Reporting Strategy on
11th Return Trip to Honduras, Newly Publicized Ancient Honduran
City, Honduras, Cuba, Venezuela, First Honduras trip Report
Have now returned from
my 11th post-Peace Corps trip to Honduras to an empty house
with no sign of bedbugs, thank goodness! I now face the dilemma of how to
report on my trip, given that blog postings appear not in chronological order
as when someone reads (or writes) a book or article, but with the last posting
appearing first, thus reversing the usual reading and writing chronology.
However, as per blog etiquette, I will observe that order and anyone wanting
the whole picture will just have to move back instead of forward. Since the blog
system has been overwhelmed previously, this time, I plan to divide the
postings, beginning with this one. So, after a few other preliminaries, I will
show photos of Tegucigalpa and vicinity,
with a minimum of written explanation. (A picture is worth a thousand
words.) Then will follow a posting on La Esperanza, after that, one on Operation
Smile, and finally, the 4th one on the end of the journey in Miami and what I found
upon arriving in DC. I will try to intersperse photos with narrative—we’ll see
how that works out. To go back, click on "Older posts" at the bottom right of the narrative. Thanks to my readers for accompanying me on this
experiment. But, first, a few other comments.
There has been some
controversy over whether this is really a new find or whether the “lost city”
aspect has been over-hyped. Rumors were swirling even when I was in the Peace
Corps 2000-2003. This ancient city and others near it were reportedly built and
populated by members of the Pech civilization, and were not Mayan, though
most former civilizations in Central America are Mayan, such as Copan in
western Honduras, and Mayan descendants still live all over the area. The
current Pech tribe of Honduras, with its own separate language, religion, and
culture, is reportedly shrinking fast.
Chikungunya has caused at
least 4 deaths in Honduras, a new mosquito-borne illness added to Malaria and
dengue.
According
to a DC Spanish-language paper, Washington
Hispanic (March 13, 2015), children in
El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras with parents living in the US under DACA
(Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) or TPS (Temporary Protective Status)
may be eligible for legal entry into the US. This measure is meant to stave
off minor children’s attempts to cross the border alone, as many did last year.
Fathers may have to prove paternity through DNA testing. Despite the efforts of
many Congressional Republicans to block such moves, the Obama Administration is
apparently going forward with this program.
The
Peace Corps has temporarily (?) suspended its program in Jordan because
insecurity in the region.
I
was intrigued by the following article—see
in my Cuba book a vignette about a rooftop pigeon racer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2015/03/07/on-havanas-rooftops-a-secret-world/
A few days
after American negotiators met with Cuban officials to continue talks to
reestablish formal diplomatic relations, a
Chinese ship bound for Cuba was intercepted near Colombia’s Port of Cartagena
carrying 100 tons of gunpowder, almost 3 million detonators and some 3,000
cannon shells to Cuba. On Monday, a Colombian judge ordered that the
Chinese captain of the Hong Kong-registered Da Dan Xia be placed under house
arrest. This after Cuba’s attempt in 2013 to smuggle two warplanes, missile
parts and 240 metric tons of war materiél from Cuba into North Korea through
the Panama canal. The Obama
administration has been virtually silent regarding these events and it remains
to be seen if Cuba will be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Finnish and Swedish journalists
filming dissidents out on the streets of Havana were briefly arrested themselves last February : http://www.martinoticias.com/content/periodistas-europeas-viven-detencion-temporal-a-la-cubana/88611.html
A recent
poll by Beyond the Beltway shows 64% of
Americans supporting the end of the Cuba embargo, including 51% of Republicans.
I am
praying that there is more than meets the eye behind the recent US-Cuba accords and that the Obama
administration, mainly Kerry and Roberta Jacobson, have a strategic and
realistic vision and plan that they are not necessarily revealing publicly, a
plan that is coordinated with actions toward Venezuela, Russia, and Iran, all of
them Cuba’s allies and supporters. Cuban strategists have been extremely wily
throughout the decades—seizing Alan Gross turned out to be a masterstroke. For
the Cuban leadership, the US is very important, though for the US, Cuba is not
that crucial—except for its connections with other unfriendly nations. Certainly the US-Cuba accords caught hostile
nations, especially in Latin America, off guard, including Cuba’s big benefactor,
Venezuela. While many Americans have heralded the accords as a friendly outreach
to a non-threatening Cuba, the US needs to be wary, at least as long as the
Castros are in charge, although mutual trust should grow if each side actually finds
the other living up to its commitments. But to imagine that Cuban “democracy”
is on the horizon or that it will automatically flow from diplomatic relations or
increased trade and tourism is naïve at best. As I have said before, Cubans
will be lucky (and most will be satisfied) if they can achieve the degree of
economic freedom enjoyed in China and Vietnam , something which has occurred
gradually over decades. But those
nations still remain one-party states with no free elections or freedom of
expression and assembly, and with an overbearing military, the death penalty
and frequent executions (even for property crimes in China), and political
prisoners serving long sentences after
unfair trials. That’s the unfortunate reality that Cubans will be lucky to
achieve. Could it have been otherwise if
the US and Cuba had not agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations? After 55
years, there has been virtually no movement toward democracy in Cuba, so what
would have triggered such a change? Such speculation is useless at this point
anyway, as the accords are a done deal and now we need to seize on whatever opportunities
they may offer and try to mitigate their ill effects. And while Cuba is
complaining about US sanctions against Venezuela, how loudly can the Cuban
leadership complain without jeopardizing their own relations with the US? Is there a clever Obama administration
strategy here? I certainly hope so.
Here’s a
statement by the Human Rights Foundation
(HRF) on Venezuela, the actions of
whose president and government are becoming increasing worrisome—it’s one thing
to be elected (barely and possibly fraudulently), but being elected carries the
responsibility to govern fairly after an election: “HRF welcomes the executive
order issued
yesterday by President Obama that imposes targeted sanctions against Venezuelan
citizens involved in recent human rights abuses in the country. The order,
which also expresses concern about the Venezuelan government’s treatment of its
political opponents, names seven individuals sanctioned under the Venezuela
Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014. HRF applauds this action
as a crucial step in exposing human rights abuses committed by the government
of Nicolas Maduro.”
Osvaldo Hurtado, a former president of Ecuador, faults other Latin American presidents for not calling out Maduro, who
has become increasingly dictatorial.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Honduras Trip Narrative One and
Photos: The family
I stayed with in Honduras had just adopted
a 5-year-old girl, shown here with the family and struggling nightly with
her homework in an English-language 1st grade. I recommended she be
put into kindergarten in that same English-language school, but I don’t know
that my nosy advice was appreciated, much less heeded. Adoption is very
difficult and legally complicated in Honduras.
If you read this section first, reverse course in your reading and move forward to trip posting #2.
The round
tank is an outdoor oven. Al fresco restaurant has a homemade swing and seesaw.
Lovely old churches grace traditional towns. Church interiors on Ash Wed. and
first Sunday of lent. Windmills are beginning to provide power. Conference
speaker, a female economist from Chile, originally from France, said that while
overtly leftist governments prevail now in Latin America, more central or
right-leaning forces have power and influence through non-governmental
organizations.
If you read this section first, reverse course in your reading and move forward to trip posting #2.
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