 |
| Presbyterian Church Central America Study Team |
Honduras. San Pedro Sula. My first time back in Honduras in 36 years. And my first time ever in this city. Honduras. The awkward kid in the back of the classroom . The one who gets picked last for teams. The poor cousin. Back in the '80's, the Sandinistas sang:
Si Nicaragua vencio
El Salvador vencera
Y Guatemala prepara ya con fusiles de libertad
Somos el Central America, la esperanza de la humanidad.
(If Nicaragua won, then El Salvador can win. And Guatemala is now preparing with bullets of liberty. We are Central America, the hope of humanity.)
Yep. Not one word about Honduras. Nicaragua had the victorious Sandinistas. El Salvador the valiant FMLN in the face of daily death squads. Even Guatemala had a genocidal born-again Christian madman to contend with. There was just nothing sexy about Honduras.
The wet tropic middy heat hits my lungs and I remember. Honduras trying to contend with refugees from Salvador and Nicaragua. I remember the massive US airbase at Comeagua. The people joked that the US had turned Honduras into an aircraft carrier. And that the brothels near the base were a metaphor for the country.
A random connection with an old classmate on our taskforce led to an invitation to Rafael Leonardo Callejas' birthday party. As a what you might call an agrotechnocrat phd from Mississipi State, in 1990 he would be elected President in the first peaceful transfer of power in Honduras since 1932.
My photo of a Tegucigalpa barrio graced the Presbyterian AD magazine cover in a feature article on the region. I wrote an extended article for a Synod of the Covenant newspaper series on the five countries of Central America pretty much by default. Someone had to do it. It was called "On the space of a tear." Even then, it was a story of unremitting sadness.
Historically one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, last year it was the murder capital of the world.
The hotel, like most local businesses, has a security gate with a red "ALTO"sign and an armed guard. We are instructed if we go out, not to leave the perimeter of the hotel.
Our hosts are against going to see la plaza in city center or where the caravans gather. The local papers are filled with stories and pictures of the latest murders. Four teenagers. A kidnapping. Traffic disruted by burning tires and striking teachers and doctors. A pile of tires was ignited on the door of the US embassy leaving it scorched. A few pages later feature the smiling faces and classy celebrations of a lighter class's 2019 graduates. Caravans...why are the people leaving? What would it take to make it livable enough for people to want to stay?
That's what we're here to explore....
Bienvenidos a Honduras.....
No comments:
Post a Comment