Election fraud in Honduras

Juan Orlando Hernández, President-elect of Honduras

Elections are over. Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH, as he is known in Honduras) is officially the next president of Honduras, winning about 34% of the vote. He will take office January 27, 2014. The election process was declared free and transparent by international observer organizations. No vote recounts will be done by the TSE (Honduras' election authority) despite numerous and some very valid claims of errors and even fraud. TSE says that their only obligation is to certify the actas (explained later) not the ballots. The international auditor says the same. Despite election observer organization positive reports to the contrary, organizations such as OAS provided long lists of changes that are necessary and even the TSE has campaigned for changes to the election law.

Candidates showed proof on television and online of serious errors if not downright fraud both within the polling places as well as within the TSE. Often the claims of errors could be confirmed by viewing the scanned documents on the TSE website. I saw and verified enough to convince me that some of the diputado (congressman) races deserved a fresh count of the ballots.

The election process

Registered voter lists

The basic election process is to confirm voter identity (ID card) and ensure that the voter is registered at that voting table by comparing against voter rolls complete with color photos of the citizens. The ballots are certified by the poll workers.

Voters move to a private table to mark 'x's' on ballots which include names, party designations, and color photos of the candidates (separate presidential, congress, municipal ballots) and deposit them in the appropriate ballot box. The voter's pinky is inked so that he cannot vote again.

The biggest fallacy in the system is that the legitimacy of the election results relies on the independence and honesty of the poll workers. Each voting table is supposed to have a poll representative and a substitute from each party (eight parties this year) to ensure honesty in the count, though that doesn't happen in most cases in much of the country. Rather than 16 or even 8 poll workers, many of the actas that I viewed online were signed by four or even fewer poll workers. Polling places may start out the day with representatives from each party, but often some leave before the actual count is done. Additionally, political parties and individuals are known to traffic in polling credentials (which are issued in blank to the parties, not the individuals), selling their badges to the highest bidder. Channel 10 news interviewed one poll worker who proudly stated that he was a Nacionalista though he couldn't explain why he was wearing a badge from another party. At the location where J voted, the LIBRE party workers loudly stated that they would only verify known LIBRE party voters. In a small town, every knows who has what party loyalty.

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See that bridge over there?

I can't remember where I heard or read this joke so I can't give proper credit but it is just too funny and too true to not repeat. I think I heard it from a Honduran on a Honduran talk show so don't take offense! I'm not too much of a joke teller, but I get some great laughs from this one.

A Honduran mayor went to visit the mayor of his "sister city" in Spain. The Spanish mayor invited him home for dinner the first night of his trip. Before the dinner, which was fit for a king, he showed the Honduran mayor around his palatial estate.

The house was a mansion with finely carved furnishings, thick oriental carpets, golden faucets, and servants galore, waiting to attend to their every need. The mansion was situated on several acres of an immaculately landscaped hill overlooking a river.

The Honduran mayor, who we'll call Don Tomás, was suitably impressed and said, "I'm just a humble mayor from a poor pueblo in Honduras. I can only wonder how you can live in splendor like this. Spain must pay its mayors much better than Honduras does."

The Spanish mayor, who we'll call Don Carlos, patted Don Tomás on the back and said, "It's not so difficult. Let me tell you what I did. Perhaps you can do the same."

Don Carlos pointed out the window toward the river. "Do you see that bridge over there?"

Seeing the narrow wooden one-lane bridge crossing the river, Don Tomás replied, "Si".

"Bueno, I was able to obtain generous international aid to build a bridge for our little pueblo. But instead of building a big expensive two-lane bridge, I built a one-lane bridge and with the excess funds, I am able to have all of this." explained Don Carlos, throwing his arms wide to encompass his luxurious surroundings. "Simple, verdad?"

"Hmmm," thought Don Tomás, pondering what he had been told.

A couple of years later, Don Carlos came to Honduras for a visit, and of course, called on his friend, Don Tomás. He was surprised to find that Don Tomás was living in splendor every bit as wonderful as his own. Don Tomás appeared to have even more servants, probably due to the lower cost of wages in Honduras, he thought.

"Don Tomás! How did you amass such wealth in such a short time? This is splendid! You are to be congratulated!" he exclaimed.

Don Tomás smiled slyly and took him over to a window overlooking a river. "Do you see that bridge over there?"

Don Carlos looked out the window at the river. He moved to right and leaned out to get a better view. He leaned to the left to view the other end of the river.

"No."

Freedom of the press in Honduras

Honduras President Porfirio Lobo
Photo: El Heraldo, Honduras

The Miami Herald article discussed in Corruption in the upper echelons of the Honduran police is reporting what newspapers in Honduran can only hint at, if they even have the nerve to do that.

While freedom of expression and freedom of the press are enshrined in law and the constitution of Honduras, the reality is different. There is the very real fear of retaliation for what it said or written — about 17 journalists have been murdered in the past couple of years and many more have been threatened or intimidated by police, other government officials, or criminals. It is widely rumored that some journalists simply accept payment for covering/not covering or putting a certain slant on a story and even that one television 'journalist' extorts his potential victims — 'Pay up and we'll leave you alone. Don't pay and we will crucify you with wild claims and made up 'proof'.

Sometimes family politics and financial interests also get in the way of the "whole truth and nothing but the truth". The government of Honduras is one of the biggest advertisers in Honduras. That's right, in addition to their own two dedicated propaganda television channels, the government of Honduras spends millions on paid advertising incessantly telling us on TV, radio, and in print what a good job they are doing, using money that could be better spent actually helping the poor instead of trying to get their party reelected. Less than transparent government officials are often able to successfully confuse or cover up the truth or mislead journalists. Then there is also the possibility of being charged criminally or sued for millions for reporting derogatory stories.

You see, in Honduras, the archaic calumnia law (liable, slander, and insult) provides that anyone who even feels that their honor and dignity was offended can file a criminal complaint. It's called a "crime against honor" and is listed in the penal code in Título III, right after homicide and rape. It can be punishable by 6 months to 3 years in prison, as well as huge monetary damages in a civil lawsuit.

Reminiscent of the feudal era, which still exists to some extent in Honduras, and reflecting Honduras' strong and never ending love of impunity, in the case of "insult", the accused is not even allowed to present the truth as a defense except in the case of public officials. However, proving the truth is next to impossible in a country where "investigations" continue indefinitely and the few cases brought to trial rarely result in successful prosecution. Publishing a retraction, even if you have reported the truth, is the only option to avoid criminal prosecution. Even caricatures of public officials can be classified as a crime, though my favorite caricaturist and congressman Dario Banegas certainly pushes that to the limit. [Cartoon entitled a Cabinet of Goalmakers: A grinning President Lobo: I only half close an eye and .... goal! (the soccer balls spell 'corruption').]

