THE CUBANOLOGY BI-WEEKLY and SPECIAL ARTICLES BLOG

An interview with La Gringa’s Blogicito from Honduras

By Jose Reyes

First of all, I would like to thank you (La Gringa’s Blogicito) very much for accepting and participating in this Online Interview. Secondly, I want to congratulate you for providing the “World” with excellent, real-time, precise and accurate reporting from Honduras. Your startling reports bring to surface and expose the opinions of the Hondurans and again, provide your worldly readers with factual everyday experiences that occur in the community. Real life experiences in their community and yours also! For these reasons I took the opportunity and chose to interview you online. And since you speak English (American Born) very well, then your observations will be more informative to Americans and to all other English speaking readers around the globe, that are either being misinformed or who are simply not aware of what is occurring in Honduras right now. I’ve prepared numerous questions for you below; please do your best to answer them in the most precise manner and the most honest way possible. Most of my questions here will pertain to the current political situation in Honduras. There will probably be more questions in the comment section, so please be aware of this. Thank you again for taking the time off for this online interview!

My Questions to La Gringa:

1. Please take the time here to add to my introduction and give us some more information about yourself and your Blog.

La Gringa’s response:

Thank you for your kind introduction. I moved to Honduras in 2001 with my Honduran husband. We built a house here and have enjoyed our garden, our dogs, and our chickens. I’ve been blogging for more than three years. I’ve never been involved in politics before — in fact I try to avoid it. Before June 28 (my birthday, as a matter of fact), I occasionally wrote about corruption but most of my blog was about my every day life.

2. Can you tell us the specific reason or reasons why you opened a Blog and what made you choose to name it “La Gringa’s Blogicito?”

La Gringa’s response:

I started my blog on a whim late one night. I was corresponding with a few gardening friends in different parts of the world. I was looking for a manner in which to be able to tell them more about life in Honduras. At the time, I wasn’t even entirely sure what a ‘blog’ was. I wasn’t really worried, but because Honduras is a dangerous country, I decided to write the blog anonymously. Hondurans often refer to non-Hispanic foreigners as gringos so that name seemed natural. ‘Blogicito’ is a Spanglish word that I made up to mean ‘little blog’. Later, when my husband read it, I saw that it wouldn’t be pronounced correctly by Spanish speakers, but since I assumed that most of my readers would be English-language, I decided to keep it.

3. I’m sure there are many people here who would be very interested and curious in knowing a little more about that historic night itself, when Zelaya was taken under custody by the Honduran Military. Can you express and convey to us here, the exact reactions of your friends, neighbors and the general public in the big cities near yours?

La Gringa’s response:

In a way, it was a shock, and in a way, it wasn’t. What most people outside of Honduras don’t know is that the country has been very tense for about a year, from August 2008 when former president Mel Zelaya joined Hugo Chávez’s ALBA alliance. Soon after congress approved the ALBA treaty, which was very unexpected, Zelaya began talking about rewriting the constitution. Over that time, there had been many rumors about coups, particularly about auto-coups, in which it was thought that Zelaya would try to take over the country with the help of the military and abolish the congress and supreme court.

We had been watching the news, particularly the government channel until the early hours of Saturday night. I’ll say that I was shocked on Sunday morning, June 28, but many Hondurans that I know were not so much. Honduras has suffered coups in the past and was under military rule until 1982. As a result, they are very protective of their constitution and the prohibition of a president to serve more than one term. I was surprised to see that the reaction among the majority of the people I know was relief and joy that he was gone!

4. Please be honest here. What is the general opinion of the Hondurans concerning Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega?

La Gringa’s response:

There is great fear of Chávez and Chavismo in Honduras. Zelaya was seen as a puppet of Chávez, trying to bring the same sort of totalitarianism to Honduras as Chavismo has brought to Venezuela. Many people saw Zelaya following the same playbook that has been used in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and now commencing in Nicaragua. In August 2008, Chávez came to Honduras for the signing of the ALBA treaty. As is his manner, during the ceremonies, he issued grave insults to the Honduran people, calling anyone who was against ALBA vendepatrias and ignorantes and also insulted the USA. Most Honduran people did not like seeing their president get so chummy with Chávez and Castro. A few days before June 28, Chávez threatened to “do whatever it takes” to ensure that the constituyente poll took place. He also threatened to “spill blood on the streets” of Honduras — statements which were never rebuked by the OAS or UN.

