Hondurean Amnesty and Thruth

President, Pepe Lobo

The Honduran National Congress approved the amnesty decree, as demanded by the United States of America, on the morning of Pepe Lobo's inauguration. The decree covers acts committed from January 1, 2008 until January 27, 2010.

A copy of the explanation of motives and final decree (in Spanish) was provided to me by a Honduran congressman. A Google translation of that document to English is here. It is far from a perfect translation but should give you an idea of the background and the decree.

Specifically excluded from amnesty are all actions which constitute crimes related to corruption, misappropriation of public funds, illegal enrichment and other crimes against humanity (which relates to the alleged human rights violations).

Though news reports implied that all acts of treason, sedition, abuse of authority, violation of duties, usurpation of functions were granted amnesty, the decree specifies only certain paragraphs under each of these categories of the penal code. A copy of the Honduran penal code can be found here (in Spanish).Related article: El Heraldo: Amnistía es por 40 años

The voting

Honduras Congress

The Nacionalista party (Lobo's party) holds the majority of the congressional seats, 71 of 128. Though it was reported that the Nacionalistas voted in block, one congressman said that he and another Nacionalista voted against amnesty.

There are no statistics, but many say that the majority of Nacionalista party members are against amnesty and feel betrayed by the congressional approval.The Liberal party (Zelaya and Micheletti's party) congressmen abstained from voting because the public wasn't consulted and they felt that the facts should be known to the Truth Commission before granting amnesty, but El Tiempo reports that five Liberal congressmen were against amnesty and three were in favor.

Four PINU congressmen abstained as well, logically saying that the Truth Commission should be installed and the congress should know who was being pardoned and for what acts.Two DC congressmen voted in favor. Four UD (formerly pro-Zelaya and pro-Resistance) voted against amnesty.

Corruptos need to go to jail

"Corruptos need to go to jail, period," said Lobo during his inauguration speech, to wild cheering of the audience. What is the point of a Truth Commission if the verdict − amnesty − has already been given?

Hondurans hope that the Truth Commission will not be a farce and will not only explain the facts leading up to June 28, but will also expose the errors of the USA and OAS (Organization of American States) involvement. But, since it appears that the USA and OAS will be in charge of the Truth Commission (though they deny it) and will be working very hard to cover up their part in worsening the situation, there isn't much chance of that happening.

The Unión Cívica Democrática (UCD), which represents a large portion of civil society, has strongly objected to the OAS taking any part in the Truth Commission on the grounds that they are not impartial. Here is UCD's original open letter in Spanish. A translation to English is here.

Victor Rico was sent to Honduras by the OAS a couple of days ago. He gave a press conference yesterday to clarify that the OAS was only here to help. The tone of his press conference was a little defensive. It was clear that he had gotten an earful from someone.

A Little Gratitude

Mission accomplished! Democracy saved in Honduras
Ex-president Roberto Micheletti and his wife, Siomara

Honduras Weekly published an article, Mel the Grateful, about Manuel Zelaya's inability to show appreciation to Porfirio Lobo for his efforts on Zelaya's behalf. Zelaya did later rectify that to a very small extent, but insisting that his departure from Honduras disrupt Lobo's inauguration day celebrations shows that Mel still believes that the world should revolve around him. Lobo showed graciousness, and I would even say bravery, in accompanying Zelaya to the airport. Based on past experience with Zelaya and his followers, anything could have happened.

On the other hand, Lobo also has shown a lack of gratefulness. One very important point is that Pepe Lobo should remember that he has Roberto Micheletti to thank for his election. While dozens of presidents and international organizations around the world were trying to stop the Honduran elections (at the same time they were lamenting the need for "the return to institutional democracy in Honduras"), it was Roberto Micheletti and only Roberto Micheletti who ensured that the elections would occur.

As early as June 28, in his first speech, and in every one of the many speeches and press conferences after that, Micheletti told the Honduran people that free and democratic elections would occur on November 29, as scheduled, and that "no one, absolutely no one" would stop them.Hondureans never had any reason to doubt him and neither did any of the presidential candidates, who could have easily cried to the world if they thought otherwise.

Even the two Resistance candidates who called Micheletti a dictator knew it wasn't true. A dictator wouldn't have held elections and certainly wouldn't have allowed them to speak their minds.President Roberto Micheletti never promoted the candidate of his own party (or any other party) and never denigrated any of the candidates in any way. He behaved with dignity and impartiality. In his farewell speech, he called upon the Honduran people to give greater understanding and support to Porfirio Lobo, and made an appeal to the international community to do the same.

