 1997 Online Edition 41 WEEK IN REVIEW

Nationalists hold convention, elect officials

Nora de Melgar Castro was elected president of the National Party's Central Committee during a convention held last Saturday (Feb. 1) in Tegucigalpa, ending all speculation that former President Callejas would get the post. According to the local press, Nora de Melgar had promised the post to Callejas in return for the latter's political support.

Following her victory in the Dec. 1 primaries, however, reports surfaced that Melgar herself wanted the presidency of the party and was reneging on her agreement. Melgar later reaffirmed her promise to Callejas, who only last week decided to accept the vice presidency instead.

In addition to Melgar -- who succeeds Oswaldo Ramos Soto as the party's president -- and Callejas as vice president, 128 party delegates also elected Carlos Kattan Salem as secretary and Elias Asfura Asfura as pro-secretary.

Eight convicts escape from SPS prison

Using spoons, files and other sharp instruments, eight convicts dug their way out of the San Pedro Sula prison, the daily El Heraldo reported. The breakout was discovered Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 4) when cries from residents in adjoining neighborhoods alerted prison guards, preventing more convicts from escaping. The tunnel, approximately 1 meter wide and 15 meters long, was even equipped with an extension cord and light bulb.

Five generals 'retired'

Taking advantage of an early retirement plan, 22 high-ranking officials bid their comrades at arms farewell in a special ceremony held at the Francisco Morazan military academy last Saturday (Feb. 1), the daily La Tribuna reported. Gen. Guillermo Paredes, who spoke for the retirees, acknowledged that errors were committed during their many years of service, but that they were due "to our poor preparation and... ignorance, but never with bad intentions."

The retirees were, in addition to Paredes, Gen. Arnulfo Cantarero Lopez -- chief of the Armed Forces in 1990 -- and Generals Lazaro Avila Soleno, Reynaldo Andino Flores and Jose de Jesus Banegas Medina. Sixteen colonels and one lieutenant colonel also retired.

DIC recovers coins stolen from BCH

Two days after their loss was reported, the Department of Criminal Investigation recovered 105 of the 151 coins stolen by an employee of the Central Bank of Honduras' Numismatic Museum, located in the bank's Comayaguela annex. According to the daily La Tribuna, BCH officials recently noted that some pieces in the collection were missing and on Jan. 28 told the museum's curator, Fredy Rolando Rodriguez Zepeda, that they were going to conduct an inventory. Rodriguez, who apparently had been hocking the coins for prices ranging from Lps. 200 to Lps. 2,000, disappeared.

DIC agents found most of the missing coins in six pawn shops: El Real, La Moneda, La Solucion, El Dorado, Credito Prendario Popular and El Principe. Among the coins recovered were an 1888 five-peso gold coin that experts say is worth more than US$20,000. Some of the coins were reportedly melted down for their bullion content.

Fireball in western Honduras may have been meteorite impact

By ROSIBEL de GUTIERREZ

TEGUCIGALPA -- "We saw an enormous ball of fire and heard a huge noise." This is what witnesses of what may have been a meteorite say about the unusual phenomenon they experienced Nov. 22.

People from a large portion of western Honduras and as far away as Guatemala say they saw a huge fireball cross over Honduran skies just after 10 p.m. Seconds later, they say they heard a tremendous noise -- what they believe was the impact of a meteorite.

Although scientists have yet to confirm any official explanation of the phenomenon, one thing is certain: witnesses throughout an area measuring 50km in length and 8km across are all telling the same story.

Military, civilian and scientific authorities have already made three trips to the zone in question. They have yet to find any conclusive evidence of a meteorite impact, but Dr. Maria Cristina Pineda of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) Physics Department told Honduras This Week that they have encountered enough mysteries to merit further investigation.

Soon after the phenomenon occurred, a team of researchers went to the village of San Luis in the department of Santa Barbara.

"People there saw a ball of fire and then heard a loud rumble. They believed something had fallen from the sky and crashed into a hillside," says Pineda. Indeed, there is an impressive landslide on one side of a hill called Cerro Negro, just outside San Luis. "It could be the result of the high level of rainfall the zone has been experiencing, but it's so big that we need to continue studying it."

A second trip to the area took scientists to the village of Veracruz in Copan department, where witnesses report the fireball crashed into a nearby hill called Cerro Eramola.

"We have already identified the arc of impact" and many other important pieces of data, says Pineda. "Now the geologists will come, experts in the formation of craters, to do more detailed work. Depending on what we find, we'll be able to explain what happened. We still have to analyze the samples that have been collected."

A fourth expedition to the alleged area of impact -- if the phenomenon was, in fact, a meteorite -- has been scheduled in coming weeks. This will include scientists from the World Astronomy Union and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and experts from the Czech Republic and Spain, says Pineda, herself a specialist in NEOs (near earth objects) and head of the UNAH observatory.

Scientists say that if an object did, in fact, fall from the sky on the night of Nov. 22, one of three things must have happened to it: 1) it disintegrated on impact, which would have left a visible sign, like a crater or possibly the Cerro Negro land slide; 2) it broke into small fragments, which may show up when rock samples from the zone are tested; or 3) it remains intact and has simply not yet been found.

"In the areas we have studied to date, which are mostly the inhabited areas, we haven't found [any definite] signs [of a meteorite]," says Pineda. "What we have found is another event near San Luis that has interesting connotations. Sometimes there is certain activity within the Earth that is not volcanic, but nevertheless allows the Earth to emit balls of fire, accompanied by an intense noise."

This kind of event was only recently discovered by geologists and is still not fully understood, says Pineda. But it may provide additional insight into the events that occurred on Nov. 22. The phenomenon, say scientists, may have come from outer space, may have come from underground, or may have been provoked by a combination of the two.

Pineda says whatever the phenomenon was, it is of great importance to Central America.

"Not only have [local scientists] gained experience through the work we've been doing, we're also preparing a second scientific paper, which will be presented at a world scientific conference on lunar and planetary matters. It's import that this part of the world contribute information and become seriously involved in matters of astronomy."

Although the country's enjoying its 15 minutes of fame in the scientific community, Honduras is happy to share the experience. The University has sent out an open invitation to any member of the international scientific community who may be interested in visiting and studying the zone. In addition, the people who inhabit the alleged area of impact, mostly poor rural farmers, are playing an important role, too. They're the eyewitnesses, as Pineda points out, and are therefore experts in their own way.

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