Thankfully, this law, like so many laws in Honduras, is mostly ignored. Cases were filed and threats were made several times under the administration of Manuel Zelaya, including his threat to sue Otto Reich, former US Assistant Secretary of State, for Reich's comments made and published in the USA (coincidentally in the Miami Herald) stating that Zelaya was complicit in the Hondutel/Latinode corruption case. Reich's response to Zelaya was more or less "bring it on". In a big show for the Honduran public, the enraged Zelaya even sent high level government officials to the US to see what they could do, which was nothing.

Republishing an 'offensive' article that was previously published elsewhere in the world can also result in lawsuits. We saw that in 2007, when Hondutel official and nephew of then president Manuel Zelaya, Marcelo Chimirri (who has since served some time in prison for corruption but is now out), sued two television journalists individually and sued La Prensa and El Heraldo newspapers for L.500 million (US $26 million) for the re-publication of a Mexican article which directly linked Chimirri [photo] to Hondutel corruption and was later reported by CNN. Those cases were thrown out, but it took almost five years for the underlying fraud and bribery to be investigated in Honduras, despite the fact that Latinode officials plead guilty to bribery in US court. Unfortunately, the US public court documents only list the Hondurans who made the deals and received the bribes as "Official A, Official B, and Official C".

Honduran officials still claim to not know who "Official A" is, though it was claimed that he had close connections to Zelaya. I think the case is "still under investigation" in Honduras, which apparently has much higher standards of evidence than the US. < /sarcasm > Chimirri was arrested and taken to jail shortly after the ouster of President Zelaya to the cheers of many. It now appears that other than a few months in jail, during which he was allowed visits from his stylist and masseuse, nothing more will happen to Chimirri related to the specific corruption charges made in the article. He was released on L.4 million personal bond and nobody investigated where that money came from either.

In 2007, when the cases against the media were thrown out, several members of the national congress spoke out saying that freedom of expression is one of the pillars of a democratic society. Several mentioned that the law which makes defamation a criminal offense, as well as the new transparency law, needed to be changed in order to guarantee the citizens the right to be informed. One diputado went so far as to say that "to file a lawsuit against journalists who denounce corruption only reflects the class of functionary who isn't prepared to show his innocence." But more than four years have passed and the big talk was not followed by any action.

Names and photos of police who have been suspended and/or accused of crimes are withheld from the public — who have a real need to know — because, officials say, they could be sued for releasing the information. Police and other government officials, who have no similar qualms about giving out names and allowing photos of alleged criminals before charges have been filed or proven in court, have a whole different attitude about their own. Amazingly, even the Public Prosecutor says that the names and cases have not even been released by police to their office. No investigation, no trial — no need to embarrass or defame anyone.

That brings us full circle to the Miami Herald article. Honduran officials, including those named in the article, curtly dismiss the article, saying that it is unethical, merely rumors, and asking the Herald to provide proof. Since the only ones in a position to provide proof are those devoted to covering up the truth, there is not much chance of that ever happening.

Remember that Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said back in November 2011 (see Minister Bonilla responds) that he had no knowledge of any investigations against his command officers but that he had requested any investigative files against them from all sources. Apparently, he has not yet received those files or he is covering them up, because he's still not talking and he definitely hasn't said that the files don't exist. Leaks to the media seem to be the only way that the public can get any information.


Despite the many unsolved murders of journalists and many recent charges of attacks and intimidation, rather than addressing those issues, Honduran President Pepe Lobo announced on Wednesday that he would be sending a decree to congress intended to "regulate" the media. He didn't give any details but said that the objective is to guarantee that media divulge information without bias and that no media should be allowed to "defend personal interests". What he meant by that remains to be seen. And it doesn't bode well for freedom of expression if the government is in a position to decide what is biased and what is not. I would like to see the government propaganda channels subjected to the same criteria.

In addition to loads of coverage about the crime situation, criminal police, and lack of investigation and incompetence within the justice system, the media has exposed details of several suspicious government contracts lately as well as cases of laws passed by the congress in which the wording was mysteriously (and illegally) changed prior to being published in La Gaceta. It would be so much 'prettier' if only the media wouldn't talk about such things. In fact, the government is in the process of developing their own media campaign to improve the image of Honduras. Wouldn't a better effort be to improve the reality in the areas of crime and corruption?

Juan Orlando Hernández, President of the Congress seems to have lately put his presidential aspirations above his previous 100% support of every action of Lobo. He says that the President has a right to send a decree to Honduras, but that the congress has a right to not approve it.

On Friday, President Lobo added that the national media should obey "an ethical framework to inform and orient the public opinion in an impartial manner." "If I grab a newspaper, I am assuming that they are telling me the truth. The reader doesn't assume that the owner of a newspaper is the owner of a business that wants to get a [government] contract...." Unlike his previous announcement, this time he said that he would consult with journalists, the Inter American Press Association, and Reporters without Borders.

Honduran journalists have declared themselves "in alert" against any effort to limit their rights under Article 72 of the constitution. Proceso Digital writes that Lobo's reiterated declarations that he will legislate the exercise of the profession of journalism indicates his intolerance for criticism. [Both links in Spanish]

The Inter American Press Association has already announced its concern, citing one of the media's greatest roles as being a watchdog over the powers that be.

Related article:

Andres Oppenheimer: Press censorship on the rise in Latin America

More Honduran police crimes

[Image: Danger, Police in the area]

Back in November, I was keeping track of cases of criminal cops who made the news and other stories which indicate police collusion in crimes. I continued to make a note of links to articles, with a big gap around the holidays, so this lengthy update is by no means complete, and of course, does not consider that the police are able to successfully cover up many of the crimes of their compadres. One of the reasons that I'm tracking this is to show that bad cops apparently have no fear of the supposed purification and another is that I'd like to be able to compare these names (when given) with those released on the lists of fired police agents.

José Rubén Pozo López, one of the escaped police accused of the murder the two university students [in English] in October, voluntarily turned himself in to the National Human Rights Commissioner (non-governmental organization) in early December. The initial judicial hearing was unusually held in a military installation to protect the accused. He was ordered held in custody in an unnamed military facility for the charges of murder and abuse of authority. The charge of aggravated robbery was provisionally dismissed. Pozo López asked the judge to consider the fear he had in turning himself in, as evidenced by the fact that police patrols were circulating around the military facility that day in a seeming effort to intimidate him. Continuing as fugitives from justice are Carlos Gáleas Cruz, Wilfredo Figueroa Velásquez, and Arnulfo Padilla Rodríguez.

Mother of one of the victims, Julieta Castellanos, accused the Human Rights prosecutor Sandra Ponce of negligence for knowing for several days that Pozo López wanted to turn himself in and doing nothing to facilitate the process. Ponce denied the charge, but said that she had received a call from the Pozo's attorney and was waiting for another call from him.

