NATIONAL |
NATIONAL |
Monday, July 31, 2000 Online Edition 31 |
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1992
ruling ignored
El
Salvador includes Honduran territory in new official map
By
BLANCA MORENO TEGUCIGALPA -- The Ministry of Foreign
Relations this week made an official protest to the Salvadoran government
over the recent publication of a map that includes territory awarded to
Honduras by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in its 1992
verdict. Foreign Minister Roberto Flores
Bermudez commented on the map saying, "The Court reached a verdict
resolving the territorial conflict, consequently, there is no room for
discussion." According to information published in
the daily La Tribuna, the sentence
reached by the World Court is not being fulfilled.
Evidence that the decision made on Sept. 11, 1992 has been put aside
is in the new official map of El Salvador. The map, published last June by the
National Geographic Institute of El Salvador, includes regions such as
Nahuaterique, Sazalapa-La Virtud, Cayaguanca, Dolores, Goascoran and
Tepanguisir. Also noted as incorrect are the
territories defined in the General Peace Treaty of Oct. 30, 1980, as several
Honduran tracts of land still appear as part of El Salvador. According to analysts, the lack of
delimitation and the lack of good will in El Salvador influenced map makers
at the moment of preparing their official map. On Sept. 11, 1992, the International
Court of Justice ended a centuries old dispute over 438 square kilometers.
Honduras was awarded 302 square kilometers and El Salvador 136.
Since then, Honduras has respected all points of the ruling and its
official map has been ratified, defining territories given to El Salvador by
The Hague's decision; not so in El Salvador. On Jan. 19, 1998 in Tegucigalpa,
President Carlos Roberto Reina and President Armando Calderon Sol of El
Salvador signed an Accord on Acquired Rights and Nationality. Last Aug. 27, presidents Francisco
Flores of El Salvador and Carlos Flores of Honduras ratified this agreement
in the territories defined by the World Court and an annex to the
declaration was also made. A commitment was also made during this
meeting to delimit territorial boundaries between El Salvador and Honduras
in the following 12 months. This
was done according to the agreement made on Jan. 19, 1998 and the approval
of the Special Delimitation Commission. President Francisco Flores has denied
that his country had included land belonging to Honduras in the official
map. "There is no new map
of El Salvador, it's the same one as always," he said while explaining
that for a new map to be made the delimitation process must first be
finished. The process defined
by The Hague on Sept. 11 "is unfinished on both borders.
Therefore it is impossible to produce a new map," he added
during a news conference. Foreign Minister Flores Bermudez held a
private meeting on Wednesday (June 26) with members of the National Congress
to explain the current situation of Honduras with its neighboring countries.
Flores Bermudez was convincing in his
observations and declarations to the press.
He maintained that Honduras has acted within its rights and will
continue to do so in order to establish the boundaries with its neighbors. Graduate
education expands in Honduran universities By
WENDY GRIFFIN (First
of three parts) Until 1978, it was not possible to get
a master's degree in Honduras. Higher
education was limited to an undergraduate degree called a "licenciatura"
at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) and lesser degrees
such as "profesor de educacion
media" (secondary school teacher) from the Escuela Superior del
Profesorado (ESP-FM) and agricultural degrees at Zamorano's Pan-American
Agricultural School and the National School of Forestry. Now both public universities -- the
UNAH and the UPN -- offer master's degree programs, as do several private
universities such as UNITEC, the University of San Pedro, and the Catholic
University. The Catholic
University also offers a doctorate program.
The only programs at the UNAH that award degrees that confer the
title "doctor" are for medical doctors, dentists and pharmacists,
but these are basically five-year undergraduate degree programs. This expansion in graduate education is
related to several factors. One
is the expansion of university teaching positions.
Twenty-five years ago, half the number of children eligible to enter
first grade had dropped out by fourth grade and by sixth grade less than 30
percent were still in school. Only
4 percent of those who entered first grade 25 years ago managed to graduate
from high school and just 1 percent of those who started first grade went on
to the university, and many of those did not graduate. In the 1980s, all Honduran universities
were state run. A change in law in the 1990s permitted the opening of private
universities, the first ones being Universidad Jose Cecilio Valle and the
Catholic University in Tegucigalpa. Also,
the UNAH and the UPN began expanding their programs to include more cities.
Today, one can now study at campuses in Comayagua, La Ceiba, Tocoa,
Juticalpa, Choluteca and Santa Rosa de Copan. The demand for university graduates was
expanding, as between 1965 and 1990 the number of high school in Honduras
grew from 18 to almost 500. This
also meant more high school students eligible to enter universities.
The universities were also expanding their undergraduate programs to
include economics, tourism, and computer science.
As a result, there was an increased need for university level
professors. In 1990, as this change was taking
place, most university professors themselves only had undergraduate degrees.
At UNAH, it was common to use upper level undergraduates to teach
lower level classes. They were
paid as instructors. The quality of university level
education could not improve until the educational level of the professors
increased, but only a few people each year qualified to go overseas to get
master's or doctorate degrees under LASPAU, Fulbright programs, scholarships
from the Soviet Union or European governments or from private organizations
like the Ford Foundation. Because most Honduran university
professors do not speak English, they are not able to qualify for the
teaching assistant scholarships that allow many foreigners to teach in U.S.
universities and study at the same time. Part of the reason the UPN decided to
open master's degree programs was to permit the training of university
professors in Honduras. However, the first program they opened -- curriculum
development -- was to meet another pressing need, which was the staffing of
internationally funded projects and other Ministry of Education programs. In Honduras, people become primary
school teachers after graduating from 12th at a normal school.
These high school graduates are the backbone of official Honduran
education, even at the ministerial level, which means a low level of formal
preparation among the people who work on different projects. The Ministry of Education has been in
the process of increasing the professional level of people in administrative
and supervisory positions. More
university level education is required, but these people often have degrees
in law or Spanish, public health, so that although they are university
graduates, they sometimes even have less teacher training than normal school
graduates. The opening of a master's degree
program is only a small part of the increased cooperation between the
National Teaching University (UPN) and the Ministry of Education under the
direction of Rector Ramon Salgado.
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Warning:
Child thieves have regrouped Rosario Godoy, president of the Friends
of Missing Children of Honduras Foundation, on Tuesday issued a warning to
parents and police concerning the resurgence of a gang of child thieves. Apparently, the gang employs people
with low incomes for Lps. 1,000 to Lps. 1,500 to single out children to be
kidnapped and later provides false documentation for the children to avoid
detection. One child was even
torn from her mother's arms in Tegucigalpa's Central Park in broad daylight. Godoy also stated that most missing
children are never found and recommended that parents, among other safety
measures, always pick their young children up from school. --
La Tribuna Illegal
arms probe underway The Special Office of the Attorney
General Against Corruption announced last week it will open an investigation
to determine whether active military personal are involved in illegal arms
trafficking. This action was prompted by an
investigation initiated by Criminal Court Judge Telma Cantarero on Monday
when she questioned several military officials and inspected military files
concerning the purchase and sale of weapons. --
La Tribuna Meningitis
alert Due to 22 deaths -- including 15
newborns -- from meningitis in Guatemala and an estimated 100 contagious
people in Central America, the Honduran government has issued a national
health alert along the 245-kilometer border with Guatemala. Although seven cases of meningitis have
been registered this year in Honduras, there have been no deaths, while in
Nicaragua, of the 27 reported cases, seven people died. --
La Tribuna Damaged
buildings to be demolished Mayor of Tegucigalpa Vilma Reyes de
Castellanos announced last week that buildings damaged by Hurricane Mitch
that are still in ruins in Comayaguela will soon be demolished.
The Mayor stated her decision is based on the fact that these
buildings, located on First, Second, Third and Fourth Avenues, have become
criminal havens as well as public bathrooms and said her office has received
repeated complaints from adjacent businesses. She also said that permission for
reconstruction will not be granted on Second Avenue because it is considered
a high-risk area. --La Tribuna Pastor
followers defect to Maduro camp The coordinator of the Miguel Pastor
Nationalist Movement for mayor of Tegucigalpa, Hugo Ortega, and
approximately 90 percent of this political structure based in Comayaguela
have defected to the Arriba Honduras faction, which is backing the
candidacies of Ricardo Maduro for president and Antonio Rivera for mayor of
Tegucigalpa. -- La Tribuna Credit
union says coop funds diverted to NGOs The organizations affiliated to the
Federation of Credit Unions and Associations (FACACH) on Monday threatened
to stage massive nation-wide protests because reconstruction funds that were
reputedly destined for them in Stockholm were used otherwise or given to
non-governmental organizations. According to a FACACH representative,
several different NGOs received the funds for the 13 projects that they
presented in Stockholm and for which they haven't received one cent to date.