Unfortunately, Pepe Lobo not only has not shown gratitude for that, but he's also smeared Micheletti by making vague comments about "both sides", throwing Zelaya (who did everything humanly possible to stop elections) and Micheletti into the same pot. Lobo publicly pushed for Micheletti's resignation. He announced that he didn't want Micheletti at the inauguration without showing the courtesy to discuss it with Micheletti first. He worried about the dignity of ex-president Zelaya, who demonstrated no dignity, but not that of President Micheletti. There was much celebration and cheering yesterday, but during President Lobo's inauguration speech, when he thanked Costa Rica President Oscar Arias, the crowd booed. He thanked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton − the crowd booed. He thanked US Ambassador Hugo Llorens − the crowd booed. He thanked OAS Secretary General José Insulza − the crowd booed. He thanked Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández − the crowd booed to such an extent that Fernández looked quite uncomfortable. All had tried to force the resignation of Roberto Micheletti and the return Zelaya to power in Honduras.

In contrast, when Lobo thanked Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, the crowd cheered to such an extent that Martinelli rose from his seat to acknowledge the crowd. The crowd then cried, "Say thanks to Micheletti! Thank Micheletti." Lobo did not, though a person sitting near to him said that he must have heard the pleas from the crowd. With each name mentioned, more and more people started leaving the stadium. By the end of President's Lobo's speech, no more than 60% of crowd remained. Not a promising start.

There were no pajamas!

Ex-president, Manuel Zelaya. Photo: El Heraldo, Honduras

Ex-president Manuel Zelaya was NOT taken to Costa Rica in his pajamas.

It was all a lie.

The question is, how many presidents knew it was a lie?

When removed from Honduras on June 28, Mel Zelaya was fully dressed up to and including his cowboy boots. We heard rumors of this from the beginning, including from neighbors who saw him leave with the military fully dressed. We also heard that there was a video of Zelaya's exit that was shown to José Insulza of the OAS, who nevertheless continued the lie.

But who was going to believe Honduras, when victim Zelaya was saying otherwise to CNN, Telesur, and the NY Times, who dutifully reported it without investigation.This would be a minor detail except for the thousands of newspaper articles and outraged exclamations of presidents and pundits around the world, crying “in his pajamaas!” - which you would think ranked right up there with a bullet in the head. That press conference of Zelaya in his pajamas with bed-hair set the tone and had huge impact on the way that Honduras was treated by the world.

But even worse, Costa Rica and its President Oscar Arias must have known that he arrived fully dressed and donned the pjs and messed up his hair later. Are we to believe that this fact just slipped the mind of airport personnel and Zelaya's escort to the Presidential Palace in San José? So Arias knew about the great lie but said nothing for seven months, making him an accomplice to the lying propaganda spewed against Honduras by Zelaya.

Is there any chance that the US did not know this was a lie? Is there any chance that US State Department officials have not been shown the video? What else does the US State Department know that Zelaya is lying about? What about the crimes? What about the narcotrafficking ties? What about the foreign bank accounts? Will they ever tell the US population the truth?

Lobo's dilemma

Out with the old, in with the new. Pepe and Mel. Photo: El Herarldo, Honduras.

Honduras president-elect Pepe Lobo's dilemma is understanble. Besides the political pressure, he's inheriting a bankrupt government.

Manuel Zelaya stepped into a cushy financial position in 2006, at least cushy by Honduras' poor standards. Many hundreds of millions of US dollars of debt had been forgiven thanks to efforts by the previous president, Ricardo Maduro. New aid was flowing in.

Zelaya received a government in as good financial shape as it has ever been. He took advantage of that and ran it into the ground with expensive failed projects, increases in government jobs, malfeasance, corruption, and extreme excesses, including the 61% raise in the minimum wage which his own government didn't have the money to pay to its employees. (Many government salaries by law are based on multiples of the minimum wage so the increase not only affected minimum wage employees.)

Eventually, aid began to be reduced because, for example, the UN and Sweden complained of poverty funds being used to meet government payroll and campaign promises rather than being used for the poor. Couple that with the effects of the international financial crisis and the resulting large reduction in family remesas, the economy is a mess. The internal debt is now at L. 23 billion (US $1.2 billion), more than tripled from 2006. The external debt of Honduras in 2008 reached the same levels as 2005, before the condonation.

That is the state that Micheletti received. There had been no budget, no financial reports. They didn't know where the money had gone − except the L. 50 million in cash withdrawn from the national bank which was caught on video on June 26. The country again had huge debts, virtually no aid, and no access to BCIE or the IMF for loans and disbursements on government projects already approved and underway.