La Tribuna revealed details of the case of the murder of the two university students. Police not only stole the victims' money and cell phones, but also a leather jacket and even the shoes of the victims. Previously, it was reported that one of the police agents used the victim's cell phone at the crime scene to call his girlfriend as he "had no minutes" on his own phone.

Police agent Luis Enrique Pineda Castillo, assigned to barrio Los Dolores, Tegucigalpa, along with two civilians, were charged with extortion, aggravated robbery, and carrying illegal weapons after being caught in the act of receiving money from the victim. All three were released by the court and ordered to present themselves voluntarily once per week until the case comes to trial. Pineda Castillo was ordered suspended from the police at the request of prosecutors.

Police agents Nery Saúl González and Jaime Adalid Soriano were charged with stealing a gun and other evidence. The gun was decommissioned from suspects but never reported to supervisors. The owner of the gun presented a denuncia of the theft. An unnamed police source said that many police steal guns and other evidence from suspects resulting in a lack of evidence for prosecution and the criminals go free.

Two drunken members of the Honduran air force, René Alfonso Romero Reyes and Neptalí Osmín Morales Nufio, were arrested for carrying three 9 mm guns and threatening the lives of others.

Ex-police agent Nelly Emilio Vásquez was found guilty of homicide in a San Pedro court for the 2010 murder of a prostitute who he had a dispute with while using her services. The sentence will be given in January.

Prosecutors charged Homicide police inspectors René Darío Sierra y Maynor Salomón Cáceres with rape and robbery of a police vehicle in which one of them tried to escape. Two young women were leaving a discotheque when they were chased by the two police inspectors. One of the women was allegedly raped and subject to other acts of lechery. Police initially refused to name the suspects, but names were later released by prosecutors. Salomón Cáceres is currently a fugitive from justice.

Police agent José Luis Alemán Pérez (23) was captured by DNSEI agents (Special Investigation) in the act of extorting L.200,000 from executives of a cooperativa. Alemán was in possession of two IDs, one in the name of José Luis Rodríguez Yánez, as well as his police badge, at the time he received the cash from the intended victims.

During the initial hearing of police agent Wilmer Alexander Zavala, judges ordered him to be held in prison pending trial for the murder of a 16-year-old in the capital. Zavala is accused of confronting two minors in the street, grabbing one by the neck and shooting him causing instant death. The other boy fled.

Ex sub-commissioner Jorge Alberto Barralaga, previously suspended [in English] for his role in the escape of four police agents accused of murder, has been accused of attempted murder by a citizen in Tocoa, Colon. Barralaga denies the charges.

Padre Marco Aurelio Lorenzo denounced that he was beaten and tortured on December 26 by police agents in Intibucá who stole L.11,500 from him. However, the police responded saying that their report showed that the priest had been in a car accident and was drunk, and that the police merely took him to the hospital. The spokesperson noted that the police were accompanied by "persons of prestige" at the time and speculated that maybe he had been robbed by some other uniformed persons prior to the police arriving. The priest's parish stands by him and demands action by the justice system [in English, also read the comments which add additional information].

The Salvadoran Transportation Association continues to denounce that truck drivers are intercepted by police up to 10 times during their deliveries of products in the south of Honduras and have to pay up to US $30 each time, for an estimated total of US $9,000 per day in bribes to Honduran police. As before, police promise a profound investigation and to take corrective measures.

In Comayaguela, a man supposedly caught in the act of extorting an impuesto de guerra (war tax) from a citizen was shot various times and killed by DNIC agents who said that when they told him to raise his hands, he fired on the investigators who shot back.

Police intervention in Tela, Honduras

Honduran police authorities intervened in Tela, Atlántida, and "suspended" 80 police agents, who have been sent to the Cobra unit for "investigation". No information was given as what sort of investigation will occur or when these police will resume duty in Tela. Currently naval personnel and Cobras from San Pedro Sula are performing patrols in the city. The only information given by the police spokesman was that police were not performing their duties in high crime, noted gang and narcotrafficking areas and that they will be retrained to determine whether or not they can resume their duties. Speaking of that, I can't recall ever hearing anything else about the 176 agents "suspended" in Tegucigalpa [in English]. Apparently the results of that retraining, and the 100 or so agents who refused to report for it, is one of many police secrets.

Criminals using police equipment

Two robbers were found to be in the possession of a police weapon when arrested.

Seven suspects were ordered held in custody for seven days by judges in Tegucigalpa after being captured in an operativo in which AK 47s, grenades, and three luxury vehicles, along with seven bulletproof police vests and three anti-gas masks were seized. Prosecutors have this seven days to present enough evidence to have them held in custody until the trial.

Related news

Latest statistics given by the police show that the DNIC (Criminal Investigation) that 84% of the criminal cases go uninvestigated but they expect that will improve with the donation of technological equipment and better collection of evidence.

In an interview with a Tegucigalpa morgue employee, who asked to remain unnamed because of fear of retaliation, he stated that in 15 years, he has never seen such horrible murders as he sees now. He added that initially he didn't believe family members' claims that police were responsible for the deaths, but after seeing so many bodies with the same characteristics, he began to doubt. He said that they often see bodies that have been tortured, dismembered, and burned as well as with faces disfigured with numerous gunshots to prevent identification. He pointed to one case in which four young men who according to family members were captured by a Belén police patrol and parts of their dismembered bodies were found the next day. He stated that it is very strange that the Tegucigalpa morgue is seeing fewer homicides since the death of the two university students [in English], because during other similar operativos, the numbers of murders did not decrease. However, after this case, the existing Belén and La Granja police were all removed from duty in those areas.

Diario Tiempo reports that an unnamed human rights advocate states that since the beginning of 2010, dozens of young men have been captured in the middle of the night and later appeared tortured and executed with their hands tied behind their backs, often in the areas covered by La Granga and Belén police stations, as well as in Comayaguela. Some of the family members claim that these young men were abducted by eight hooded, heavily armed men dressed as police and wearing bullet-proof vests. They say that it is a lie that police announce the deaths were a result of ajuste de cuentas (revenge killings) between gangs.

Related articles:

Nov. 26, From the 'too odd to believed' criminal cops files
Nov. 25, Continuing police crime
Nov. 20, Honduras police crime and corruption continues
Nov. 11, Police crime and corruption

Liar, liar, pants on fire

Honduran congress

Here I am, lowly blogger, doing the job the Honduran media should be doing — exposing the big fat lies of Honduras' elected representatives. [All links in Spanish unless otherwise noted.]