They also said that the minister of International Technical
Cooperation (SETCO), Arturo Corrales, told them that since they "fell
asleep" instead of following up on necessary paperwork for the
different projects, the monies were allocated to different projects. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Gabriela Nunez, when questioned about the allegations, stated that government resources have repeatedly been used in support of cooperatives, as well as of the private sector and that the destination of reconstruction funds is the responsibility of SETCO. -- La Tribuna
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Monday, July 24, 2000 Online Edition 30 |
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UNDP
report:
By SUYAPA CARIAS TEGUCIGALPA -- Honduras occupies
fifth place among the countries with the lowest human development rates in
Latin American and the Caribbean, according to the 2000 Human Development
Report prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The document was presented last week in Tegucigalpa to
representatives of the public, civil and diplomatic sectors. Sergio Membreno Cedillo, a local UNDP
economist, explained on presenting the report that it addresses the need to
expand the vision of human rights from a punitive approach to a positive
approach. "The report
challenges each country to undertake the task of becoming more democratic
and to make their democracies more inclusive."
In the case of Honduras, the 1999
National Human Development Report had already recommended that the country
increase security levels of the people's rights, as well as participation.
"However, it also notes that the nation has been generating an
important legal and institutional framework for the protection and the
application of human rights," said Membreno. NUMBER 113 But despite the advances achieved in
this area, statistics keep painting a bleak picture for the majority of the
population. Basically, this is
due to inequalities in access to better opportunities and living standards. This time, the United Nations rated
Honduras among the countries with a "medium" human development
index, at position number 113, out of a total of 174 countries.
Only Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Haiti, are behind Honduras in
the Americas. And this rating
was established according to information compiled in 1998 prior to Hurricane
Mitch. During the report's presentation,
human rights consultant Rafael Lozaina expressed his concern about some of
the numbers published. In the
education field, "Honduras has a literacy rate of 73.4 percent, which
implies that 26.6 percent of the population is illiterate ... most
developing countries have higher literacy rates. Meanwhile, the school registration rate is 58 percent, which
is terribly low," said Lozaina. "And
let's not forget that education is the key to development." He said life expectancy in the
country is 72.7 for women and 66.7 for men, while 11.3 percent of the
population dies before the age of 40. Thirty-eight
percent of the people do not have access to health services and 26 percent
do not have sanitation systems. CONTRASTS AND SETBACKS With regards to the economic
situation, Lozaina said one out of every two Hondurans lives in poverty
while 40.5 percent of all the population -- approximately 2.7 million people
-- live on $1 or less per day. On the other hand, he said the most
privileged 20 percent of Hondurans receive 17.1 times more income than the
poorest 20 percent. "And if you see the 1999 National Report, you will
realize that such inequalities have only gotten worse," the Colombian
expert said. "The 90s were supposed to be the
decade when the education and health sectors would receive the greatest
efforts, but I was surprised to see that [in Honduras] the percentage of the
gross national product (GNP) used for education was 4.1 percent in 1991, and
now it has inexplicably dropped to 3.6 percent.
Similarly, the same indicator dropped from 2.9 percent to 2.7 percent
in the area of education. In most Latin American countries, these numbers have actually
increased," said Lozaina. "Something is happening with the
national budgets ... it is true that Honduras has made important advances in
terms of its human development index over the past 25 years, but there is
also no doubt that these efforts are not enough," he concluded. Amnesties
do not favor the military but resolutions do By BLANCA MORENO TEGUCIGALPA -- The Supreme Court of
Justice recently declared the amnesties issued during the Azcona (1986-1990) and
Callejas administrations (1990-1994) as unconstitutional. As a result, the military and former military personnel
accused of violating human rights must now submit to the courts. The Congressional deputies of those
administrations will not be held accountable for having passed the decrees,
which have not been invalidated in their totality. With this decision adopted by members
of the Supreme Court on June 27 -- except for the Justices Alvarado Casco
and Discua Barillas, the cases against the military have been reactivated.
An example is the disappearances of 184 people in the 1980s, some of
which were first investigated between 1986-1988.
This initial investigation was closed due in part to lack of lack of
evidence form the human rights organizations. With the creation of the Public
Ministry in 1994, several cases were reopened, and other missing persons
cases were opened, such as the temporary disappearance of six university
students in 1982 in which 10 military officials are implicated.
Arrest warrants in this case were issued in 1995 for Juan Blas
Salazar, Alexander Hernandez, Manuel de Jesus Trejo and Billy Joya Amendola.
All, except for Juan Blas Salazar who was already imprisoned on a
narcotics conviction, fled the country.
Charges were later dropped against Salazar because amnesties pardoned
military officials as well as members of leftist groups.
This resolution was opposed by the Public Ministry in 1999 when it
appealed the amnesties as unconstitutional. The Public Ministry sustained that
the amnesties were granted for political crimes and not for overlooking
common crimes, such as illegal detention and murder. There is much confusion surrounding
the amnesties and how to apply justice.
More so when on July 18, the Appeals Court put an end to the case
against several officials in Choluteca.
These officials were accused of the illegal detention and murder of
one Honduran and one Nicaraguan businessman.
The accused, retired Gen. Daniel Bali Castillo, Marco Antonio Matute
Lagos and Manuel Enrique Suarez, were released after being questioned by the
court. All that's left are the resolutions
of the Criminal Court of Justice against former military officials Alexander
Hernandez, who is still a fugitive from justice, and Juan Blas Salazar.
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Gov't foresees sale of all phone
shares According to Mario Aguero Lacayo, a
member of the government's privatization consulting board, although the
central government will initially retain 45 percent of shares in the
telephone company (HONDUTEL) when it sold to a private company, these will
also be sold in the foreseeable future. Aguero said once the remaining shares
rise in value, they will be sold, thus transferring investment obligations
to buyers, "if not, we are not accomplishing anything." Aguero also said this strategy will
allow the government to stop investing in infrastructure and increase
spending on health and education. -- La Tribuna Prostitutes blamed for AIDS cases Casa Alianza or Covenant House
Honduras on Monday said the number of street youths with HIV/AIDS they
attend has increased due to the large of number of brothels located near
their institution. Gustavo Zelaya, Casa Alianza's legal
coordinator, said they have on numerous occasions denounced to authorities
that the brothels, disguised as bars, are a threat to street children. -- La
Tribuna Candidate threatens to sue
reporter Oscar Kilgore, a TV commentator, San
Pedro Sula councilman and aspiring mayoral candidate, has flatly denied
stating in a recent interview with El Heraldo reporter Sogelia Alvarado that
the president of the Supreme Court, Oscar Armando Avila, shamelessly uses
Supreme Court funds and vehicles to campaign for the next elections, among
other things. Alvarado published an article in El
Heraldo based on the interview and says she has witnesses to her
interviewing Kilgore, as well as to his statements.
Apparently, the photographer accompanying Alvarado overheard the
conversation. Meanwhile, Judge Randolfo Discua has
initiated investigative proceedings into the matter to determine whether
Kilgore will be charged with contempt in detriment of the president of the
Supreme Court. As a result,
Kilgore has threatened to sue the El Heraldo reporter for misquoting him. ¾
La Tribuna Campesinos object to importing
corn The National Campesino Association (ANACH)
on Monday said they object to plans by the Honduran Agricultural Marketing
Institutes (IHMA) to import corn. Natividad Mejia, an ANACH
representative, said that although IHMA is presently accepting offers for
the importation of 100,000 quintals (100 lbs.) of corn, due to government
bureaucracy the corn probably will not get here until next month when
harvesting begins and the deficit ends. Mejia said these types of purchases
should be better planned so that they arrive during the months of May, June
and July when the shortage is most severe to avoid high prices that
adversely affect consumers. -- La Tribuna CODEH closes four regional offices The regional director of the
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) this week
announced the closure of four of their six offices in Olancho, Santa Barbara
and western Honduras. The former representative from
Olancho, Victor Moreno, said the local population is deeply concerned about
the situation due to the fact that the human rights commissioner's regional
office was also closed for financial reasons. Duarte said the committee regretted abandoning the region. "Unfortunately, international financing for human rights has dried up or is being channeled through the central government and we foresee closing all offices by December," he said. -- El Heraldo
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Monday, July 17, 2000 Online Edition 29 |
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302
kids and youth murdered in two years
Many
wish that homeless minors and youths -- viewed as a scourge on society and a
blight on business -- would just disappear.