Some people, however, have been convinced by the Chávez propaganda. Zelaya allowed people to believe that Chávez was giving Honduras fuel at reduced rates. In fact, Venezuela sold fuel to Honduras at market rates and it was just the general decline in worldwide fuel prices that caused the reduction. Chávez also donated 100 tractors and a large quantity of energy saving light bulbs to Honduras. The Si se puede reading program was also used to indoctrinate the most vulnerable people.

I hear less about Nicaragua’s Ortega although there have been many false rumors during the past three months of Nicaragua invading Honduras.

5. (Three Part Question) “International” Media Coverage concerning the arrest of then President Manuel Zelaya.

Part One: Can you specifically name the principle “International” media outlets that participated and involved themselves the most, immediately when this event occurred?

La Gringa’s response:

Almost the only international news coming out of Honduras in the beginning was Chávez’s Telesur and CNN (Español) which often used Telesur’s feed. Telesur was reporting murders and kidnappings that did not occur — for example, one person reported to be murdered by the police, César Ham, is actually a current presidential candidate — definitely not dead!

Part Two: Are there any specific conflicting reports between themselves or were they all exactly the same?

La Gringa’s response:

The international media, with the exception of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, have all been pretty consistent in not reporting the government and civil society position or the numerous acts of corruption by Zelaya and his ministers. Telesur has made outrageously false claims about murders and abuse, which are sometimes reported by the other media. CNN (Español) reported for more than a week that CNN was blocked in Honduras. This was not true. Ironically, I watched CNN from 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 28 to date. Their signal has never been cut here.

Part Three: In your opinion, were their reports completely accurate, semi-accurate or completely bias?

La Gringa’s response:

CNN’s coverage was led by a reporter with Sandista ties. This coverage was extremely biased and also was just downright untruthful in many instances. When that reporter was moved to Mexico, the coverage became slightly better, but not much. Zelaya’s prior abuses of the constitution and laws and his corruption have not been reported.

6. A Before and After Question.

Can you tell us the reactions, opinions and questions raised by the Honduran citizens on and about Manuel Zelaya during presidency, before he was abruptly relieved from his position?

La Gringa’s response:

Mel Zelaya was said to be the most unpopular Honduran president ever. He was extremely ineffective and divisive, going off on a tangent with some new project, spending a lot of money, and then dropping it when it became apparent that the project wouldn’t work. Some examples are his attempt to forbid driving one day per week to save gas, his promise to build an international airport in 6 weeks, and his attempt to control fuel imports to Honduras. Almost 80 million lempiras was paid primarily to one man on that latter project and then it was determined that Honduras had no storage facilities for the fuel and the project was scrapped. His approval rating in late 2008 was only around 25% according to a Gallup poll. Many Hondurans expressed embarrassment that he was the President, not only for the things he did within the country, but for insults to the US, which is Honduras’ biggest trading partner and one of the largest granters of aid to Honduras. During June, there were huge anti-cuarta urna (fourth ballot box) marches and calls to boycott the poll.

Can you tell us the reactions, opinions and questions raised by the Honduran citizens on and about Manuel Zelaya during presidency, after he was replaced by an interim and temporary government?

La Gringa’s response:

While I was a little frightened about what it meant to have a ‘coup’, in the first days I was surprised to see relief and even happiness from Honduran people that he was gone. Unfortunately, two local media sources paid well by Zelaya have frightened and confused some of the public over the past 3 months by following Telesur’s lead in inventing the news, reporting murders, invasions, kidnappings, and concentration camps. As a result, some people with little education, little historical knowledge of Chavismo, and little access to ethical news sources have been convinced that Honduras is under a dictatorship.

7. Were you present at any marches supporting the new uprising and removal of Zelaya and are you in accord with the present situation?

La Gringa’s response:

No, I haven’t gone to the marches. I believe the current government led by Roberto Micheletti should be commended for stopping Chavismo in Honduras, not condemned. The government, including the congress and supreme court which were in place before June 28, is operating normally. President Micheletti has no intention of continuing in office and has done everything possible to promote the normally scheduled free and fair elections on November 29.

