Political Unrest or Political Distress

Political Distress in Honduras

You may not be aware of the political situation playing out in a few countries of Latin America. The distress is the product of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela and archenemy of the United States. Hugo Chavez is a character to say the least. What Hugo benefits from are large oil reserves underneath his soil that He controls. This provides him the capital that he needs to be very unfriendly to the US. He has long looked for anyone to join him, to give him credibility. Primarily Fidel Castro. But as of late Eva Morales, president of Bolivia, Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua and last but not least, Manuel Zelaya, president of Honduras. What do these three men have in common? They are all radicals who have a bone to pick with the US. Daniel Ortega became famous in the 80’s during the US funded contra war aimed at outstanding the pro-communist, Sandanistan president. After 18 years of running to be reelected the former military general, campaign financed by Hugo Chavez, was reelected in 2006. This concerned many in the region as to what Ortega would do to his country.

Honduran president, Mel Zelaya, a long time wanna-be revolutionist began slowing paling around with Chavez. He made a fool out of himself with a speech he gave blasting the US at the United Nations in 2007. Then in the summer of 2008 Zelaya signed ALBA. ALBA is the Latin American equivalent of NATO. Not exactly but that’s what it boils down to. All members are united through ALBA and if you mess with one, you’ve messed with them all. There was great outcry from the business owners of Honduras, the folks who provide the jobs that allow Honduras to flirt with a sense of 1st World in their major cities and allow them to ignore the millions of peasants that live just past the city limits. ALBA appears to benefit Venezuela more than anyone, it secures petroleum contracts from it’s members and provides a sort of validation for what craziness might come out of Chavez’s mouth. Zelaya on the other hand has been compared to a big Iguana. Iguanas are known to sit in the sun and move their heads up and down, up and down. So does Zelaya with whatever it appears that Chavez says or does, Zelaya moves his head up and down in agreement, unable to come up with original ideas, views, programs, nor original threats against the evil U.S. This is where Zelaya’s education, or lack there of, shines through. Zelaya flunked out of college after just a few months. Not that college makes a person succesul but some critical thinking classes might do Zelaya some good.

The latest news is that an “auto-coup” was planned for today, September 15, Honduras independence day. A normal coup is when the military takes over the government and ousts the president. In our case in Honduras, the president was going to lead the coup against his democratically elected office so that he would become the supreme power, backed by the Honduras military. Fortunately news of this plan reached congress last week and the president was confronted about his plans, which were denied, but at least this grew awareness to the situation, and as of 3:30 PM local time there has not been a coup. Then on Friday, in support of his South American counterparts the president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, refused to recognize the diplomatic credentials of the Hugo Lorens, incoming Ambasador of the United States to Honduras. This action alarmed the local political community as well as international communities. Another “iguana” move on behalf of the president of Honduras. Supporting the actions last week that were taken against the Ambassadors to Venezuela and Boliva.

Should Honduras sit back and do what ever the US wants them to do and when the US wants it? No, by no means. That’s what has happened here throughout history. Honduras has been the puppet for the US government. A large number of covert military operations have been based out of Honduras. The US has maintained a large air base here for 20 years, and the US has always called on Honduran soldiers during war times.

The Honduran governing parties can be mad but they must also be realistic. The Honduran economy is artificially held up by US Dollars sent back monthly by illegal immigrants working in the US. Hands down, the Honduran economy would collapse if it were not for these US dollars being sent back to family members in Honduras. After every natural disaster the first to respond to pleas for help are the U.S. And perhaps the largest development organization and humanitarian organization working in Honduras to help the Honduran people is none other than USAID, United States Agency for International Development.

What does this mean for us as missionaries? Well at this point absolutely nothing. We’ll keep on spreading God’s love and it looks like at the rate of things there will soon be even more folks longing to know that there is something more out there than what they have seen. With God’s guidance we’ll be there when that opportunity presents itself. We pray that our many friends and fellow Christians that visit us annually to work and serve the Honduran people will not be scared away and give another victory to Satan. That’s what he’d like, for fear to prevent us from sharing God’s wonderful story of salvation.