Without the immediate restoration of aid and access to loans, there will be no money to meet payrolls, much less continue projects and meet Lobo's campaign promises.So, Porfirio Lobo will be in a bad spot when he takes over. He has been getting pressure from the US and OAS for months. Oscar Arias ominously threatened that Honduras could become the Albania of Latin America.

Why the Dominican Republic?

President of Dominican Republic: Leonel Fernández and Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chávez. Photo: El Heraldo

First of all: Dominican Republic? Why? The Dominican Republic, or at least its president Leonel Fernández, has been one of the major and rudest critics of Honduras (next to Chávez and Arias), not to mention the DR's strong connection with Chávez. The DR doesn't have exactly a stellar reputation in the field of diplomacy, and in fact has a reputation for corruption, much like Honduras. Not only that, but Fernández has been working on his constitution to increase his powers as well. The DR does not recognize Honduras and up until yesterday, did not recognize our election or our president elect, Pepe Lobo!For those of you who keep up with these things, please make a note of the amount of foreign aid that the US and UN have given the Dominican Republic in the past couple of years and then please compare that with what they get this year or next year. I have no doubt you will see a huge increase. Maybe it will be funneled in some indirect way to try to cover it up and maybe there will be assistance from Chávez as well. But, there will be payment. Watch and see.

Rather than me giving the details of yesterday's Pepe Lobo/Mel Zelaya/Dominican Republic deal, let me direct you to these articles for the background:

Zelaya Will Travel to Dominican Republic as "Distinguished Guest"

The Education in Honduras

Children outside a school in Honduras. Photo: El Heraldo

Education and Development

One of the indexes used to measure the educational level of a population is the average amount of years of formal schooling. In Honduras, that index is 6.5, that is, the average Honduran has 6.5 years of formal schooling. It grows one school year every 10 years.

In the early 1960s, this index was similar for Honduras as for Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other nations known as the Asian Tigers for their rapid economic growth. Since, these countries have advanced the education of their people and their index is now above 12 years.

If you make a graph of the average years of formal schooling and compare it to a graph of the people’s income in that country, you will find that both follow a similar pattern. The close relationship between education and economic development is unquestioned today.

Public education is a form of wealth. In Honduras, many people still don’t see it that way. Yet many parents pay private schools that do nothing better than complete the public study plan, because usually the public schools don’t complete it. In developed nations, the quality of public schools has even been linked to the value of real estate: properties are worth more in districts where the quality of public schools is higher.

The quality of public education is not only a matter for the parents who have their children in public schools, but a matter that should concern all Hondurans interested in living in a better country.

Diaspora, remittances and immigration

Honduran Flag

While Honduran patriotism is so strong, I thought these lines might spark some thought.

Honduras has become a country dependent on the charity of international donors, remittances from the Honduran Diaspora, and the vagaries of the international geopolitical interests and its chess masters. Rather than taking charge of our destiny and recognize how shameful this situation is, politicians have taken the easy route out and instead adopted the attitude "the less people we have in Honduras, the more tortillas we have to eat." This is nonsense and a defeatist attitude.

The Diaspora in Honduras is a reality and in the short and medium term is needed to support the fellow country persons in terms of facilitating the process of coming, being and going to their "chosen" destinations. In fact, one of the things needed to do is to first analyze what are the real costs and benefits of the diaspora, and then try to magnify benefits and reduce costs as much as possible.

The Diaspora has the immediate benefits of remittances back home. However, it is also know that the longer a person stays in a foreign country, the less money he/she sends over time and the likelihood that the flow of money is interrupted, increases. Moreover, there are really high costs to Honduras in terms of the brain drain, families torn apart, and communities and their tight social networks being disrupted.In addition, immigrants into other countries, accumulate a significant stock of knowledge in terms of management and technological abilities and, of course wealth.

What can be done?
As a nation, I think, we should try as much as possible to repatriate the brains lost, while attracting the Diaspora's investment in Honduras. One very interesting possibility is the creation of programs where incentives are put in place to motivate Honduran scientists, high-level managers, and other valuable human resources, to repatriate themselves back home, either on a temporary basis, but also on a longer term /permanent basis. I am thinking of the same sort of benefits given now to retirees from industrialized countries to settle in Honduras. We could also think about facilitating the process of people investing their well earned money in Honduras. Think this Utopian dream?

Of course some people will argue that this will only work if there is a well concerted devised program by visionary people in government and other decision making spheres.