8. Is there any real urgency present, concerning the current governmental situation in Honduras, now that Zelaya is residing in the Brazilian embassy?

La Gringa’s response:

One of Zelaya’s delegates in the Guaymura negociations has demanded a resolution by October 15. It’s possible that we will be seeing more riots if that doesn’t occur. The real urgency is that the world community send independent observers to the November elections so that the results can be recognized by other governments.

9. Are the Hondurans looking forward to the next presidential elections, planned for the coming month of November, are they elated, are they disappointed, and/or distrustful?

La Gringa’s response:

Some are distrustful but I believe that is mostly as a result of people being misled by unscrupulous resistance leaders. President Micheletti, the presidential candidates, and the Tribunal Supremo Electoral have been assuring citizens that these will be the most transparent, free and fair elections ever.  Various polls show that somewhere between 65-85% of Hondurans believe that elections will be the solution to the political crisis. Many say that they will be voting for the first time.

I hope that the election turnout is good and that there are enough international observers so that countries will have to recognize the election results and the next president of Honduras. I can’t imagine any country denying Honduran citizens the right to vote for the president of their choice, but that seems to be the direction that most countries are going. It’s very hard to understand why organizations such as the OAS and UN, who are supposed to defend democracy, would take such an undemocratic stand.

10. Are the citizens of Honduras familiar with the Honduran Constitution and do they realistically and genuinely agree upon the purpose it was written and how significantly critical it is for their future?

La Gringa’s response:

Overall, I would say that citizens of Honduras are much more familiar with their constitution than many citizens of other countries. Within Honduras, the crisis has been sliding from focus on Zelaya to focus on the constitution, with the opposition wanting to change it through a constitutional assembly and the pro-government supporters wanting to protect their constitution.

11. In your opinion, can you make some sort of prediction on the immediate future of Honduras and its relationship with the Obama administration?

La Gringa’s response:

Big questions! The best thing that can happen is that the participants of Guaymuras dialogue will come to an agreement which will be accepted by the world, but I’m not sure that will be possible. All sectors of the government and most sectors of civil society have said that returning Zelaya to office would violate the constitution. The second best solution would be that the world will recognize Honduran elections and that the country will return to peace at least by January when the new president takes office.

First a little background: Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were thought of as practically celebrities in Honduras. There was as much celebration when President Obama won the election as there is for a Honduran election. Now, however, all of the Hondurans that I know think that the Obama administration has treated Honduras very unfairly, has judged them without knowing the facts or giving their government officials the opportunity to explain.

The US has acted like the 800-pound gorilla showing very little respect for the honor and dignity of Honduras. Although the US has claimed to only be following the lead of the OAS, behind the scenes the US has put a lot of pressure on the presidential candidates and businessmen, including American businessmen in Honduras. Some have even described the US State Department actions as threats. Honduras will always have ties to the US, but my opinion is that the USA has lost a lot of trust with this meddling. On the other hand, if the US should admit that they made a hasty decision and change their stand, that would go a long way toward making amends.

Every post is well written and groundbreaking, here are just a few..

Conclusion From La Gringa:

I don’t think that anyone believes the constitution is perfect — certainly it needs an impeachment clause — but most of the problems in Honduras can be attributed to unfair laws and unfair enforcement of the laws. Many improvements need to be made to help make Honduran a more just society. My hope is that something good will come from this crisis, but not by changing the form of government to socialism, which I don’t believe does much more than change one oligarchy for another.

The Honduran crisis has highlighted the hypocrisy of the Organization of American States, the UN, and even the USA. Elections have been recognized in numerous countries which had coup d’etats and were actually controlled by dictatorships. Honduras is not under a dictatorship, only the president has changed. The congress, supreme court, military, and most importantly, the independent Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) are all operating normally. Under Honduran law, the president has no election duties or responsibilities; those are all granted to the TSE. Many of us believe that Zelaya’s goal is to stop the November elections and it appears that many ALBA nations and other countries who financially benefit from Chávez are working very hard to support him in that goal.

There is no reason not to recognize free and fair elections in Honduras. Elections are the democratic solution to this crisis.