On Monday I received a mea culpa sent out by the congress stating several things, the most amusing of which was that they will set up a committee to make sure that in the future they read the things they are approving before they approve them. Now there is a concept! They blamed approval of the Securiport contract and new $34 security tax on the President and told us that they are always working for the pueblo. Numerous congressmen have been in the news crying that they didn't know what they were voting on, blaming it on President Lobo, who later decided not to the tax after the uproar, and President of Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, who interestingly did not vote at all on the issue.

The missive also stated that the decree was passed at 2:26 in the afternoon, not in the madrugada (middle of the night) as the news had reported (though the new exit tax passed the same day was passed at 11:30 pm). As proof, they included a link to the main page of the voluminous Congressional website. So after navigating the congressional website, I found the 24 pages of files of attendance and votes for December 2011, a mere 472 PDF files. Luckily, the latest file uploaded and one of the only file names with a date, was the attendance record for December 14.

Plowing through the records

Imagine my surprise to see that the "attendance" record is 114 pages long, logging all the ins and outs, requests to speak, time of speaking, etc. of the congressmen during the approximately 14-hour session. It was in time order, not by name. No way could I determine who was there without doing a multi-page spreadsheet logging the 114 pages of ins and outs, and I wasn't interested in doing that.

Even the 10-page individual records of the votes on each issue are not in alphabetical order, making finding the several hundred votes for that day very difficult. Each voting record is in a separate 10-page PDF image file that can't be searched and is not in alphabetical order!

The 472 PDF files have titles like "Art. 52" and similar which give no indication of what the issue was much less any details within the files. Article 52 of the constitution, Article 52 of a contract, or Article 52 of a law or regulation, and which one and what was the change? Your guess is as good as mine, there is no information whatsoever.

So while this congress continually claims to be the most transparent ever, they manage to present mountains of information in such a way that it would take a full time staff to find and wade through and document their votes and still there is not enough information for even the congressmen to determine what they were actually voting on.

They also like to refer to their televised sessions as transparent but the truth is that even if you have the time and patience to watch their TV channel 24 hours a day (and be subjected to hours of Juan Orlando Hernández government-paid presidential campaign propaganda commercials), you still won't know how congressmen voted unless you take a photo of the TV at each vote and have the seating chart (by which the for and against votes are shown in green or red) memorized to compare against the photo later. There are no names shown for votes, so while a diputado (congressman) could publicly rail on and on against something during the televised session, he could actually electronically vote for it and no one would know unless they have the time to search the voluminous files at the website.

The congressional website has only posted four laws in the past 5 years and none at all for this congress which started in January 2010 and brags that they have passed more new laws than any congress before. What were those laws and where are they? Under "Conozco su diputado" (Know your congressman), pages of photos with a name underneath are presented with no information about what departamento (state) they represent, what they stand for, what their voting record is, nothing at all except which party they are with. If you want to know who your elected diputados (congressmen) are, you won't find out at the congress website, because the sad truth is once you elect them, they cease to be your representatives and become the "party's" diputados.

Information on motions, dictamens, decretos, actas, and so forth are similarly lacking with little or no information posted in 2010 and 2011 and none in 2012. The little information that is there is presented in such a manner that only the most determined would spend the days or weeks required to sift through. Only in the rarest of cases are proposed laws made public in advance or published on the congressional website after they approved. So you might find out, as I did for example, that they approved several acts conceding "amnesty for debts with the state" (there were several of these in the madrugada on December 14), but good luck finding out who got the amnesty or for how much.

One of the biggest factors of non-transparency is La Gaceta, which is the government's official publication of laws, regulations, and so forth, which could easily be online but is not. Individual organizations of the government include publication of some laws on their websites, but you have to be a detective to find them and often they are not posted for months or years after they are passed. I know because I've spent more hours than I care to admit trying to find the text of various laws. Transparent? No way.

Who voted how?

In Big Brother comes to Honduras [in English], I mentioned that two of the three congressmen that Proceso Digital interviewed didn't know about the new US $34 travel/migratory/security tax and the third voted against it.

From Proceso Digital's interviews earlier this week, here is a translation of what they wrote:

"Meanwhile, the Liberal legislator Waldina Paz expressed that she voted against this decree. "I am against more taxes. That was approved in Interairports package. I asked them if what they wanted was the buildings constructed with dollars of the people," she said."

Go to page 8 of the vote results and you'll see that Jariet Waldina Paz also voted 'si' on this issue. She did vote 'no' on the increase to the InterAirports exit tax.

Proceso Digital also wrote (translated):

"Another of the interviewees was the Nationalista parliamentarian Antonio Rivera, who said he was unaware of what the decree in question referred to, adding that "I have no knowledge of the decree because I was not present at the parliamentary session."

Not only was Diputado Rivera present, but he voted in favor of the decree. Go to page 4 of the vote results and you'll see that Antonio César Rivera Callejas voted 'si'. Rivera did not vote for or against the InterAirport increased exit tax. He now says he doesn't remember voting on it. He's joined by Diputados Carlos Martínez Zepeda, Celí Discua Elvir, and others who say they just don't remember voting on this issue.

Scanning through the yes votes, a couple of diputado names caught my eye. You might think that congressmen elected in tourism areas would look unfavorably upon additional taxes for travelers which could serve to harm the tourism industry, but I found that the sole diputado for the Bay Islands, Romeo Silvestri of Roatan, and Gonzalo Antonio Rivera of La Ceiba, Atlántida, also voted in favor of this travel tax. In fact, there was only one vote against it. Of the 109 diputados present, 68 voted for the tax, one abstained and 39 didn't vote at all.

Of the other seven Atlántida diputados, only Ramon Antonio Leva Bulnes (PN) voted in favor of the increased tax. Rodolfo Irias Navas (PN), Margie Dip (Margarita Dabdoub Sikaffi- PN), Marcio Rene Espinal Cardona (PN), Daniel Flores Velasquez (PN), Jorge Alberto Elvir Cruz (DC), and María Aracely Leiva Peña (PL) did not vote at all.

Then I became curious about the votes on the other travel tax passed that same day, the increase in the exit fee proposed by the executive power and then later vetoed by the same. I waded through pages of documents to find the vote on the increased exit tax, though it was identified only as "approve 2nd modification to InterAirport contract". The vote on this issue was 88 in favor, 15 against, 8 abstained, and 14 did not vote, for a total of 125 diputados present.

Of the nine Atlántida and Bay Islands diputados, Romeo Silvestri of the Bay Islands and Ramón Leva, Marcio Espinal, Daniel Flores, Margie Dip, Gonzalo Rivera, and Jorge Elvir of Atlántida all voted for the increased exit tax to be paid to InterAirports. Rodolfo Irias and Maria Leiva did not vote.

Excuses, excuses

Some of the gem excuses that have been given to reporters:

Juan Orlando Hernández, President of the Congress: "the $34 should be absorbed by the airlines and in no manner is to affect the final users." Oh, please, that is such a huge insult to the intelligence. He also made a dismissive comment that most of the pueblo (voters) can't afford to fly anyway so it won't affect them.