I would agree to a point, in terms of the need to create /modify legislation to accommodate these efforts, but otherwise would actually be looking forward to the private sector and innovative efforts by individuals and progressive groups in Honduran society to work this out.

However, in the end, it is up to us, as Hondurans living in country or abroad, to push for a real change in the way things are done and for equitable and sustainable social and economic growth and development. The Diaspora can only be a temporary situation. Less is failure.

Honduran Manifesto to the International Community

L-R, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias,and Honduran President-elect Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo. Photo: El Heraldo, Honduras

The International Community expressed its intention to honor an accord convened by both sides of the Honduran crisis and promised that things would go back to normal for Honduras and its people if it was honored.

They have repeatedly demanded that the Micheletti government honor its side of the bargain, which it has done. Every point in the accord has been honored by the Micheletti government in time and essence: The installation of the Verification Commission, naming its representatives to the Unity government, supporting the electoral process and respecting the results, accepting Congress’s decision to re-instate or not Zelaya and supporting the transition to the newly elected government.

Meanwhile, the Zelaya side has broken every one of its commitments: He retracted his representatives to the Verification Commission; he has continued calling for insurrection and threatening with violence; He called for a boycott of the elections, he has declared that he doesn’t accept the vote in Congress, he is calling on the International Community to reject the electoral process and the newly elected government.

Now the International Community demands new conditions on the Micheletti government while it keeps silent about Zelaya’s flagrantly dishonorable actions.

First, they demand that Zelaya be awarded political amnesty, an issue that was not excluded from the accord but instead, amply discussed and rejected by both sides.

Second, they are asking that Micheletti resign as President. This option was offered to Zelaya in good time and form, before Congress made its decision, and was rejected by Zelaya with the support of the International Community. Now that Congress has made its decision and Zelaya will not be re-instated, they want to return to an option that had previously been rejected and is not part of the Tegucigalpa – San Jose Accord. It's like he had been offered a tie, and after he lost, wanting to go back and accept the tie.

Apparently, the International Community has not fully understood the depth of the decision by Congress on December 4th. Congress didn’t vote directly on the question whether to re-instate Zelaya or not. They reviewed the legal proceedings of June 28th and by an overwhelming majority 111-14 deemed the procedure legal. Thus, they not only voted NOT to re-instate Zelaya, but upheld the legality of Micheletti’s succession, making him a legal, constitutional successor to the Presidency.

The Honduran people are tired of the International Community playing games with our government and our people.

Zelaya has caused enormous damage to the Honduran people. After having reduced our foreign debt to manageable levels in the previous government, with great sacrifices by the Honduran people, to achieve reasonable macroeconomic stability, Zelaya initiated his term with a “served table”, the resources ripe for the great social actions that would combat poverty and move Honduras to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Enough is enough. As long as the International Community doesn’t start demanding that Zelaya honor his commitments, that Brazil resolve its diplomatic bungling in the crisis and that the ALBA nations cease their threats and attacks to our nation, the Honduran people will not accept any conditioning not included in the Tegucigalpa – San Jose Accord. Micheletti stays and no amnesty.

Results of elections in Honduras

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Honduras has stated that Porfirio Lobo, the national party's candidate to the presidency has won a landslide victory in the country, with 55.9% of the total votes, defeating in this way the rival Elvis Santos, from the Liberal Party. The new president will take office on Jan. 27, 2010.

Pepe Lobo began this week to work toward a "unified government" with which he hopes to settle the political crisis in Honduras and garner international support. In his first speech after claimed victory in the polls organized by the government de facto, Lobo said the ousted Manuel Zelaya is history and called for a dialogue to seek to reconcile the polarized Honduran society, but his biggest challenge will be to win the confidence of many countries that do not recognize their legitimacy.

In that very first speech on Sunday night, Lobo said that the accessions were beginning to arrive. United States, Germany, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia, UAE and France have "expressed that they will accept our process," he said.

United States, Honduras' main trading partner, has assured that the polls are a "step forward" but "not enough" for the country to return to the fold of the international community.

However, there were statements from others such as Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, who reject the election.

"I understand that some friends there countries or governments, for reasons of its positioning in international geopolitics can have their opinions, I tell everyone to respect our right and we want our relations with all are perfectly normal," said Lobo in an interview with Colombian radio Caracol.

"I hope we understand ... the people have voted and voted for the Honduran people, even with all threats and all that he went to the polls in large numbers to vote, or not stopped the people from exercising their right "he added.

Pepe Lobo is a man of great political experience, a good executive and capable ... U.S. will work with him for the good of both countries ... and our relations are very strong, "said U.S. ambassador Hugo Llorens told local radio HRN.