A Coup of My Not Favorite Things

After months of my internet silence, sorry to my loyal readers out there, I am back and ready to discuss the “elephant in the room” controlling my life here for the past few months, the Honduran Glope de Estado (Military Coup d’état). As many of you probably know, on June 28th President Zelaya, known as Mel, was arrested in his home by Honduran Military officials and removed from the country. The Military, Supreme Court and Congress’s joint decision to take such an action came from Mel’s decision to continue with illegal elections known as the Cuarta Urna which would modify the constitution, thus allowing him to “run” for another term in office. Congress, following the procedures set forth in their constitution, voted this election illegal as well as denounced Mel’s campaign which involved tactics such as giving money to promote votes. Therefore, on the morning of the election the military arrested Mel, removing him from office, and swore-in the Present of Congress, Micheletti, as the new Honduran President. As during most exciting moments in history I was doing what I usually am, sleeping. I received word about the political situation from a text message from the Peace Corps at 8:26am stating “Standfast and Shelter-in-Place, there has been a Glope de Estado and all PCVs must remain in their sites as a precautionary measure. All PCVs should remain in their residences Sunday June 28^th. No violence has been reported.” Of course at this point in time I did the only logical thing there was to do, I went back to sleep. In truth, everyone had been talking about a Coup for some time before this day and I received word on June 23^rd that I would be required to be on Standfast, which means I was not permitted to leave my town, from noon Saturday June 27^th to Monday June 29^th so I wasn’t surprised.

Since that time, Mel has traveled extensively through several Latin American countries as well as the U.S. discussing his situation and attempting to find allies to help reinstate him as the official Honduran President. Mel has threatened to return to reclaim his presidency and even attempted once for publicity purposes when he walked across the border into El Paraiso on July 25^th for a few minutes despite military presence and the promise that he would be arrested. Mel’s campaign has fueled marches and protests on both sides of the issue since the day of Coup. The demonstrations continue to happen almost daily in the capital city and sporadically throughout the country with numbers ranging from hundreds of thousands to only a few hundred. Unfortunately, as this issue continues, these events have gotten more destructive and even violent. Now graffiti covers most of the capital and several deaths have been reported. Graffiti that, of course, makes me sad is the graffiti on the Peace Corps office which says some not so nice things.

As many of you may know, the U.S. has chosen to support the restoration of Mel as president. This, while a popular decision amongst other foreign governments, is not a popular one here in small town Honduras. It has taken all of my strength not to discuss our government’s decision with my community members who are curious as to why the U.S. would support a president who is buddy-buddy with Chavez, was caught rigging his illegal election, whose top officials were caught stealing millions of Lempiras the day before the Glope de Estado as well as countless other crimes which they have no peña bringing to my attention. To them I only say “Peace Corps is not a political organization, so I don’t know.” A Safe but not a satisfying answer to say the least. At this point in time the U.S. as well as many other countries have withdraw the majority of their aid, with some countries going as far to impose tariffs on Honduran products and refuse trade all together. On August 26 the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa suspended processing non-immigrant visa requests. Non-immigrant visas are for any type of temporary stay in the U.S. There are 26 different kinds of non-immigrant visas including for temporary work, academic study, cultural exchanges, business and tourism. This obviously has had an effect on many Hondurans’ opinions of the U.S. and our government as a whole.

How does all of this affect my life you ask? Well since the Coup I have had to obey various “toques de queda” (nationwide curfews) imposed by the Honduran government as well as obey new travel restriction policies set forth by the Peace Corps. These have involved everything from not leaving my house to simply staying out of the capital city and advising our whereabouts system when I do travel. Travel in any manner has been even more frustratingly slow due to roadblocks and security checks from Honduran Military and National Police. The security checks involve the military and/or national police stopping the bus and inspecting it in their full battle gear. They usually just ask to see every passenger’s papers/identification. Sometimes all the men must get off the bus to be searched further (as if they were being arrested, we are talking the full pat down here) and during especially tense moments, everyone is required to get off the bus. Despite the slowdown in travel, I have had no problems whatsoever. Overall, more military and police are seen on the streets and anyone out past c curfew is arrested/ ticketed. Since there is really nothing to do at night in my town, I have had no issues with this.

Luckily, my town is very tranquillo so I haven’t had to deal with as many obstacles as other volunteers. The mayor’s office where I work has shut down a few times to participate in pro-democracy marches in the nearby city but, these have been few and far between. My work with the hammock ladies has remained uninterrupted since, as one of the women so eloquently put it “What the government does has no affect on us here in the campo. We continue working because what else can we do?” For these people living without potable water, latrines, or electricity, its as if nothing has happened. The only effect that they will likely see is the immense decrease in international monetary support which funds their community projects such as electrification. It will definitely be much harder for us to find funding to improve their micro business but we will just have to deal with that as it comes.

Unfortunately the schools have seen the most disruption due to the fact that high school teachers belong to a national union. Therefore, not surprisingly, the majority of the country’s teachers are Pro-Mel and as a result have stopped receiving their salary. This has caused nationwide strikes. In my town there have not been consistent classes since the Coup. There is a lot of tension in the high school itself because the teachers are divided between those in favor of the new government and those that support Mel. So when the school isn’t completely shut down, some, but not all, the teachers show up to give classes. This leaves the students guessing everyday whether they will have classes or not. It is extremely sad to see these kids travel from far away villages in their uniforms everyday on the chance that they might have school. Recently, the students have taken matters into their own hands and gone on strike themselves when they were told that it is very likely that they will lose their credit for this year due to an insufficient number of days in class. For the moment classes have resumed and I am hoping things stay that way, at least until the elections.

As for me it has been an exciting ride to say the least. While it has been hard, especially for new volunteers to get started and feel confident about our work when the country is in such a transitional period, siguemos adelante (we continue onward). Everyone is just hopeful at this point that come the end of November the elections will pass peacefully and the world will recognize the new government. Heres hoping! I must say though that having a 7.1 earthquake (which I also slept through), H1N1 outbreak, and a Coup d’état during my first 2 months of service will definitely make for some interesting dinner conversation one day! It’s funny cause when I think back to my college Spanish classes when I learned the phrase Glope de Estado, I thought to myself “When am I ever going to need to know that word?!?” Haha and look how it came in handy! Keeping things interesting, just like I like it. Hasta la proxima!