Secretary of the Interior, Áfrico Madrid: "there was no public bid because Securiport is the owner of the technology." Are we to believe that Securiport is the only company in the world that provides the technology for immigration control in every airport in the world?

Olancho Diputado Francisco Rivera: He blamed the media for not reporting on the issue when it was discussed in session. Now that's really hypocritical. The media has been denied all information about this contract and only found out about the tax after the airline association was notified that they must begin collecting it. José Francisco Rivera Hernández incidentally voted for both travel taxes.

Cortés Diputado Wenceslao Lara (PL): "I am sure that this Nacionalista government is the worst that we have had in the history of Honduras, because they are in charge of disgracing our country, making our already impoverished society even more poor." Proceso Digital quotes him as saying that he voted against the new travel tax, but the voting records show that Lara did not vote on either tax issue.

Francisco Morazán Diputado German Leitzelar: lamented that they continue playing with the dignity of a noble pueblo and qualified those who approved this law as bats. "They operate in the night and sink their teeth into the heart of the Honduran pueblo." Diputado Leitzelar did not vote for or against either tax issue.

What has been going on in Honduras?

President Pepe Lobo, Esdras Amado López, 'journalist',
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

The following are some tidbits about what has been going on in Honduras lately to catch you up-to-date after my much needed news break. All of the links are to articles in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.

Deja vu all over again

Talk about rejoining Hugo Chávez's ALBA and Petrocaribe has picked up again after Honduras failed to qualify for US Millennium Challenge program funds because of corruption, human rights violations, and other issues — which resulted in an angry response from President Lobo, just as back in 2008 when Zelaya said he wasn't getting enough cash from the US and needed to look elsewhere. Even more worrisome, Chávez is getting a direct foothold in Honduras territory, specifically the Bajo Aguán, noted for militant campesino groups and Venezuelan narco plane landings [article in English], a place ripe for Chávez propagandizing.

As Proceso Digital so delicately put it, "These funds, since they are placed in trust, beyond the strict budgetary control, are coveted by rulers not inclined to fiscal rigor." Evidence of the lack of transparency is the fact that though these funds were received in 2008-2009, the public was just informed for the first time on January 5, 2012, how much money was available from Petrocaribe (originally US $183 million and now zero), when it was spent (the last of it 8 months ago), where it went, and what it was actually spent on (we still don't know).

In a press conference apparently impulsed by rumors of a 'missing' US $150 million, Minister of Finance William Chong Wong and President of the Central Bank Maria Elena Mondragón went to great pains to differentiate between Petrocaribe funds (which have to be paid back) and ALBA funds (which don't), but were only very vague about when and where the ALBA funds were spent, of which US $49.8 million supposedly remain. The ALBA funds were to be used for such things as providing housing for the poor, so you might wonder why it has been sitting in a bank account since 2008. The first article states that Honduras indebted itself with Venezuela for more than US $263 million, but second states that the current remaining amount is US $200 million. Chong Wong said that La ENEE authorities are responsible for detailing where its US $51 million was spent (since there is some speculation about misuse of funds there, too).

Also interesting is that in May 2011 during one of the many pushes for rejoining Petrocaribe [Blogicito article in English], the media was led to believe that the 2008 Petrocaribe funds were still in the bank. Yesterday in the press conference apparently prompted to dispel rumors, the public found out that the funds had actually been spent in 2009, 2010 and April 2011. Very deceitful of the government.

Pepe says Petrocaribe is a go. He likes the "flexibility" of Petrocaribe and the fact that it doesn't come with any conditions on what they do with the money or anti-corruption measures like the US money does — which he resents greatly. Putting the country into further long term debt for current consumables is not an issue for him, neither is reducing the over-inflated government payroll budget. Honduran politicians would sell Honduras to the devil himself if it meant more money in their pockets and/or more political currency for their party (more bonos — cash bonuses to give out).

Selling the farm to buy the pig

The finances of Honduras are in dire straits. The government is unable to meet the ever-growing, exaggerated government payroll costs, and unwilling to cut expenses in this "government of austerity", which passes out jobs and cash bonos like money comes from a bottomless barrel. By one estimation, Lobo is desperate for funds because he has a failed government which has increased the bureaucracy and national budget while giving out Bonos Diez Mil without any idea of how to pay for any of it. In order to shore up the barrel before the Venezuelan funds come rolling in, Honduras will be holding two large auctions of public property in 2012. I'll bet you a dollar that we will never know who bought what or how much they paid for it!

Striking teachers

Teachers' unions claim that 50% of teachers did not receive their vacation pay in December and they are already planning strikes in 2012. The Honduran public school year runs February through November and supposedly includes 200 days of classes, though most schools have not reached 200 days of classes yet in this century. Last year, some schools had as little as 80 days of classes due to teacher strikes. Even worse for the future of Honduras, high school graduates can become teachers with no university training at all. More deja vu.

Emergency!

In less than two years of his administration, President Pepe Lobo has declared 17 state of emergencies, on average an emergency every 38 days. Decoded, "state of emergency" often has nothing to do with true emergencies. It means that the government can make direct purchases and grant abusive contracts to friends, family members, convicted felons, and others without those pesky requirements to have an open bidding and qualification process as required under the Law of State Contraction. One of those recent emergencies resulted in a 16-year 100 megawatt multimillion dollar contract for electrical energy with a company (Westport Finance) who has no experience in the area of energy and had revenues in 2010 of about US $96,000 and two employees.

A 16-year emergency? Only in Honduras. "It stinks of corruption," said one congressman. Honduras government officials had the nerve to lead people to believe the contract was with the well-known Finland company Wartsilla, when in fact it was not. The contract itself was not even provided to congressmen until the night of the vote. So much for transparency.

Mañana

The total of these emergency contracts in the past two years is said to be L.5.8 billion. Repeated complaints of fraud and corruption from citizens, congressmen, and other organizations have had no effect. Now the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Henry Salgado (who I'm not sure has ever won a case) announced that they will be investigating whether there are any penal responsibilities related to these emergency contracts.

He also promises action in the ENP (port authority) corruption and the L. 80 billion fraud and corruption in INPREMA (teachers' retirement fund) cases within the next three weeks. Check out the reader comments on this article — no, don't bother. I'll save you the time and translate for you, too: "jajaja" (hahaha). A separate article reports that the Anti-Corruption unit has a backlog of 4,000 cases and between 10-15 attorneys to handle them! Pure show and more deja vu.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate in Honduras is somewhere around 30-40% according to various reports. However, coffee plantations, which need around a million seasonal workers, are required to fill about 100,000 of the jobs with Nicaraguans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorans because, they say, Hondurans do not want the work. Sadly, they also say that foreigners are better workers. Though this type of worker is paid by the piece (sack of coffee beans), they say that an average worker makes more than minimum wage (about L.250 per day vs. L. 183 per day) and a good worker makes almost twice that. So they say anyway. Some readers have different opinions.

