Golpe de estado – 20th day

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.

Henri Nouwen

Tomorrow is a critical day for Honduras. Representatives of both deposed president Mel Zelaya and de facto president Roberto Micheletti will meet with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

Where will this lead? There are talks of amnesty of crimes committed on all sides. Arias is floating the idea of a government of reconciliation. Micheletti has offered to step down as long as Zelaya is not president. Zelaya is rumored to be preparing to enter the country.

Roads throughout the nation are being blocked by opponents of the coup – even just outside Santa Rosa. The road block here stops international commercial traffic between San Pedro Sula and Guatemala and El Salvador. There will probably be blockades today and tomorrow.

Today I went out on the 7:30 rapidito to Dulce Nombre de María. (This rapidito is a little bus with about 30 seats (though I’ve seen close to 50 in it at one time.) When we passed the usual site for the toma de la carretera – literally, “taking the highway” – I saw nothing but some police.

We were supposed to have a day and a half workshop on Political Participation and Catholic Social Teaching. Only five people showed up, probably a case of poor communication. But the team – two campesinos, a retired school teacher, the two priests, and I – sat around and prepared for a workshop in two weeks. There was a somber mood as we talked about the situation and prepared the workshop.

The first morning will be an analysis of the current situation, using a document the Caritas will release soon. The afternoon and evening will take the booklet on democracy that the national Caritas office prepared about two months ago. The second morning we'll do some sharing in groups on basic themes of Catholic Social Teaching. The workshop will end about noon with a discussion of what we do now. It is a very deliberate attempt to use the methodology of see, judge, and act, which is used widely in the church, especially in Latin America.

There was nothing more to do and so I decided to head back to Santa Rosa. Padre Efraín asked me to take the parish pick up to a repair shop in Santa Rosa since it needed a lot of work – about $500 worth! He told me how to get there and avoid the toma.

As I approached the turn off from the main road to Gracias where the toma was, I noted about a mile long line of trucks – mostly semis. I took the turn off and drove on one of the worst roads I have even seen, with potholes about a foot deep and fissures in the dirt road about six inches deep where the rain had run across the road. There was a stream that was about 8 inches deep. (Luckily the truck is high of the ground.)

It also passed through several rural village. I could not help notice the poor houses and the very evident poverty. So close to Santa Rosa but what misery abounds.

Finally I got to the repair shop. It had taken me about 40 minutes using the detour – for what is usually a ten minute drive.

But that really didn’t bother me. What did bother me was the poverty I saw.

As I write this I remember a discussion we had at our neighborhood base community meeting last night. Folks recalled that in the last week there have been four miscarriages in our neighborhood. There are also rumors that there have been up to 125 miscarriages in this region. Something seems wrong.

No, something IS wrong.

And it's not just a question of who is president and who broke what law.