Little Chronology of the Events That Have Been Going on in Honduras II

People are scared and policemen a long with military forces are sleepless watching the borders and preventing any attacks from Guatemala, Nicaragua or El Salvador and specially Venezuela. This act is entirely unethical and incorrect since no country can invade or attack another and specially intervene in this matter to solve this situation. Lets remember that violence only spreads violence. People from nicaragua, el Salvador and enven venezuelans who are here to cause a revolt have been deported. Yesterday a bus with almost 90 Nicaraguans was stopped at the border.

July 4th, a mob of people rushed to the airport to receive president Zelaya as he was coming back from Washignton, US. All of them carrying wooden stabs and sticks. It was a policeman’s worst nightmare! Today is june 5th, and after having a couple of OAS representatives come to speak with President Michelleti, and having the OAS time frame of 72 hours things are beginning to stir up even more. Honduras has been expulsed and at the same time the country has resigned from the UN and the OAS, president Zelaya’s plane was not allowed to land at Tegucigalpa, and he is now in Nicaragua getting hold of other presidents who are now at El Salvador. It has been the news of the day when people in a mob at the airport of Tegucigalpa started opposing the military armed men and police men alike. If nearly turned into a blood bath and many where sent to the hospital.

Today these are the arguments people in Honduras are turning around in their heads:
Ÿ We have been kicked out of the OAS, UN and international banks aren’t lending us any money. How are we suppose to sustain ourselves for six months?
Ÿ Former President Zelaya is before all these international organizations, but he is giving inaccurate information, making the news and the world see one face of the reality.
Ÿ Zelaya can’t come back to the presidency, since he broke the consitution and is charged for other 18 different unlawfull acts of corruption. Sespite these the OAS and the /un want him back in power.
Ÿ We are all afraid of an invasion from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela a long with a block of left oriented states that have threatened to attack the country.People really like Roberto Michelleti as president, this might be my personal opinion, but surveys and statistics on TV show that people around the country in majority an 80% are happy with Roberto Michelleti.

Little Chronology of the Events That Have Been Going on in Honduras

• Time line,
  
  Honduras has been going through a series of events that have changed the way the country will ever be looked at by the international community. Just like the US has realized that things will be different with the economical recession, things over here took a sudden but foreseen spin.
  
  It was Thursday or Friday when Former President Zelaya, fired commander of the state of the union Commander Vasquez Velasquez. This was confusing to me because I had no idea of what was happening in the country. Commander Vasques Velasquez refused to follow the president’s order in putting a general survey for the community. The argument for such survey was to give the people more power but at the end it would empower the president to change the bylaws of the constitution of Honduras so he could reach reelections and at the same time change the constitution.
  
  The main problem President Zelaya encountered is that he did not receive the back up of the military forces of the country, the people and most importantly the other two supreme powers of the country (legislative, and the judicial powers). With no buts to the problem president Zelaya decided to continue with the Survey, being originally illegal and at the same time he hid the truth of the matter to the people up to a week before the survey took place.
  
  On Saturday June 27th, the president found out that sone magistrados had taken the material and where decomisandolo. The president that very afternoon got the popular block or public workers all together in a mob that attacked the Honduran Air force base in Tegucigalpa, and taking the material with him in a violent and unorganized way.
  
  It so happened that on June 28th, the president was kidnapped and taken arrested from his home in the middle of the night. I can imagine the horror and the suspense with which the president was taken from his home and deported to Costa Rica, where he decided to be taken. We must understand that this is a violation to the human rights, but the consequences of having him there where far more worse. We can assimilate it as having Lenin’s presence in Russia. If he would of remain in the country june the 28th would have been a possible blood bath.
  
  On June 28th, the people of Honduras woke up with no president, and early in the morning saw how he was transmitting his news from the San Jose airport in Costa Rica. Telling the world this was a coup d’état. That very day President of the Congress of Hondruas Roberto Michelleti took the responsibility of president of Honduras, due to a lack of a vice president who had quitted early in his term. This very day Honduras was accused of going back 30 years, back to the dictatorship era.
  
  On June 29th through July 3rd, people stood perplexed as President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez along with other presidents of the ALBA, which is the association for the liberaton of Bolivarian american states (a block of states that favor a little bit more to the left). People where speahless in front of their TV sets as the country stood still, and other organizations like the United Nations and the Organization of American States condemned not only the coup but the entire country. President Zelaya had intents to come back to the country in the mean time, but he was advise to abstain from doing that do to the delicate social-political environment. There have been curve views since last Sunday, and a lot of peace non violence marchs. The only problem are the poepl who are supporting President Zelaya who are constantly marching with stick and stones destroying everything they come to.

In between Anarchism and Democracy

As many of you have read my last post when a huge uproar took over the country of Honduras, things are still fuzzy for the majority of us. It is difficult for a country to follow democracy within itself when there are outer forces intervening with anarchism. It is already published President Manuel Zelaya has been overthrown from his position as president of Honduras. The radical instability he caused for a couple of days starting last Thursday has affected millions of poor families more than it might have affected the wealthy ones. Everything is chaos now, specially when all Hondurans are in between the hard and the rock by having Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez supporting former president Manuel Zelaya. The only hope for the country is that there will be no invasion from Hugo Chavez, who has already stated that he will not stay with his arms crossed.