Minimum wage

Negotiations between business and labor have not resulted in an agreement on the new minimum wage and it is likely that President Lobo will end up setting the 2012 minimum wage as required by law. Hopefully he won't wait until November like he did in 2010. This is a really complicated issue. While we always focus on the poverty in Honduras, the Honduran minimum wage is higher than all of the competing countries. Nicaragua and Guatemala in particular will be watching this issue and waiting for more businesses to pack up and move to their countries. (Click cartoon to enlarge.)

Taking security into the neighborhoods' hands

In a program called Barrios Seguros (secure neighborhoods), the municipality of Tegucigalpa has been allowing neighborhoods to close various street entrances, leaving one or more secured or controlled entrance in an effort to slow crime. San Pedro Sula has been allowing something similar. A group of anti-corruption attorneys has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court saying this conflicts with the free circulation right provided by the constitution and laws which proclaim streets to be public property.

The Mayor of Tegucigalpa and presidential candidate, Ricardo Álvarez, says the measure is to protect lives in this wave of violent crime and that is what should be considered first. Well, why not? Honduran laws are made to be broken, though lately it appears that Honduran laws are made to protect the guilty, never the innocent.

Purification

The new commission, Dirección Nacional de Investigación y Evaluación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP), which was supposed to be the answer to our prayers about purifying the police department has done nothing except emit statements about how it isn't their job, they don't have the budget, and the law doesn't permit them to intervene anyway. It seems that in congress' rush to pass this law and appoint the commissioners in a big show to appease the public, they failed to note that the purpose of the new commission conflicts with the current internal police law as well as the constitution.

In a Diario Tiempo editorial, they wrote that those with experience knew since the beginning that the new commission would not function and that there has been no evidence of political will to intervene, purify, or restructure the justice system (police, military, judicial, and prosecutors), much less real capacity to do so. "The gangrene in the police organization, for example, starts at the base, in the police academy, and from there on up, no doubt induced at the top."

However, Pompeyo Bonilla, Minister of Security, announced this week (with no details) the upcoming separation of some unspecified number of police from the basic level to the highest levels in "important positions". Yesterday it was announced that 50 police agents and 25 officials would be fired by next week and some additional number would be rotated. That number was increased to "up to 100" today and then later an announcement was made that 52 police had been separated, including one commissioner general, two commissioners, and one sub-commissioner, and that another separation would occur soon.

Names were not given by police spokesman Ivan Mejía, who said that the law prohibits it and that the affected police could sue the state for damages, even though names have been given in the past. (I'll be watching for a leak.) These police were separated for grave faults (misconduct?), but the Minister of Security is taking no legal action against them as that is the duty of other organizations to investigate and make charges. Mejía refused to give more information despite prodding from the media. He did report that some of the fired personnel had 25-30 years with the police department.

In another blow (no pun intended), 28 new police cadets (5% of the total) were fired after their drug tests came back positive. Apparently the government is taking the position that new hires can be tested for drugs but current employees can not be forced to be tested. That isn't the way I read the law but I'm not an attorney. If that is what the law actually says, then of course it should be changed so that the public is protected, not drug-consuming police officers.

Honduras' Iron Lady

Julieta Castellanos, Rector of UNAH and mother of one of the university students murdered by police in October [article in English], proclaimed the actions as a "fictitious purification" done to calm the public and evade real purification. Castellanos says that we need information about whether these are real firings, suspensions, or rotations, and whether these people are still receiving salary. In a strong statement in which she used words like deplorable, grotesque, and abominable, she said that the organization has had three months to destroy the evidence of police corruption, and she lamented the fact that honest police have not come forward out of fear or intimidation.

Asked by La Tribuna whether she fears being assassinated because of her constant denuncias against the police, she stated that she isn't looking for that, but that she does what she has to do. "If something happens to me it is the fault of the police, primarily señor Ramírez del Cid [National Director of Police], because there is no one more interested in something happening to me.... and no one more knowledgeable about corruption in the police since he was the former head of Intelligence."

She also pointed out that it should be easy to prove corruption of police agents and officials who live well beyond what their police salaries could provide, like with three US $25-30,000 cars and houses in wealthy areas. She also reported that as late as a few days ago, police were out in police vehicles in Tegucigalpa extorting businesses. One of those businessmen was expected to pay L. 350,000 because he was an undocumented foreigner, but when they took him to the police post to pay, he only had L.38,000.

New justice system

President Lobo announced Thursday that he will be sending a new packet of security measures to the congress soon to "make changes in the structure of the Judicial Power". I hope he reads the constitution first.

Washington Post is soooo mean

A Washington Post article, which was only the latest of many articles in the international media about Honduras' severe crime and criminal police problems, resulted in an uproar from some in Honduras about how unfair it was to write about the situation and possibly scare off tourists and volunteers.

Marco Cáceres of Honduras Weekly [article in English] called the complaints a cop-out.

"The negative publicity for Honduras worries me too, but honestly... not nearly as much as attempts by people within the Honduran government and business community to downplay the strife. The simple fact of the matter is: It is what it is; the numbers do not lie (at least not too much)."

False pride is a big factor in Honduras' failure to take action against corruption and impunity. As long as those in power are more worried about covering up the embarrassment to the country than taking action to do the right thing, nothing will change.

Stupid Capitalinos

In yet another vague and demeaning comment intended to divide the population, not reconcile it as he incessantly claims, yesterday in Comayagua, President Lobo said how good it was to be there talking about production because in Tegucigalpa (the capital), they only talk stupidities. Maybe he has a point, but by not naming names, he just insulted some 1.5 million plus Hondurans.


Phew! And that was primarily from the last 2-3 days of news. Can you see why I needed a break from the news? If you don't read or watch the Honduran news, I hope that you found this helpful.

Red Alert! - meddling with the Honduran media?

Porfirio Lobo, President of Honduras

Proceso Digital announced today that Honduran President Pepe Lobo has summoned all directors of the major Honduran media to come to a meeting on Friday to talk about those "national themes that have caused controversy in the country".

If Lobo was going to congratulate the media on their excellent and thorough coverage of the criminal police scandals and the important role they have played in impelling exposure which will hopefully result in the purification of the rottenly corrupt and deadly police department, he likely would have done that in a press conference.