Honduras obliges.
By W. E. GUTMAN More than 300
homeless children and street youths were assassinated in Honduras in the
past two‑and‑a‑half years.
So charges Casa Alianza in a widely circulated document recently
released from its San Jose headquarters. Alleging that
the crimes are the result of an agenda of methodical "social
cleansing," the respected child advocacy group, whose programs in
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua have been touted as models of
hope, healing and rehabilitation, has called on the U.N. to investigate and
help bring the killers to justice. Chronicling a
wave of murders between January 1998 and May 2000, the report is the
culmination of an exhaustive investigation by Casa Alianza's Legal Aid
offices in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.
Statistics show that 93 percent of the 302 victims were males; 55
percent were minors. The ages
of 16 of the victims, mangled beyond recognition, could not be determined.
This means that the total percentage of child victims could rise to
60 percent. Shockingly,
figures for the year 2000 indicate an increase in the murders of minors
under the age of 15. In 1999,
15 minors under the age of 15 were murdered, whereas 13 children under the
age of 15 met a violent death since May 31, 2000.
Statistics also show that in 1998, 22 percent of the 79 youths killed
that year were between the ages of 19 and 22.
In 1999, this number increased to 52 percent (90 out of 172 murders). Most of the
murders (76 percent) took place in the departments of Cortes and in
Francisco Morazan, where Honduras' largest urban agglomerations -- San Pedro
Sula and Tegucigalpa, respectively -- are located. Casa Alianza
explicitly blames the constabulary, private security and members of the
armed forces for many of the crimes. A CULTURE OF HATRED Influenced by
political diehards and pressured by commercial interests, the Honduran
government, a signatory of the 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the
Child, has done little to stem a protracted tide of violence against street
children and homeless youths. It
has done even less to correct the grave social ills that contribute to a
steady proliferation of homelessness and child abandonment. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, one member of Congress calls the U.N. compact a
"radical, dangerous document that usurps parental authority and foists
unwarranted government interference in family life."
Decoded, the congressman's position, one shared by many of his
colleagues, translates into blanket advocacy and unconditional endorsement
of any means -- violence included -- to rid the nation of its new pariahs. The general
citizenry has reacted to the bloodletting with characteristic hostility
against the victims: "Delinquents
and other dregs of society should be dealt with in any way necessary,"
offers a Tegucigalpa shoe‑store owner. "Image is
what drives the business machine," argues a maquila
operator outside San Pedro Sula. "Crime
has sullied that image." "The
police have a job to do. Let
them," pleads a restaurant operator in La Ceiba. INDIFFERENCE AND INEPTITUDE Six months ago,
Casa Alianza formally requested a list of murder cases involving children
and youths under the age of 23. Minister
for Public Security in Honduras Elizabeth Chiuz Sierra has failed to
respond. The government has classified the perpetrators as
"unknown," a device often used in Honduras to divert attention
from woefully inept investigations or to disguise the authorities'
unwillingness to identify and prosecute the guilty. The Casa
Alianza study proves beyond doubt that police and security forces were
involved in 36 (or 12 percent) of the murders.
Casa Alianza has filed a formal request with the Office of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and the U.N. Special
Rapporteur on Arbitrary Extrajudicial Executions, Asma Jahangen, for a joint
investigation. The State of
Honduras has also been invited to participate. "We have
shared every lead, every scrap of evidence, every piece of documentation
with Honduran authorities," said Bruce Harris, Executive Director for
Casa Alianza's Latin American Programs, "yet they have shown little
interest in prosecuting the guilty. We
will therefore have to use all means at our disposal to obtain swift and
decisive redress. We are not
looking for revenge. We seek
justice and application of existing laws. It is the least we can do for the
most deprived, persecuted and vulnerable elements of society." PROFIT FROM CALAMITY? Justice is not
a "loophole." A right
is not a "technicality." Aggressive
prosecution of adults who deny homeless children their rights --- or breach
them -- is not a capricious pursuit of law, as some claim, but a valid
statutory process. In societies
such as Honduras, where these rights have been habitually curtailed or
trampled, where existing constitutional guarantees are wantonly ignored or
violated, homeless minors must not only find shelter from the elements, they
also require an advocate to litigate against their tormentors, be they
abusive parents, sexual predators, unscrupulous cops, corrupt magistrates,
or sadistic prison wardens. No one
understands this better than Casa Alianza.
But the situation in Honduras (and elsewhere in Central America)
demonstrates that even where strong and effective advocates are willing to
defend children and help them seek justice, without the concern and
commitment of government, the judiciary, law enforcement and strong public
pressure, abuses against them will continue unabated. A nation that
does not protect its children has no future.
Nor does entrenched and immovable political corruption, a gangrenous
judicial system, poverty, crumbling infrastructures, and mounting crime
inspire much confidence in the present.
And so reality endures in Honduras one more day, shielded and
perpetuated by the naive who don't know how to look, the cowardly who
pretend not to see and the mighty who can be counted on to squeeze hefty
profits from calamity when no one is watching. Extrajudicial Executions 1998-2000 - Stats
* Department of
Criminal Investigations Rural
school teacher rebuilds life with the help of seeds By ROSIBEL PACHECO DE GUTIERREZ "A country
without dreams is a country without heroes," said Dr. Armando Reyes
Pacheco with passion and determination. Reyes Pacheco,
director of the AgriFuture Foundation, was reminiscing about Hurricane Mitch
and the events surrounding a 38-year-old elementary school teacher named
Isabel Arriola in the community of Santa Rosa de Aguan. During the
hurricane, this North Coast town was washed out to sea by flooding and
Arriola lost everything, including her husband and three children, said
Reyes Pacheco. She tried to
save her smallest child, but the waves snatched him away. "I tried
to stay above water, to see above the waves.
I swam and swam trying to save my child and take him to a safe place
but I couldn't hold on. Later I
realized I was in the open sea," was her account. She remained in
the Caribbean for six days. Everything
indicated that her fate was sealed: there was no one to help her, her
strength was abandoning her and the burning sun and the dark nights
exhausted her. But Isabel
Arriola would not give up, clinging on to life and hope, said Reyes Pacheco. She fought on with faith and decided that with the help of
God she would defy total adversity. PRAYERS ANSWERED After six long
days and nights in the turbulent waters, from far away and above, the answer
to her prayers came in the form of a British sailor who reached down for her
from a helicopter. She had been
rescued from the water. Reyes Pacheco
tried to hide a furtive tear while retelling the story.
But he did not hide his desire to help and support this woman who had
nothing left but her desire to live and her will to snatch back from the
hands of adversity the faith that conquers the world. "Isabel
Arriola is a hero. Her story is
reserved to be lived by heroes," said Reyes Pacheco. But the story
didn't end with her rescue. On May 24,
1999, the efforts of doers in the United States and Honduras bore fruit, and
the Municipality of El Porvenir, Atlantida donated a parcel of land for
building a house in a development complex for victims of the hurricane,
including Arriola. A dream began
to take shape, thanks in part to the AgriFuture Foundation, a non-profit
organization operating out of Washington, D.C. "The
foundation seeks financial support and in-kind resources to support rural
development projects, with emphasis on women, native population issues,
children education, extreme poverty and natural disaster relief," said
Reyes Pacheco. "Thus,
through small donations, money was raised to build a house for Isabel
Arriola." With the
construction of Arriola's house, another dream was born: adopt a school for
her to become a teacher again. And
this second dream literally began as a seed. In November
1998, while members of the Internet seed exchange forum on the Gardenweb
were trying to deal with a prankster who was sending them nasty e-mails, one
person posted a message challenging other members to help those who were
suffering instead of wasting time on troublemakers.
