Honduras Update

Below is a newsletter I got from Iain McKenzie, a missionarycurrently in Honduras. He and his wife Liz and son Samuel are from Scotland and started and run the Children's Centre, which provides short term care for children and families in need. The first part gives the background information on the political situation, with more current news toward the end.

Hi Folks,

Below is another update from us here in a confused and weary Honduras. It is a really strange situation we are living in right now.

By way of back ground:

The (previous) President of Honduras Mel Zelaya, proposed to hold a referendum to change a number of items in the Honduran constitution. In particular he wanted to change the limit of one term only (4 years) for a President. There are 3 items within the Honduran constitution that are “Un-revisable” The term of office of a president is one of them.

The referendum was declared as illegal by the Supreme Court of Honduras, the Attorney General of Honduras and the Congress of Honduras. The President re-named the referendum to call it a “non-binding opinion poll”.

This was still ruled as illegal, unconstitutional and in fact treasonous, by the three groups identified above and in addition, the Director of Human Rights for Honduras and the head of the Catholic Church in Honduras. They warned the President that if he continued he would be removed from office and charged with a number of items like, ‘Mis-use of Presidential Powers” “Treason” and “Offences against the Constitution” This was all being done openly through parliamentary speeches and through media outlets. It was really clear to everyone, who was doing what, and the consequences of doing it.

The president continued with his actions. Things came more to a head when the Joint Chief of Staff (the head of the Armed Forces) was instructed by the Supreme Court not to participate in the Referendum. (The army usually distributes ballot boxes, ballot papers, supervises polling stations and the return of the ballot boxes for counting.) He agreed to abide by the Supreme Court ruling and was summarily dismissed by the President. The Minister of Defense and the individual heads of the Army, Navy and Air force all resigned in protest. The Supreme Court ruled that the sacking of the head of the armed forces was illegal and he was re-instated along with those who had resigned in his support.

The Ballot papers (which were printed in Venezuela as the y could not be printed here in Honduras) were confiscated and taken to and Air Force Base for safe keeping. The President himself led a mob of his supporters to the Air Force base and demanded their release. To save bloodshed, the Air Force released the papers to the mob that began their distribution throughout the country.

On Friday 26^th June, 2 days before the day of the Referendum, the Supreme Court issued an order for the arrest of the President and issued this to the army for action. The arrest warrant did not however give the Army authority to enter the private quarters of the President so the warrant was not enacted. On Sunday 28^th June (the day of the referendum) a new warrant was issued by the Supreme Court, with all the required authority, for the arrest and expulsion of the president. This time the army did enact the warrant, and arrested and moved the President of Honduras to a safe place in Costa Rica.

Later the same day, the Congress of Honduras met and elected a new president and chose the speaker of the congress to act as President until the scheduled elections planned for 29^th November this year.

Ex President Zelaya has raised substantial support from the international community and terms such as “Military Coup” “Coup De’Tat” “Military Backed Junta” have been used to describe the actions that led up to his expulsion. International opinion has supported the stance of the ex-president and insisted on his return to power and the re-introduction of democracy. The people of Honduras are so confused by these positions, they are so far removed from what we see.

Since ex-President Zelaya has been removed from office, he has been accused of a number of criminal activities including permitting drug trafficking through Honduras. (The CIA asked if they were investigating the ex-president prior to his removal said, “we can neither confirm nor deny if there was any such investigation taking place.”). Reports that over $60,000 (yes US Dollars) have been found in the presidential Palace, in cash in plastic bags. Additionally, almost $2millon dollars have been removed from Government bank accounts by Ex-President Zelaya and his supporters either in cash or through the use of the 110 credit cards he had before they were cancelled.

While it is true that there have been some marches and some road blocks the press reports that the country is paralysed and in total chaos with Zelaya supporters cutting off the whole country with protests, the new Government have closed the press down and they have introduced very restrictive curfews. All I can tell you is that over the last few days I have driven from one end of the country to the other (9 hours drive each way) and saw no protests, no road blocks, no army and no additional police. We are listening to the radio and reading on line newspapers everyday. The only blackouts we are aware of is the removal of the TV commercial promoting the referendum, which again was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. There is a curfew in position, the timing which is announced each morning, but after the first few days of the Ex-Presidents expulsion, it has been from Midnight – 4.30am. daily, hardly a crushing blow to the people of Honduras.

In the meantime, international communities have frozen and/or cut aid. Honduras has been bombarded by some of the more left wing leaders of South & Central America who are even today threatening to invade this country to re-instate the ex-president.

Talks trying to resolve the crisis are failing over the insistence by those outside Honduras of the re-instatement on the ex-president. All other points of the mediation have been agreed. The current president has offered to voluntarily step down, he has offered for an interim government to be put in place not including himself. The elections for the new president are scheduled for 29^th November and have been offered to be brought forward to the end of September. An amnesty has been offered to the ex-president, but all dependant on the ex-president not being re-instated. The insistence of the re-instatement of ex-president Zelaya is what could take us into a civil war. Please be aware, his term of office is only until the end of this year, less than 6 months. If a peaceful resolution id not found, people will end up dying for this.

Again, today we are being threatened by invasion over the next few days by troops from Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela. The ex-president has described his return as “Waging the Final Battle” These guys sound like they are serious. One has to ask why are they so interested in Honduras?

So, again we would ask your help, for you to continue to be supportive to us during this difficult time by;

If you have a faith,

• praying for peace in this land
• praying that families and friends are not divided by political differences
• praying that the removal of aid to one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere does not bring starvation to the poorest of the poor
• praying that those in power can find a resolution that does not include violence
• praying that external forces do not provoke bloodshed

Whether you have faith or not, ask your politicians to;

• send an envoy to investigate the situation directly, not accept press reports
• restore aid to this extremely poor country
• ensure that a solution is found through continued dialogue not through war
• that they ensure Honduras is not invaded by troops from neighbouring countries.