More likely he is going to suggest a gag order among the media, possibly telling them that they are threatening national security or trying to destabilize the government (favorite claims of authoritarian administrations). Maybe he'll just ask them to "give him some time" and he'll take care of everything personally thereby buying time until the media goes on to the next scandal and the exhausted public forgets about this one. Maybe there will be implied threats of possible charges of interfering with investigations or defamation, which is a criminal offense in Honduras for which "the truth" is not a legal defense, and for which other corrupt government officials have sued reporters and newspapers for millions of dollars in the past. Maybe there will be carrots dangled in the form of government advertising contracts. Will we ever know? I hope so.

The public is told weekly by various government leaders, up to and frequently including President Lobo himself, that other individuals and organizations within and outside the government are corrupt. Presidents, congressmen, judges, prosecutors, police, ministers, directors, generals, heads of La ENEE and Hondutel, government 'oversight committees', businessmen, attorneys, unions, teachers, NGOs, and "the rich" in general are all regularly smeared with the muddy brush of corruption directly from government officials' own lips in press conferences. (If I've left out any group, it was inadvertent. No one in Honduras escapes from these vague claims.) These same officials, including President Lobo, never ever get around to naming names or filing official denuncias about this corruption of which they always claim to have concrete information and should have a moral duty to report.

So the odd thing is, the main difference between the "demonizing" that the media has been doing and the "demonizing" that the administration has been doing is that the media has presented facts and figures to back up what they say whereas the administration only tries to make themselves look better by claiming everyone else is worse.

I see the Honduran media as the only possible hope of getting some resolution to the police corruption scandal — which the government is obviously trying to downplay — though of course, the media gets its own accusations of corruption and financial influence as well.

The government is a major advertiser in the Honduran media, probably the biggest after the cell phone companies, and it has often been reported that many journalists accept payment for covering or not covering news or for putting a preferred slant on it. Channel 10 news is currently showing an incredible number of lengthy government commercials, more than I've ever seen in the past, including during the "Cuarta Urna" media blast of Mel Zelaya in 2009.

The national congress, Secretary of Health, La ENEE (government owned electric monopoly), Hondutel (government owned telephone company), Secretary of Tourism, and the "Government of Unity" are all major advertisers, who use tens of millions of taxpayer money to buy commercials to tell us what a wonderful job they are doing, while the majority of the population lives in poverty and malnutrition, without electricity, running water, or any kind of decent health care, missing half or more of the school year, and with no hope of finding a job much less taking a vacation to Roatan from it.

All of this is in addition to not one, but two, dedicated government TV channels in which one-sided propaganda and political campaigning is blasted to public for 16-24 hours a day. These channels are even blatantly used for unfair political campaigning and demonizing political opponents and those who don't agree with whatever current actions the President and his minions in Congress are trying to take. Equal time for opposing opinions? Open debate of the issues? Forget about it! No, Lobo is using the government station in the same offensive way that Zelaya did, to manipulate the public.

On top of all that advertising and dedicated propaganda channels, both President Lobo and full time presidential candidate Juan Orlando Hernández (who happens to also be President of the Congress in his spare time) abusively take over the airwaves of all television and radio stations in incessant, vapid, and patronizing cadenas in which we are told that crime is already reduced by 90% or 60% or 50% or "to almost zero" in one area or another, that "el pueblo already feels so much safer than we did before because of Operación Relámpago", how we must not be naughty by demonizing the police because of a few bad apples, and that the rights of bad cops must be respected.

During the meeting of ministers in which the media meeting was announced, Lobo also announced that his government will start a campaign and an international forum where they will "expound on the defense of freedom of expression versus the defense of economic interests" — whatever that means.

We'll see what happens on Friday. I have faith that the Honduran media won't be intimidated.

A step back in time with Wikileaks 2002-2004

A new Wikileaks-Honduras cable came through on a Google Alert the other day. "Oh, yeah, I forgot about Wikileaks," I thought to myself. So I clicked over to see what was new: Pages and pages of new Honduras-related cables, 50 cables per page. I went through at least 10 pages and still didn't arrive where I had last left off. These latest posted cables were from 2002-2004, when Larry Palmer was US Ambassador to Honduras, and Ricardo Maduro (photo) was president. The majority were "Media response to xyz event" and even though I skipped all of those, I still spent hours reading selected cables.

Some cables read a little like gossipy soap operas or tragic comedies. Juicy! But overall, as I was reading, all I could think was, "It has been a decade and only the names have changed." Honduras has had Nacionalista presidents and Liberal presidents. We've had hundreds of million in aid and loans as well as hundreds of millions of debt forgiven. We've had new laws and new 'watchdog' committees and organizations put into place. We've had foreign experts working on various problems. We've had plans and studies and dialogues and negotiations. And Honduras still has all the same problems, only in double or quadruple now!

US Ambassador Palmer (2002-2005, photo) was initially generally very optimistic about changes to be made under new President Ricardo Maduro. It's true, some significant laws were implemented. Personally, with my limited experience with government offices, I saw improvements in service. At least the government employees no longer flagrantly pulled out their wallets and deposited my fees directly into them right in front of me as I had seen a couple of times in my first year in Honduras. Most payments now have to be made at a bank.

Hope and changes in the law

In February 2002, the criminal procedure code was overhauled providing for oral presentations in public court instead of written presentations debated in private by the judges. A stronger anti-money laundering law was passed early in 2002. The election law was reformed and a government simplification law was passed. The Tribunal Superior de Cuentas (TSC) was created in 2002 as a hybrid general accounting and public ethics office but, according to the Embassy, had no visible affect on corruption. In almost two years of existence, the 600-employee TSC had not reported a single accounting discrepancy or recommended a single corruption charge. "Rather, the TSC seems to have become a jobs program for contacts of senior GOH (government of Honduras) officials in need of employment."

Immunity then, impunity now

Changing the constitution to revoke immunity for a long list of public officials was another success of the Maduro administration. Unfortunately, while politicians no longer have legal immunity from prosecution, in reality, they still do and are rarely ever even fired, much less prosecuted. Public employees can become millionaires seemingly overnight without even an investigation occurring. In many cases, they are merely shuffled to other government jobs in order to preserve their dignity. In some cases, they fade away only to be later resurrected under a new administration when the public has forgotten the scandal.

We'll see how the Zelaya, Flores Lanza, Bonano, Latinode, and other cases go, and I will happily eat my words if anyone goes to jail or even more far-fetched, are forced to make restitution. Just last week, (now former) Minister of Security Alvarez told us that he can't even fire police officers accused of crimes, narcotrafficking involvement, and corruption, that the courts restore them with full pay and that 10 high level police officials are "air traffic controllers" for the narcos.

In 2003, a minor congressman, Armando Avila Panchame, caught red handed fleeing the scene of a narco plane landing, was sacrificed to the anti-corruption gods and sent to prison for 20 years. Shortly after he claimed that he was going to implicate the "big people" involved with narcotrafficking, he was murdered in prison. To the best of my knowledge, he was the first and last politician to be convicted of anything, despite strong rumors that many in congress and high level government officials were and still are involved in narcotrafficking, money laundering, and other crimes, as are some of their family members.

