Father Richard Nixon?

Today I went out to Vera Cruz, Copán, since there was a get together of people from the communities in that sector of the parish of Dulce Nombre. I arrived late but in time to participate in some of the singing and see two of the dramas before Padre Julio César Galdámez arrived for Mass.

Was I in for a surprise!

A group of young people from the village of El Ocote presented a drama on the problem of alcohol sales, especially to minors, in the rural villages. Alcohol, binge drinking, and alcoholism are real problems here, especially in the villages. Many people in the church try to have the municipality pass a ley seca, a law that would declare the village dry, prohibiting the sale of liquor.

In the skit, a woman in a grotesque mark was selling tatascán, the strongest moonshine available, to three young guys who proceeded to get drunk and roll around on the floor. A catechist came to her and tried to get her to convert, to desist from selling guaro, moonshine. She said no and the catechist said he’d have to send in the priest.

The priest arrives in what look like an old cassock and stole – with a Richard Nixon mask.

I don’t know where they got the mask, but I was the only one there who caught the incongruity. I’m laughing as I write this. “Tricky Dick” as a priest? By the way, he converted her and she stopped selling liquor and came to church!

Father Julio celebrated Mass and noted in his homily the sad state of the church and the town of Vera Cruz. Vera Cruz is the main town of the municipality, but it has no paved streets that I saw. The church itself is badly in need of repair or replacement. (From what I know a Protestant church in Des Moines is seriously considering helping this project.) In places the outside plaster is gone, revealing the adobe. Inside part of the wood false ceiling has been removed and other parts reveal how rotten it is.

As Mass began I noticed an old woman on the other side of the church, barefoot and with a disfigured face. She clapped enthusiastically during the first hymn. She reminded me of the poverty here - and the enduring faith of the poor!

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What’s happening in the rest of the country?

There was violence at some of the demonstration in Tegucigalpa last week. There are some who say there were infiltrators planted to undermine the demonstration. That is very possible, remembering how there were provocateurs in the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in the US.

It is also very possible that some hot-headed young people just decided to attack what appeared as symbols of the coup – fast food franchises largely owned by members of the rich elite who are behind the coup.

This also is what probably happened the other day when a member of the Congress was attacked by some demonstrators near the Congress building.

But what is troubling is the violence being used by the police against demonstrators. Friday reporters and a lawyer at a demonstration in Choloma near San Pedro Sula were beaten. What next?

As to negotiations or mediations to solve the crisis?

The de facto government seems to be doing a lot of stalling. The Organization of American States was supposed to come here this week, but it’s now postponed to sometime later this week.

The US ambassador to Honduras, who has called what happened a coup, left the country to go to Washington. The de facto president remarked that “it appears that he left for vacation… I hope he doesn’t return.” And he wants recognition from the US government?

What next?

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The photos in this entry and other photos from Vera Cruz can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndonaghy/sets/72157622057992924/