That is how groups of gardeners who only knew each other in
cyberspace began sending seeds to Honduras. Since then,
thousands of pounds of vegetable seeds have been sent to women in rural
areas. Diverse companies,
schools, children and civic groups in the United States have sent money and
seeds to Sembremos (Let's Plant) Seeds of Hope. SEEDS OF KNOWLEDGE Now the seeds
to be planted are the seeds of knowledge as the Sembremos Seeds of Hope
Rural School -- where Arriola will teach -- is being built thanks to the
goodwill of those who listened and believed in the power of a single seed. "It is
amazing how devastation can bring people together, how despair can foster
hope," said Reyes Pacheco. "In
areas stricken by disaster, hope can come in all different sizes, from as
large as a house, to as small as a seed." But the vision
of Reyes Pacheco goes much further. His
institution believes that education is necessary but not enough.
It is essential to improve living conditions. To this end the Computerless Project has been designed, which
aims to provide one personal computer, connected to the Internet, to every
rural school of Latin America and the Caribbean. Once again, Arriola is involved, having adopted this dream
and becoming the project's spokesperson. In its first
stage, the project has so far installed 225 personal computers in the
Dominican Republic, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica,
Saint Lucia, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. Soon, Arriola's
house will be open, as will the school where she will teach.
Also, soon, the school children will be connected to the rest of the
world through the Net. According to
Arriola, on the sixth day "I started to talk with this bird.
I said, 'Little bird, send a message that I'm alive.
Take me to my people. Take
me to the shore.' I started
crying and I said, 'Why don't you take me so that I can fly somewhere with
you?'" For Isabel
Arriola the deluge ended and, with the guidance of a bird, like the dove
that guided Noah, a new dawn began with a rainbow. Five urban communities to install first ag, health, crafts fair
By ROSA DEL CARMEN AGUILAR Special to
Honduras This Week A dream came
true this month for the inhabitants of the Area Development Project (ADP)
Brisas del Valle, which includes five urban communities located in Honduras'
capital city, when the authorities of World Vision and CARE signed an
agreement that promotes the installation of an agriculture, health, and
craftsmanship fair. "This fair
will be based on the Nutritional and Food Security Strategy to allow the
communities direct access to food without the interference of middlemen and
to educate the families to take care of their health," said Irma
Servellon, Brisas del Valle ADP coordinator. According to
Servellon, the Nutritional and Food Security Strategy integrates the
components of nutritional education, community organization, access to
health centers, economics, and distribution of products, among others.
This strategy promotes empowerment for the developing communities
since it makes them capable of selecting and leading a lifestyle that
assures their well-being. "The
communities feel happy with this project; as their representative, I can
tell that they have a lot of expectations to seek new ways of development.
I am sure they are capable of making this happen," said Reyna
Aguilar, community leader. The community
groups coordinated by World Vision and CARE with the participation of the
Health and Education Ministries are organizing the fair, which will initiate
as an experimental project this coming September and will be extended to
other World Vision ADP's throughout the following years. The first step
of the project is buying a plot of land of 0.7 hectares located in the same
ratio of the communities benefitted by the Brisas del Valle ADP.
The fair will be permanently installed on this area. CARE will
participate in the fair with a group of farmers, who will provide the
vegetables, fruits, and grains to be commercialized.
Meanwhile, World Vision will have a group of 100 salesfamilies and a
watch-discipline committee. "Our
participation will generate 100 new jobs that will benefit 100 sponsored
families, guaranteeing a basic income for most of them," said Darrel
Caceres, World Vision Central Region adviser. Based on its
previous experience organizing crafts fairs, CARE will train World Vision's
salesfamilies to initiate the experimental project. "With this
agreement we want to accomplish a local arrangement through which the
communities become responsible of promoting their food and economic
security," said Gloria Manzanares, CARE assistant program director.
A mobile clinic will be installed in the health area of the fair
where a doctor and a nurse will give free medical attention to the consumers
every weekend. Fifty percent
of the five communities' inhabitants are under the age of 35 and 45 percent
of them do not have a permanent job; their incomes depending on temporary
activities. "We
believe that this is going to be a valuable experience for both
organizations; it is our desire that this project, under the coordination of
Brisas del Valle ADP, will succeed to benefit the most needy families, to
whom we serve. We hope they can own the fair to make sustainable development
possible," said Milagro de Castro, World Vision Honduras executive
director. Rosa del Carmen Aguilar is the WVH communications
coordinator. For more
information about the fair, call 236-7024 or 236-7028. Honduran
school names reflect local heros By WENDY GRIFFIN Every school,
kindergarten, and library in Honduras has a name.
These names often reflect local heros, such as the "Juan
Brooks" or "Arnauld Auld" schools on Roatan, both names of
long-time pioneering Bay Islands teachers. The "Pompilio
Ortega" Agriculture School is named for the founder of the Coyocutena
Agricultural School in La Libertad, Comayagua.
Pompilio Ortega, the son of a farmer from La Libertad, went on to
obtain a degree in agronomy from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. When he first
returned to Honduras, he was the principal of the Normal School for Young
Men where he had studied high school. Then
in 1924 he was named vice minister of education.
But after only one year in that position, he resigned to follow his
dream of founding the Coyocutena Agricultural School in his hometown. His dedication
to this school was such that twice Notre Dame University invited him to come
and teach and twice he declined. There were no
admission requirements to the school. Educational
opportunities were so scarce at this time that there were no high schools in
San Pedro Sula or anywhere else on the North Coast. Students at this school studied general primary education
topics well as agriculture. Most students
had no money to pay. Ortega
received cloth donations to make clothes for the students, who also received
food, health care, and school supplies free of charge.
The products produced by the students of the school also helped to
pay for these costs. La Libertad,
Comayagua is famous for its coffee and part of that credit must go to
Pompilio Ortega, who taught coffee growing at his school.
In 1943, he was named to the National Directorate of Agriculture in
the area of coffee. In this
position, he published a bulletin on growing coffee.
He was also instrumental in founding the Association of Coffee
Growers of Honduras, an earlier version of the Honduran Coffee Producers
Association (AHPROCAFE). Under
his leadership, two nurseries were set up in Los Limones and El Matason,
Comayagua, which distributed thousands of small coffee trees to growers. Pompilio Ortega
is also remembered as the founder of the first Boy Scout troop in Honduras
and he published a book of Honduran folklore Honduras that he called "Patrios
Lares," which was republished in 1996 by the National University. He accomplished all of this despite suffering from asthma,
which was ultimately the cause of his death. The story of
Pompilio Ortega is told in the book "Aprender Produciendo"
published by Editorial Centro of San Pedro Sula. |
The
face of youth denied: The
murder of Alexander Obando Reyes On April 10,
199, a 17-year-old orphan and carpenter apprentice, Alexander Obando
Reyes, a resident of Casa Alianza, was shot to death by a policeman in
Tegucigalpa. According to
witnesses, Alexander and a friend, Luis Sosa, another teenager in the
Casa Alianza program, were strolling in the La Merced Park when they
were accosted by a uniformed policeman.
Visibly inebriated, the officer began to argue with the boys and
threatened them. He drew
his gun and fired a shot in the air. Frightened,
Alexander fled the scene. He
hailed a taxi and got in. The
policeman fired a shot at the vehicle, narrowly missing the driver.
Alexander jumped out of the cab.
He was shot in the chest and abdomen.
Mortally wounded the boy rolled into the river and the officer
ran off. The police were
summoned. An ambulance
rushed Alexander to the Hospital Escuela, where he underwent emergency
surgery. A second operation
the next day failed to save Alexander's life.
He expired a few hours later. Casa Alianza's
Legal Aid Office has filed a formal complaint with the National Police
Office of Professional Responsibility and with the First Criminal Judge
of Letters in Tegucigalpa. Reports
have also shared with Human Rights Commissioner, Dr. Leon Valladares,
and with First Lady Mary Flores. Casa
Alianza also made a formal complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office
for Human Rights. The crime
was assigned Case No. 53/99. The
DIC has identified two policemen as possible suspects: Walter Enrique Moncada Duarte and Hugo Leonel Mendoza. The men have not yet been apprehended. Honduras:
a violent nation Honduras, with
a population of just six million, is one of the most violent nations in
Latin America, according to a study released last month. Speaking at a
forum on crime, sociologist Julietta Castellanos said that Honduras has
45‑50 violent deaths per 1,000 people.