From my point of view the Congress of Honduras took the best decision by destituting former president Zelaya from his position because of certain actions he attempted against the constitution. On the other side the new President Roberto Michelleti, is now confronting the international community of the European Union, United States, the Chavez Latin American countries block, and central american countries as well. People have been watching the news constantly almost on a 12 hour basis every single day. The social and economical instability the country is in right now has filled people with fear and with the desire that all of this will soon end. We all hope that this gets resolved peacefully, whether President Zelaya is reinstututed as President or having the global community acknowledge what has been done in the country by the National Congress.

The day the country went mad!

Today has been a particular day sine all the scandal and turmoil the previous days have brought forth have finally uncoiled. The president is trying to change the constitution in a sense to make it more "socialist", but at the same time more equal to all the poor. He has been removing officials from their duties and a lot of "peaceful" non violence mobs have been paraiding down the main avenues of the country. TV is flooded with the recent news of the death of Micheal Jackson, but here in Honduras it is the president that is continuously coming to the scenes to spur things up. I believe that he is doing a great job but he is accomplishing his goals through the wrong directions.

Through out the presidents term, he has won the heart of the people through many projects and communitary support programs. Surely, he has accomplished a lot of things during this term that where on his agends. The idea of changing the laws of the country has recently scared the people and bringing a sense of unsecurity to all.

Our constitution has been changed between 12 to 14 times through out our independent life already since 1821. Seeing these events in person are something that can only be seen and experienced in a life time. It seems as if our only hope is the congress of Honduras which in turn is being accused by the president in fear of a coup d´état. Surely all of this will come to a rest pretty soon but things are just a little fuzzy now, specially when you have the three powers of the state of Honduras arguing with each other.

Comayagua the Colonial City

Comayagua (Come-ah-ja-guh-ah), after Trujillo (True-he-oh), was the one of the country´s capital, this during the spaniards rule over the region. This city has a lot of colonial character and the buildings through out the it give you the idea you are in one of "El Zorro" movies. It has one of the oldest cathedrals in the country, and the parish which is located next to this one is one of the oldes within the central american region. The weekend we where visiting the city the parish burned down and the entire city was raising money to rebuild it.

Comayagua city is also typical for its narrow streets and almost no sidewalks. After walking down the magnificent mile in chicago, walking down these side walks can make you a little claustrophobic. You barely have an inch between yourself and the cars that are driving through the city. Beside these you can also pick up some architecture features through out the entire city.

Comayagua, is also well known for the North American Air Force Base of Palmerola (Pall-meh-row-lah). Soon this will the Country´s main international airport, and construction is on its way to make the roads and flow of transportation easier to the nearby cities. Palmerola has the best runway in the entire central american region.

People in Tegucigalpa are afraid that the capital will be moved back to Comayagua, since it was moved from here to Tegucigalpa by one of our past president. Rumors says, that the President's girl friend lived in Tegucigalpa back then, and he decided to move the capital to Tegucigalpa to be closer to her. Whether this is right or not, history always tells us that Tegucigalpa was a minning city during the minning revolutin near the late 19th century, and due to all the silver that was minned the capital was moved to Tegucigalpa. Whether it be right or not, Comayagua is one of the most distinguished cities and touristical spots in the country.

A Glimps at the Bay Islands

The Bay Islands are the smallest county within the country and one of the newest. Once you arrive it becomes a paradise one wishes never to leave. It is composed of three small islands, Roatán (row-ah-tan), Utila (uh-tee-la) and Guanaja (wa-nah-ha). The second largest coral reef in the world is found around these islands that once belonged to the English Empire. Considering the rest of the country, due to tourism these small islands are the onces to have had a lot of economical development. The beach is crystal clear and it is imposible to believe that while the country is in a crisis, this small part is totaly unalarmed and peaceful. It is said that there is petroleum within the nearby of the islands and that probabily it would rank between the top 11 petroleum reserves in the world. Some thing that you must never miss doing when comming to the Bay Islands is to go snorkeling or skuba diving near the coral reefs, take the glass bottom boat, a tour through the resorts of the Islands and visit the garifuna towns that flood the islands.

Pulhapanzac Waterfall

Through out my life I had heard about the Pulhapanzac (Pool-ah-pan-zak) Waterfalls, but had never had the opportunity to visit them. Last week I was able to travel with my family for 4 hours to the Lake of Yojoa (Yo-ho-ah), the only natural lake of the country, and a main source of commerce and vital economic importance for the entire country. Every Honduran plans a trip at least once a year to visit the lake and enjoy a deep fried fish dish. The lake is full of a variety of fish, aquatic vetegation and natural beauty. Near the lake we can find a small community called Los Naranjos (The Orange Fields) where we can find an archeological park. The park holds some of the last settlement remains of the Olmecas and the Toltecas, which are the descendants of the Mayans. Here we can see old scultpures and statues left by this small population that dates back at leat 500 years ago, before Cristopher Colombus came to America.

Los Naranjos, is just a glimps at the tip of the iceberg, as we wind down the mountain range we come near to the Pulhapanzac waterwall. If you have never been to Niagara Falls, the waterfall of Pulhapanzac will leave you breathless. The minute you get close to them you are already drenched in water, all mixed with the dense jugle and clean air. As you are watching the high waterfall, as one mezmerises at the tall skyscrapers in chicago, you might have the luck of slipping and covering yourself in mud. Believe me a lady who was infront of us had that luck, since none was aware that the wood ramp on which we where standing was all muddy.

Attached is a video so you can see the waterfall, and the dense vegetation around the area.

For pictures follow the link below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marorush52/