We really need your help. Remember that, “All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.” Please help us at this time, please take the time to write or call your MP. MSP, MEP today. Ask them to investigate. Ask them to protect us.

As for us, we are OK at present. We are however increasingly nervous that things here could break down very quickly. We are concerned by the actions and words of Presidents Chavez, Ortega and Morales as they threaten our national security. If things do become too threatening we plan to initially send Liz and Samuel back to Scotland and Iain would follow later after things are secured at the centre and the hospital. We hope and pray that it does not come to that.

Thank you to those of you who have already written to and spoken to your MPs, we appreciate that. Thank you too to those of you who have been praying for us, we always benefit from that.

By the way, in the midst of all this, we have at last (Today) received our formal Honduran Residency and have our residency cards to prove it. And yesterday Samuel got his horse, (Izzy) who is well established in a small coral in front of out house.

Also since returning from Scotland in March we have added an extension onto the children’s centre giving us and extra sitting room, we have bought and planted 150 platano trees and have 4 chickens.

We continue to care for 11 children. We will try to write again soon.

Iain, Liz and Samuel

Guildy and Grandpa Ernie

Here's your dose of Guildy commentary:

A couple weeks ago at supper, Guildy told me, "Grandpa Ernie likes pulling stumps." Having no idea what kind of yard excavation my Dad has been up to lately, I said, "Oh, does he use the loader tractor?" Guildy giggled and said, "Of course not!" and went on to explain, "Pulling up a stump is when you want someone to sit down and talk to you, and Grandpa Ernie likes to pull up stumps." Those of you who know my Dad will agree that he is in fact a world class stump puller:o)

And then just this past weekend, Guildy asked Grandpa Ernie to make her a play guitar, which he cleverly fashioned from a half gallon milk carton, a piece of wood trim, some rubber bands and electrical tape. The overall effect was quite authentic. She brought it to church on Sunday, and it just so happened that Grandpa was playing his guitar for worship. So Guildy confidently stationed herself right next to him and strummed her guitar all through the singing. After the first song, she leaned over to Grandpa and whispered, "Well, that was easy!" Later on Sunday, she went to the nursing home with Grandpa to play at the church service there. Two gigs in one day....she was beat by the time all her musical engagements were over!

Long Overdue Update

The past few weeks, I kept thinking there’s just nothing much to blog about, which fits nicely with the excuse that I’m too busy to sit down and actually put something blog-worthy together. In reality, there’s plenty to share, although I don’t have much for pictures. Anyway, excuses aside, here’s what we’ve been up to!

The Kids

The girls are doing great. They love the yard and the summer weather. Guildy is actually quite helpful with gardening tasks, and she’s very proud of her house cleaning skills. She got to see The Wizard of Oz live at the Ft. Peck Theatre a couple weeks ago, and that was a huge highlight of her summer thus far. She goes to summer Bible school at our church every Wednesday and loves it. I think she remembers every fact and phrase she hears, and she has a great desire to learn more about God. We have been trying to be more consistent with her discipline, as her strong will can be quite the challenge to deal with. She has responded really well and is learning to be more and more pleasant and content in daily life at home. This really is a long-awaited victory, and we give God all the glory for the changes He has made in her. In other Guildy news, she fell while running a couple weeks ago and had a concussion. Thankfully, she recovered quickly and was back to normal by the next day. But it was scary considering her history. Sometimes I wish we could just put her in a helmet to protect her little noggin!

Hadley is almost unimaginably busy. If she’s awake, she’s on the move. But I guess you need that kind of determination if you’re going to fit everything she does into a day! She talks constantly and is starting to put sentences together. She likes to chat while nursing, which makes for less than efficient nursing, but is pretty entertaining. They other day before her nap, she quit nursing and stated, “I picked radishes.” I looked at her quizzically, knowing that the garden is well fenced to keep vegetation wrecking pests like herself away. In answer to my look, she added, “Down in the garden,” as if I maybe didn’t know where the radishes are located. It’s so fun to see more and more of her sweet personality as she gets better at expressing herself. She’s also potty trained and sleeps in a regular bed. Not sure when she turned into a kid, but it happened fast!

Our Recent Adventures

The girls and I were supposed to be in Honduras for a couple weeks in July, but in light of the political transition going on there, we decided it best for us not to travel alone. I was pretty bummed about it, but we’ve had a few small scale adventures in the meantime.

One of my favorite eastern Montana pastimes is checking out old, abandoned farmsteads. A couple weeks ago, we walked to one located 3 or 4 miles from the house we live in. It was quite the trek with the girls in the stroller, but always very interesting to see what gets left behind.

Upcoming Adventures

We plan to return to Honduras for about 6 months starting in October. Josh’s roofing job will run out come fall, so we decided going there would be a much better use of our time than trying to find other work here. So we are getting things organized and getting ready to start raising our support. We are really excited to be headed back to work with old friends and contribute to a ministry that has an amazing impact on the people it serves.

In the meantime, we are remodelling a house here in Circle that my parents own with the intention of living in it next spring when we get back. It’s a cute little old farm house that suffered a tragic remodel in the late 70’s. We will get rid of the carpet and linoleum and refinish the wood floors, cover the nasty fake wood paneling, and replace the trim. Josh loves doing projects like this, and he’s quite creative, so it should be a fun. I’ll try to remember to take before and after pictures.

Well, I think that about sums things up here!!