The World Health Organization has categorized 10 violent deaths
per 1,000 people as a "dangerous environment." From 1998 to 1999, the number if complaints filed with police in Honduras climbed from 9,964 to 46,200 ‑‑ an increase of 469 percent. Deliberate under‑reporting is widely suspected. Predictably, people out of work commit 40 percent of the crimes. (Source: AFP/Tico Times) Dollarization
of medical fees causes
outrage By BLANCA MORENO TEGUCIGALPA --
To keep up the trend of "reducing poverty," the Colegio Medico
or Medical Association of Honduras has hiked and dollarized fees for
medical consultations, aggravating even more the nation's fragile
economy. Recent statistics
reveal that an estimated seven out of 10 Hondurans currently live below
the poverty line. Given the
new fees, most people will not be forced to either use the inefficient
public health system or go without medical treatment at all. Politicians,
businessmen, professionals and the public coincide in that education,
health and housing are the country's main problems at this moment.
However, when it comes to administrating them, there is utter
chaos, with a high rate of illiteracy, illnesses and people without
homes. Bilingual
education is already exorbitantly expensive.
Now, the Medical Association has raised the price of medical
attention and dollarized it. The
lempira is currently 15 to 1 dollar, but this situation could change at
any moment. The reform to
the medical statutes, which has been criticized for its insensibility,
states in Article 7 that "professional fees for medical services
are established in accordance with the price of the U.S. dollar, which
is regulated by the Central Bank in compliance with its exchange policy,
but must be paid in national currency at the prevailing exchange rate at
the moment of payment." In Honduras, a
woman dies from pregnancy complications of all types once every 13
hours. But this was not
taken into account by the doctors who now officially charge Lps. 400 for
a gynecological consultation, Lps. 9,000 for a normal birth, Lps. 10,000
for induced birth, Lps. 15,000 for the birth of twins, and Lps. 15,000
for a C-section. The cost of a C-section with hysterectomy is now Lps. 30,000
or $2,000. These new rates could lead to a higher mortality rate in an already obsolete health and social security system. It is expected that the measure will be reconsidered this week. The Medical Association has received much criticism for its insensibility and for converting the Hippocratic oath into the hypocrisy oath.
Unions set time limit for demands Honduras' three
main workers unions have threatened to conduct massive demonstrations if
the government does not meet their demand in the next week. Union leaders
are reminding government officials of their promises to negotiate with
the private sector and corresponding government institutions an
across-the-board wage hike raise, to review the application of agrarian
reform and privatization polices, and to stabilize the prices of basic
staples. -- El Heraldo Six to 12 years for corruption The new penal
code currently under revision establishes jail sentences from six to 12
years for public officials convicted on charges of corruption, as well
as the transfer of investigating these crimes to Public Ministry. This measure is
aimed at reducing corruption in the public sector since it would also
enable the Ministry to charge judges involved in illicit activities. It is hoped
that the new Penal Code, which is scheduled to go into effect in
February 2002, will contribute toward a more transparent, agile, just
and effective judicial system. --
El Heraldo First lady delivers aid to Tolupans In light of the
dire situation of the Tolupan tribe residing on the Montana de la Flor,
a high-level committee consisting of Moises Starkman, minister of the
Honduran Social Investment Fund; Guillermo Alvarado Downing, the
Minister of Agriculture and Cattle Ranching; Anibal Delgado Fiallos, the
director of the National Agrarian Institute; and First Lady Mary Flores
made a special food delivery to the area on Tuesday. After
conversing with several indigenous leaders, the officials promised to
provide aid to the group in the way of improved infrastructure, medical
and farming assistance, and assist them in obtaining a non-governmental
organization to carry out specific aid and technical projects. --
La Tribuna 90% of basic grains lost The President
of the National Campesinos Organization, Benedicto Carcamo, announced
last week that 90 percent of the basic grain crops in the departments of
Choluteca and Valle as well as in several western municipalities have
been lost due to a prolonged dry spell. Carcamo also
expressed his concern over severe food shortages that will result in
light of the crop losses, stating that his organization is currently
negotiating rural credits to alleviate future problems. --
La Tribuna Honduras to host tournament The Central
American Soccer League on Tuesday announced that Honduras will host the
next Nation's Cup in the cities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa in the
year 2001. -- La Tribuna Mayor's office closes 50 businesses The Mayor's
Office of Tegucigalpa last week closed 50 businesses for tax evasion.
According to municipal official Adolfo Padilla, the measure is
temporary and as soon as the businesses pay their taxes there operating
permits will be renewed and they will be allowed to open again. Approximately 200 more businesses can expect similar sanctions from the mayor's office. -- La Tribuna
|
Monday, July 10, 2000 Online Edition 28 |
|
After
eight years of negotiations
Mexico
signs FTA with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala
By BLANCA MORENO MEXICO CITY --Exactly 72 hours before the general elections, The historic agreement was signed June 29 in a ceremony at the
Chapultepec castle -- the former residence of the Emperor Maximilian I and
Spanish colonial governors and now a museum -- by Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores, Guatemalan President Alfonso
Portillo and Honduran Vice President William Handal. Presidents Miguel Angel Rodriguez of Costa Rica, Mireya Moscoso of Panama
and Arnoldo Aleman of Nicaragua served as witnesses at the ceremony. Honduran President Carlos Flores did not attend due to illness. According to officials, the agreement, which takes effect on Jan. 1,
2001, will strengthen trade relations between Mexico and the Northern
Triangle, as well as understanding, cooperation and development among the
countries. Approximately 57 percent of Mexican exports to the Northern Triangle will
no longer have to pay import duties once the treaty takes effect, and
another 15 percent during a three to five year period. Meanwhile, Mexico will no longer charge import duties on 65 percent of
Honduran, Salvadoran and Guatemalan exports to that country and another 24
percent during the same period. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will eliminate import duties on
chemicals, automobile parts, heavy vehicles and certain tools and equipment.
Import duties on other industrial products will be lowered gradually
over a two to five year period and the duty on tires will be eliminated over
a seven to 10 year period. Duties on plastics, paints, certain types of cable, ballpoint pens,
furniture, screws and electrical appliances will also be eliminated. Among the products temporarily excluded from the negotiations by Mexico
are sugar, coffee and plantains. The
three Central American countries excluded bananas and coffee, El Salvador
and Honduras sugar, and Honduras textiles. In 1998, Central America purchased more than $10 billion in Mexican
products. Agricultural
high schools train future farmers, ranchers
The overwhelming majority of Honduras' exports come from agro-businesses
such as coffee, bananas, melons and meat.
Many people in Honduras still plant corn with digging sticks (pujaguantes
or chuzas) much as their Mayan ancestors did.
To help farmers' children make the transition from age old techniques
to globally competitive agro-business, Honduras has three technical high
schools that specialize in preparing future farmers. On the North Coast outside of La Ceiba, in San Francisco, Atlantida, is
the J.F. Kennedy Agricultural School. In
western Honduras, the Pompileo Ortega Agricultural School at Casa Quemada,
Marcuelizo, Santa Barbara is just off the highway between San Pedro Sula and
Santa Rosa de Copan. The Luis
Landa Agriculture School is in the southern Honduras town of Nacaome, Valle. All three schools offer the same three-year program for students who have
completed ninth grade (Plan Basico).
Upon graduation from an agricultural high school, students receive
the degree "Bachiller Tecnico Agropecuario" (agricultural
technician). After graduation, about 25 percent of the students go on to university
studies in agriculture at the National Agriculture School (ENA) in Catacamas,
the Pan American Agriculture School at Zamorano, the National School of
Forestry Sciences (ENACIFOR) in Siguatepeque or the National Autonomous
University's agronomy program at the Atlantic Coast Regional University
Center (CURLA) in La Ceiba.
The majority of the students live on campus in dorms.
The state pays the teachers, but all other funds for cleaning
supplies, building maintenance, and service personnel have to come either
from the Lps. 900 a month the students pay for room, board, and education or
from the sale of agricultural products grown at the school, says
veterinarian Dr. Hector Eduardo Dubon, director of the Pompileo Ortega
Agricultural School. Because
Lps. 900 a month is out of the reach of many rural families, some
students receive scholarships of Lps. 800 from the Ministry of Natural
Resources. Other students
receive scholarships of Lps. 100 from the Ministry of Education, which about
covers the cost of soft drinks. Students often do not come from the same area as the school.