Astronomical violent crime rate, endemic under-reporting

Truth scarier than fiction: That was the title of this August 2003 cable in which the Embassy lamented the shocking increase in murder rates but also expounded on the several ways in which they were certain that murder was vastly under-reported, particularly in areas where there is no morgue (most of the country) and where there are no journalists from the major news organizations (again, most of the country), since most statistics are based on morgue reports or the news.

Paragraph 15 of the cable pointed to a 50% increase in murders to date in 2003, but amazingly, the official 2003 statistics issued later by the government showed an unexplained 39% reduction in homicides! No doubt there was fiction in those numbers. The same statistic gathering problems apply in 2011, but now the homicide rate is estimated at 78-86 per 100,000, placing Honduras number one in the world of countries who report such statistics.

Same old, same old

High government salaries, teachers strikes (many cables), union pressures: Each of those issues were mentioned in several cables and are worse today than they were in 2002-2003. Current government salaries are stratospheric compared to 2001 despite at least a decade of constant pressure from the IMF to reduce them. One 2009 news report said that government salaries were 10 times what they were in 2001. Teachers unions have become so emboldened by the governments' lack of resolve to make politically tough decisions that they no longer think they should even have to work in order to receive paychecks and a whole generation of children have been robbed of an education. Those children, soon to become part of the workforce, will never recover that lost time.

Expropriation of private property

This cable discussed 13 cases of government expropriation or loss through corruption of US Americans' property, some of whom had been trying to get justice since the 1970's. One of those cases is actually a friend of mine. (Very strange to read about a friend's case in Wikileaks!) A 2005 update on these cases indicated no favorable results. Another entire cable was devoted to the shocking Roatan McNab-Anderson-Moore case in which the American citizens' caretaker was forcibly removed in handcuffs from their house by police while they were in the US. When they returned to Honduras a few days later, they were forced by a judge and police to remove their personal belongings from their home in two hours and they found others already living in it! Ambassador Palmer thought this case would be a test of the resolve of the Honduran government in the area of investor rights. Can anyone tell me how that case ended up or is this something that we shouldn't discuss?

For the rest of the story on the McNab case directly from one of the parties involved, see Roatán's McNab-Anderson-Moore case.

Open for business, 2002 style

This cable discusses Maduro's efforts to attract business, not so terribly different from the current "Honduras is Open for Business" One section is entitled "Hopes rest on CAFTA" — hmmm, that didn't work out near so well for most of Honduras as it did for US exporters. It then lists some of Honduras' challenges, which, unfortunately are still with us. One example was the then recent minimum wage hike (which brought wages at that time to less than half of what they are now). In another cable, Palmer discusses the case of a US citizen who believed that his cable company was being harassed and that he was personally and publicly being defamed as being a narcotrafficker by a politically powerful Honduran business rival.

Corruption

Corruption and a frustrating lack of will for change was a frequent theme of the cables, despite Ambassador Palmer's initial hopefulness. But by December 2003, in a cable entitled "Good talkers, but Maduro Administration not seriously committed to fighting corruption", the embassy wrote this:

"In office for almost two years, President Ricardo Maduro's administration talks a lot about fighting corruption .... Upon close examination, however, one sees little demonstrable progress in breaking corruption's pervasive grip on almost all aspects of daily life in Honduras. Moreover, there appears to be very little genuine interest in addressing corruption's root causes or the venality of many Government of Honduras officials."

At that time (2003), Transparency International ranked Honduras 106 in corruption out of 133 countries (fourth lowest in the Western Hemisphere). In 2010, Honduras was in 134th place out of 178 countries, tied with eight other countries. Honduras' score fell from 2.7 (out of 10) in 2002 to 2.4 in 2010. Among many other actors, Palmer pointed to the congress, describing it as,

"riddled with tainted politicians who view their positions heavily through the lens of personal wealth creation. This year alone, three members of Congress have been arrested on drug trafficking charges, and many others continue to be involved in a wide range of other illicit activities."

By October 2004, Palmer makes his disappointment about the lack of progress on the anti-corruption front and with President Maduro crystal clear. Palmer reports on a heated meeting with Maduro in which:

"Maduro was visibly put-off by the Ambassador's suggestion that Honduras needed to do more on the anti-corruption front. Apart from the fact that Honduras could be found ineligible to receive future MCA funds based on its undistinguished anti-corruption record, Maduro appears more preoccupied with maintaining the political status quo."

And so it goes.

Cartoon: Dario Banegas
La Prensa, Honduras

Corruption but no corruptos in Honduras

Buen Provecho!

Bon appetit!

Image: Dario Banegas
La Prensa, Honduras

Did you know that the US has some laws that even cover crimes committed in other countries? The US doesn't agree with the "When in Rome, do as the Romans" philosophy for US corporations. The officers of one company found out about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act the hard way.

After winning a long distance services contract in 2005 with Hondutel (the state-owned telephone company), Latin Node (Latinode) was apparently approached by Honduran government officials with a deal to "sweeten the pot". With bribe payments in the right places, an even lower connection fee would be charged by Hondutel. One by one, former officials of the company are going to prison for paying US $500,000 in bribes to Honduran officials in 2006-2007. Four down and three more to go. Additionally, the company itself was required to pay a US $2 million fine.

Here in Honduras? Nada. There is an old saying here: "En Honduras hay corrupción, pero no hay corruptos." Honduras is full of corruption but there are no corruptos. At least none that can be convicted and very, very few that can even be charged. I suppose it goes back to "Honor among thieves" or "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".

Marcelo Chimirri, former head of Hondutel, was one of those rare exceptions who did spend a few months in jail before he raised L.4 million bail. Initially he even had the audacity to use government funds to pay lawyers to defend him and the other accused against the corruption charges. Here is Chimirri having a good laugh at the justice system after he was released.

According to one Wikileaks cable, Latinode may only be the tip of the iceberg. "Latinode is one of 16 new international carriers that Hondutel has contracted with since the new administration of President Jose Manuel "Mel" Zelaya took office in 2005. Most of these contracts, including Latinode, contain suspect "confidentiality clauses" that seem to arbitrarily lower their rates." Despite the totally shocking information included in this cable, Chimirri was found not guilty of fraud charges and is still awaiting trial for abuse of authority charges. If a man like Chimirri (read the cable!) can not be convicted, there is really no hope for Honduras. Hat tip to Omar for sending me the cable.

It seems that if the cases have already been proven in the US, it shouldn't be such a stretch for Honduran prosecutors to win convictions in Honduras. While some of the Honduran officials were charged, we can't even find out the name of one of the bribed officials. His name has been maintained secret by three different administrations for all of these years. For all we know, he may be one of the many running for president.