At the Santa Barbara school, students come from Francisco Morazan,
Comayagua, Yoro, Lempira, Ocotepeque and Copan departments, as well as Santa
Barbara. The students' program is divided into general studies, such as math,
science, Spanish, social studies and agricultural classes.
These include administration; use of agricultural equipment such as
tractors and plows; industrialization; vegetable, grain and commercial
agriculture; and livestock. The school in Santa Barbara has 125 hectares of land that were donated by
a local cooperative in return for certain favors that it never received.
The land is for growing crops and raising animals, although some of
it is in litigation due to the failure of the school to carry out its end of
the bargain. There are special laboratories for processing meat products like baloney,
canned fruits, milk products and food concentrate.
The building for the soil conservation lab has been built, but the
ministry has not authorized funding for a teacher so the building remains
locked. Of the 250 students enrolled in Santa Barbara, half go to class in the
morning, while the other half work in the school's fields.
The program also includes a 2-month work internship with a local
agro-business, such as Chumbagua Sugar Company or COAVAL, a local dairy
processing cooperative. The school has no lands appropriate for coffee, so when they study this
subject, students must go out to work on local coffee plantations.
Up until now the school has emphasized the use of agro-chemicals, an
important source of contamination in Honduras.
The students take an ecology course that includes measures to
minimize water pollution. The
Pan American Agricultural School, with funding from GTZ, will be working
with the agricultural high schools to make curriculum changes to include
sustainable agriculture, including organic agriculture and integrated pest
management. In addition to serving high school age students, these schools also serve
as training centers for local farmers and cooperatives.
Plan in Honduras will build classrooms for training and another for a
computer lab at the Santa Barbara school.
However, the school does not have computers for the lab and the phone
connection is so bad that connection to the Internet is not possible.
There is no auditorium or multi-use room for training, but dorms are
available. In spite of limitations such as the lack of an irrigation system, the
school remains dedicated to agricultural development through training for
Honduras' largest industries. EC
donates meat processing lab
By WENDY GRIFFIN Within 20 years of their arrival in Honduras, the Spanish had widely
distributed the raising of European domesticated animals for meat, such as
cows, chickens and pigs. Despite
more than four centuries of experience in raising livestock, however,
Honduras has struggled in the area of meat processing and how to teach it. The quality of Honduran meat products is a hot topic among some people in
the local ex-patriot community. Anyone
who has seen beef sold with the carcass of the dead cow in a wooden cart or
worse, on the road as its owner cuts off pieces with a machete, will
understand that technicized meat processing doesn't always come naturally to
Hondurans. Sun-dried beef jerky
and sausage hand ground in a meat grinder are the traditional forms of
processed meats here, according to home economics students of the National
Teaching University. To get good processed meat products, high quality control and regulated
temperature are needed. Excellent
hygiene, the right equipment and technical know how are also necessary.
Also, a good recipe is essential for processed meats like salami,
baloney, sausage and hot dogs. An
analysis of the training needs of students studying agro-business
administration found these requirements to be in short supply, said a
teacher at the Pompilio Ortega Agricultural School. Recently the Honduran Association for the Formation of Professionals (AHFOP),
funded by the European Economic Community, donated a meat processing lab to
the agricultural school. The
staff was sent to Europe to visit meat-packing plants in France and Spain to
study milk and meat processing. When
the equipment arrived in Honduras, Italian technicians trained staff to use
and maintain the equipment as well as maintain quality control. Looking at a salami, it is hard to imagine all that goes into making it.
The first step is assuring the quality of the meat, which is kept in
a refrigerated room. After
measuring out how much meat is to be used, the students learn how much
spices and preservatives to add. The first machine cuts the meat into small pieces.
Then it is placed in a mixer where the condiments are added.
For meats that are sold as a paste, like salami and baloney, the meat
again passes through a cutter. A special machine stuffs the meat paste in the casing.
Salami, hot dogs and baloney are cooked or scalded in another special
machine. Ham requires other
machines, such as a massager. When meat is taken out of the refrigerated room, it is obviously cold.
A rapid change in temperature would lower the quality of the meat.
So the machines are iced down before running, thus ensuring better
quality meat products. This
requires ice making machines. By improving the training of the people who process the meat and raise
the animals, modernization will not just be a word, notes Pompileo Ortega
Agriculture School Principal Dr. Hector Eduardo Dubon.
It will mean more hygienic and healthy foods on the tables of
Hondurans. |
JICA
to offer technical training in mining processing By SUYAPA CARIAS The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has agreed to
provide technical training and cooperation in mineral processing and
wastewater treatment to personnel of the Direccion Ejecutiva de Fomento
a la Mineria (DEFOMIN), a new decentralized office of the Minister of
Natural Resources and Environment (SERNA). The document was signed last June 28 in Tegucigalpa in the presence of
JICA representatives Yukinori Abe, Toru Yoshida and Kohei Kawakita,
DEFOMIN executive director Amilcar Zuniga, and staff members Leonel
Claros, Raul Calix, Jose Aguero, Fernando Ramirez, Cesar Rodriguez and
Tatiana Mejia. As part of a regional cooperation program, the three-year agreement will
provide 12 local multidisciplinary experts with technical training at a
geoscience and environmental research institute in Colombia.
Meanwhile, JICA will send some of their experts in the mining
field to Honduras and it will donate laboratory equipment and machinery. "We are really satisfied as this agreement represents the
continuation of assistance we have been getting from Japan for several
years, first through the former Dirección General de Minas e
Hidracarburos, and now through this new autonomous agency [DEFOMIN],"
said Zuniga. According to
Zuniga, the agency was created to simplify administrative and
bureaucratic work, thereby making the mining industry more dynamic and
attractive to foreign investors. "Honduras has historically been a mining country...the problem is
that it hasn't applied a successful policy capable of developing this
industry...," said Zuniga. But the good news is that during the current Flores administration, the
National Congress passed a new mining law, replacing the old Mining Code
that dated back to the 60s. "This
factor brings extraordinary expectations to the productive sector, given
the country's great mining potential," he added. Zuniga said the agency is at this moment preparing a map of mining
deposits. There are currently five major mining projects in different parts of the country, mostly at an exploration phase, looking for gold, silver, zinc and lead.
Street vendors to be removed again Due to pressures from the Office of the Special Government Prosecutor for
Ethnic and Cultural Affairs to keep the historical area clean, the
Mayor's Office of Tegucigalpa on Monday initiated operations to remove
street vendors from the downtown area definitely. Gustavo
Barahona, general secretary of the mayor's office, said
operations will continue for the next few days to deter vendors from
returning. Barahona also
claimed ignorance as to the origin of the street vendors saying, "I
don't know where so many come from.
A few months ago, the ones who were there and formed part of our
census were relocated to the markets, only to be replaced by new
ones." -- El Tiempo Bus employees to wear uniforms At the suggestion of the Office of Transportation as a means of improving
services of urban bus routes, bus drivers and fare collectors last
Monday were outfitted with uniforms provided by bus owners. At the same time, the transportation office is assigning five bus
inspectors to verify that urban buses keep to their routes, schedules
and that bus employees are courteous to passengers. -- La Tribuna and El
Tiempo Cases of diarrhea down from 1999 Despite 98,000 cases of diarrhea in children under 5 years of age so far
this year, the Ministry of Health says the number of cases has declined
since last year. According
to health statistics, the number of cases recorded in the first six
months of last year was 144,000. Health officials attribute the decline to educational hygiene campaigns
against cholera. One
official stated, "Although an enormous amount is spent on
preventive campaigns, this cost is still less than the cost of
treatment." -- La Tribuna July issue of Playboy sold out According to Honduran magazine vendors, the July issue of the
international magazine Playboy, in which Honduran model and playboy
bunny Iveth Cortez poses nude together with other Latin models in a
section titled "Nice Chalupas," has sold out. The vendors stated that although many Hondurans were waiting expectantly
for the July issue, they received their usual monthly consignment of
just two magazines, which were not enough to fill the demand. --El
Tiempo Tolupans on the brink of starvation Government Prosecutor for Ethnic Affairs, Gilberto Sanchez, on Tuesday
said the Ministry of Health told his office that members of the Tolupan
indigenous group living on the Montana
de la Flor are on the brink of starvation. Health officials said the Tolupanes have been reduced to eating just
mangos because they have nothing else, a problem that has caused severe
gastrointestinal illnesses among the population, as well as a 86 percent
malnutrition rate in children. -- La Prensa Magna Chemicals accused of contamination Magna Chemical, previously Dinant Chemicals, will be indicted by the
Central American Water Tribune for allegedly contaminating underground
water sources, which has resulted in the destruction of flora and fauna
of the Juana Lainez hill located in Tegucigalpa. According to an environmentalist, the hill was once home to 264 species of flora and fauna that have been reduced to a mere 24 due to chemical contamination. The company has already been sued eight times without success. -- El Tiempo
|
Monday, July 3, 2000 Online Edition 27 |
|
All
ears U.S.
military surgeons restore hearing to Hondurans
By PAT MCKENNA Special to Honduras This Week Concepion Ortiz never really enjoyed
the merengue, salsa or any of the other Latin music his friends liked.
The sounds of strumming mariachis and the throbbing beats of bongos and
timbales fell on deaf ears ... literally. An ear infection had robbed him of
normal hearing when he was only a toddler.
As a little boy, Ortiz couldn't hear his mother's whisper or the way his
little sister giggled. In the United States, Ortiz would
have received antibiotic treatment and bounced back from the infection in a
matter of weeks, but not in Honduras. Medicines
here are in short supply, and access to medical care is limited. But Ortiz, 18, never complained about
his condition. Instead, he suffered in silence.
He saw how his father, an amputee who lost his hand in a farming
accident, always wore a smile on his face, despite miserable living conditions.
So Ortiz grinned and bore his misery. Today, Ortiz has something to smile
about. Earlier this month, U.S.
military surgeons operated on the boy's ravaged middle ear, and doctors
anticipate one day he will be capable of normal hearing. TEXAS TEAM For the first two weeks of June, a
team of doctors, nurses and medical technicians from two military hospitals in
San Antonio, Texas operated on indigent patients with perforated eardrums from
chronic infections at Leonardo Martinez Hospital in San Pedro Sula, the
country's industrial and trade capital. The team was composed of two staff
otolaryngologists (ear, nose and throat doctors), two ENT residents, one staff
and one resident anesthesiologist, one nurse anesthetist, two operating room
nurses, and three operating room technicians from the Air Force's Wilford Hall
Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center.
Additionally, Soto Cano Air Base provided a physician to serve as officer
in charge of the mission as well as a soldier to translate.
The Alamo City surgical team brought all the supplies and equipment they
would need to operate, everything from gauze pads and scalpels to a pair of
operating‑room microscopes and anesthesia machines.
"But the experience has been
really helpful," Anderson said. "Now
if I have to deploy on a real‑world mission, I'll know what I need to take
with me in the field. This is like
a dry run." MEDICAL EXERCISES These ENT missions, conducted
semiannually in Honduras, are called MEDRETEs, short for medical readiness
training exercises, but Maj. (Dr.) Jon Workman said the first priority is
treating patients. "Patient care comes first,"
said Workman, a Wilford Hall staff otolaryngologist and the team's chief.
"We want to provide care to a population that wouldn't otherwise
receive this treatment. And it's
also a training mission to improve our medical readiness. "For residents, this training is
second to none. It's a year's worth
of training in two weeks. We get to do the same cases over and over, and these cases
are transferable to military care." In two weeks, the team scheduled more
than 40 surgeries, operating on about five patients a day.
Workman said he doesn't see nearly the same volume at Wilford Hall, and
might perform only 40 surgeries in a single year. Most patients examined have suffered
from chronic otitis media, a middle ear infection that damages and scars the
eardrum. The infected ear drains continuously,
discharging a putrid pus that one parent described as smelling like "a dead
dog." "Some of these patients have had
ear infections for years, even decades," said Maj. (Dr.) David Malis, a
BAMC ear, nose and throat surgeon. "I'm
honored to be able treat these people, because Honduras has been a very good
friend of the United States. It's
just one way we can show them our goodwill." LONG WAITING LIST Honduran media outlets and social
workers announced the medical team's visit months in advance, resulting in so
many patients presenting themselves at the screening that some will have to wait
six months for the surgeons' return in November. "The need here is so great that
we could come down here three times as much and still have a waiting list of
candidates," Workman said. "It
tugs at my heart that I can't take care of every person in need, but I have to
be realistic. I've pushed my team
to do the most surgeries they can without compromising safety." Workman said there was no shortage of
volunteers at Wilford Hall and BAMC, who'd like to make the trip south to help
the people of Honduras. "It's a highly coveted mission,
because most of us have entered the medical field to do good," Workman
said. "This has been very
fulfilling personally and professionally. I'll
be one of the first to raise my hand to come back." Capt. (Dr.) Dana Thomas echoed
Workman's sentiments. "This is
why I became a doctor," said Thomas, a flight surgeon at Soto Cano and the
mission's OIC. "In the end,
this will probably be the most rewarding experience of my tour in Honduras. "For many families, this is the
only chance their child will have to hear.
And without hearing, you're so disconnected from the world," Thomas
said. "This surgery offers
life‑changing possibilities." Master Sgt. Pat McKenna is with the JTF-Bravo Public Affairs Office at the Soto Cano Air Base. Empowerment
of peasant leaders by church the issue By WENDY GRIFFIN Padre Ivan Betancourt, one of the
people killed at Los Horcones in Olancho 25 years ago last week, worked with the
Pech Indians to help them obtain land titles in the areas of Pueblo Nuevo
Subirana and Pisijire, Culmi, Olancho. His
work among the Pech was just one aspect of the Catholic Church's deep
involvement with Honduran peasant leaders in part through its Celabradores de la
Palabra" (Celebrators of the Word) training program.
When Church leaders decided to expand
the use of Celabradores -- lay people who lead Catholic Church services in the
absence of a priest -- they faced a church congregation that was largely
illiterate. So first literacy
programs had to be undertaken. Future
Celabradores enrolled first as students, and then studied to be group leaders. These groups used Brazilian educator Paolo Friere's
"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" to reflect on people's reality. Training for Celabradores included
the needs and rights of man, the real situation in the country, grassroots
organizing, transforming actions, cooperatives, peasant's leagues and the Social
Doctrine of the church, state Blanco and Valverde in their book "Honduras:
Iglesia y Cambio Social." Father
Betancourt emphasized in his training that the church was not about memorizing
the words of the mass, but putting the Word of God into practice or "reivindicacion"
(fight for recovery) of the rights of peasants. Many Celabradores de la Palabra and
other pastoral agents became participants or leaders in "Ligas Campesinas"
(Peasant's Leagues), peasant unions such as UNC and the cooperative movement in
Honduras. For example, it was people in charge of catechism classes in
Choluteca, where Celebradores started, who organized the movement of people to
agrarian reform settlements along the Patuca River, such as Nueva Palestina and
Nueva Choluteca. The Pech of Olancho joined the
literacy program and Ligas Campesinas while Father Betancourt lived and worked
with them. When Father Betancourt
was killed at Los Horcones, they withdrew from the Peasant Leagues and for 10
years the issue of land titles among them was not raised until the Pech
federation was organized. The Catholic Church also withdrew
from such active participation in land titling and similar social issues.
Many priests and nuns in Honduras are foreigners.
Following Los Horcones, five priests were declared persona non grata and
other priests were arrested. Later,
Father Guadelupe Carney was expelled from the country although 10,000 signatures
were collected asking the government not to carry through with it. The suspicious attitude of the
military toward the church continued during the Contra War years.
Bernardo Batiz, a Celabrador de la Palabra in the parish of Trujillo,
remembers running and having to hide Father Javier Crespo, the priest, who was
training them during the 1981-1985 period, because the military was after him
for "teaching subversion." In Tegucigalpa, far from the issue of
land reform, foreign nuns and priests reported in 1986 that they were afraid to
speak out on social issues because they might be sent out of the country, said
Dr. Edward Brett of La Roche College, who co-authored with his wife Donna Brett
the book "Dead in Central America" about American priests and nuns
killed in Central America, including Casimiro Zypher. At present, the Catholic Church
enjoys more openness than during the mid-1970s and 1980s as evidenced by their
work in Interforos and articles in the Catholic newspaper FIDES criticizing
neo-liberalism and specific policies, such as the Modernization of Agriculture
Law. That this celebration of the
lives and deaths of people killed by the Honduran military was allowed to take
place at all is also a sign of openness. Even
in Olancho, where the intellectual authors of the crime still live, people felt
safe enough to fill to the church in Juticalpa. Perhaps the attendance was somewhat
lower than might be expected, as many towns in Honduras were celebrating the
patron saint fair of Saint John the Baptist during the weekend of June 24.
However, even in these diverse communities, the martyrs of Los Horcones
were not forgotten. The priests reminded the people that
John the Baptist died because he told some hard serious truths to Herod that the
king did not want to hear. The
Herod had him killed for it. "We
do not have to look too far to find examples that those who tell hard truths
here in Central America can also be called to suffer John the Baptist's
fate." Still some people still find the
courage to speak out. The outcry at the time of Los Horcones was eventually enough
to force the military officials who carried out the massacre to be charged and
serve five years in Tegucigalpa jails, reported El Heraldo. One minister pointed out, "It
should not surprise us that evil exists. What
should worry us is when good people are silent." He added that although these people
were killed, we the people who they taught, still remain.
"And we will teach our children and our grandchildren these messages
and call them to remember so these voices will never truly be silenced or
forgotten." |
Popular
organizations remember Los Horcones 25 years later
By WENDY GRIFFIN The Christian Democrat Party of
Honduras (PDCH), the General Union of Workers (CGT), the National
Peasants Association, the National Union of Peasants (UNC), and the
Olancho Federation of Women (FOMUR) joined together in "Social
Christian Movement" acts last weekend in Tegucigalpa, Juticalpa,
and the Santa Clara training center to remember the 25th anniversary of
a dark day in Honduran history known as "Los Horcones
Massacre." One June 25, 1975, nearly 1,000
farmers or campesinos in
Olancho were preparing to go to Tegucigalpa to participate in the March
of Hunger sponsored by the UNC. Some
of these campesinos were at
the Centro de Capacitacion Santa Clara in Olancho. There Father Michael Jerome Zypher (Padre Casimiro) was
arrested and taken to the Juticalpa jail. From the Juticalpa jail, he was taken
to the "Los Horcones" ranch owned by Mel Zelaya, according to
sociologists Gustavo Blanco and Jaime Valverde, authors of
"Honduras Church and Social Change (Honduras: Iglesia y Cambio
Social). This is not the
Mel Zelaya who is currently running for president, but rather his
father, says sociology professor Agripino Salgado. On the ranch Father Casimiro was
interrogated by agents of the infamous National Directorate of
Intelligence (DIN), at that time under the control of Honduras'
military, and representatives of the army and cattlemen until he was
killed. Father Ivan Betancourt was a
Columbian priest working in the municipality of Culmi, Catacamas as
agrarian reform cooperatives were moving into the area.
He was taken separately with some peasant leaders to Los Horcones. The other people killed at Los
Horcones included two women, Ruth Mayorquin and Maria Elena Boliva.
Plaques remembering and honoring all those who were killed
permanently hang in the Catholic Church of San Francisco in Catacamas. It was several days after the march
that the victims' bodies were found naked, stuffed in a well on the
property "Los Horcones."
Some of the bodies showed signs of torture.
According to Blanco and Valverde, even before Los Horcones, there
was hostility between cattle ranchers and Father Betancourt. In 1970, landowners attempted to have
him and Luis Emilio Henao thrown out of the country.
In 1971, the Association of Ranchers of Olancho (AGO) denounced
Bishop D'Antonio and Father Betancourt for promoting land invasions.
In Catacamas, Olancho a paramilitary group was formed -- Frente
Democratico (FRED), which harassed the priests.
Acts of intimidation included throwing sticks of dynamite against
the parish walls. After the massacre of peasants near
Talanquera, the bishop was arrested.
Supposedly the price on Betancourt's and D'Antonio's heads were
$25,000 each. Father
Betancourt worked with the Pech Indians of several communities near
Culmi to obtain a land title in upper Maranones, now known as Pueblo
Nuevo Subirana, on the edge of the Rio Platano Biosphere. This was in response to land conflicts in areas where the
Zelaya family, owners of Honduras Plywood and other logging concerns,
were exploiting wood. Father Betancourt also worked with
the Pech of Pisijire, Culmi who were involved in a land conflict with
the owner of a Zelaya family ranch, reports Beranrdo Meza in his book
"Ivan Betancourt: Martir de la Iglesia Latina Americana."
Newspaper accounts of the time reported Ladino campesinos
were quietly dedicating themselves to pushing the Pech Indians into the
mountain of the pavon (currasow)
and the tapir in hopes they would fly away like the pahuil (great curassow) bird. Bishop
D'Antonio made public denouncements about the Ladinos actions. The Massacre of Los Horcones was seen as a clash between the interests of large landowners and the social activism of the church of the time. Now that peace and civilian governments are returning to Central America, the Catholic Church and social organizations like the UNC enjoy more freedom of speech. Not only did priests who survived the attack of the era speak at events over the weekend, but even high-ranking military officials marched in the parade held in Juticalpa.
Miners
take over Greenstone facilities More than 200 laborers took over the
Greenstone mining installations on Monday demanding severance pay from
the company that, due to financial problems, was auctioned off the same
day. The workers are also
demanding the company return Lps. 423,000 that was deducted from their
salaries when they formed a credit union, as well as deeds to 140 homes
in the community of Nueva San Andres. According to the protestors, these
homes were built for families that were displaced from the original town
where the mine is located and their old homes were demolished.
Protestors are not allowing the removal of gold and other metals
stored at the company's facilities. -- El Tiempo Transfer of airport management
discussed Government representatives and
executives of the Inter Airports company out of San Francisco, Calif.
met on Monday to discuss the transfer of administration of the
Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba and Roatan Airports to the
company. While the main objective of the
meeting was the transfer of assets, both sides also discussed the
possibility of extending the Tegucigalpa runway 300 meters and it was
agreed that the Honduran government would pay indemnization to affected
property owners. -- La Prensa Vehicles without mufflers to be
seized, fined Transportation Director Eduardo Perdomo last week warned owners of large vehicles, specifically buses and trucks, that the time limit for installing mufflers has expired. The official stated that inspectors have been instructed to fine owners and seize any vehicle without a muffler. -- La Tribuna Workers confederation blocks roads Members of the Honduran Workers
Confederation took to the streets on Monday, blocking major highways for
several hours in protest of poor working conditions and the economy.
Demands ranged from stabilization of the prices of basic consumer
goods, wage increases and freezing fuel prices to the release of
imprisoned campesinos due to land problems. Minister to the President Gustavo
Alfaro responded by stating that the government is unable to meet all
the demands, such as ordering the private sector to give
across-the-board raises to employees. Alfaro also said the government had
only received the confederation's complaints at the end of May and not
during March, as the union workers claim.
A meeting held on Tuesday between union and government
representatives led to the formation of a high level commission to
analyze union demands. -- La Tribuna Liberals to propose 15th
month salary In response to national union workers
demands for higher wages, several Liberal congressmen last week stated
that on July 4 they will introduce legislation proposing payment of a
15th month salary to Honduran workers.
Currently, workers receive 12 salaries plus the Christmas bonus (aguinaldo)
and summer bonus (decimocuatro). However, a Nationalist stated that
the Liberals are just trying to look good without taking into account
the interests of the government and the private sector. -- El Tiempo Poultry quarantine lifted In a meeting of the Committee of the
Organizacion Internacional Regional de Sandiad Animal (OIRSA) held in
Managua on Tuesday, the eight ministers of agriculture, cattle ranching
and food of Mexico, Belize, Central America and Panama decided to
suspend poultry quarantines in the region despite the presence of aviary
influenza and the Newcastle virus in Guatemala. According to OIRSA specialists, both
diseases are viral and while they rapidly affect poultry, they cannot be
transmitted to human beings nor do they cause side effects in people who
consume infected animals. OIRSA President of Roger Valenzuela said the region will establish certifications for disease free poultry farms and that these measures should suffice in regulating commercial exchange of poultry products between countries in the region. -- El Tiempo |
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Sergio
Membreño Cedillo 
Alexander
Obando Reyes was one of the 302 victims of alleged extrajudicial executions
during the 1998-2000 period. (Photo courtesy of Casa Alianza/Honduras.)
"Conditions
here are primitive, it's like operating in the field, but inside a fixed
facility," said Tech. Sgt. Elijah Anderson, an ENT surgical technician from
Wilford Hall.
