Election, curfew, and coffee

Late Friday night, December 1, the Honduran government declared a curfew for ten days from 6 pm to 6 am. Though elections had been held last Sunday, there were no official final results, but a series of delays and anomalies. Many suspect fraud on the part of the governing party to maintain its control of the three branches of government. On Monday night, December 4, the hours of the curfew were shortened: 8 pm to 5 am.

Still there are no final results and not only the opposition alliance but the Organization of American States are calling for an open and transparent review of the election results.

It has been tense. People have taken to the streets in many cities in generally peaceful marches and occupation of the streets. There has been some violence, not only about 10 deaths from government forces but destruction of some public property – a city hall in one place and highly-contested toll booths in another. There also has been some looting in major cities. There are suspicions of government infiltrators as well as common criminals taking advantage of the instability.

Where I am it is peaceful. Saturday night I stayed in Dulce Nombre. The only disturbance was at 9 pm when I heard some people making noise and shouting, “Fuera JOH” – “Get out, JOH.” (JOH are the initials of the president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who is running for a second term. Many consider his candidacy illegal since the Constitution rules out presidents running for a second term; Juan Orlando managed to get Congress and the Supreme Court to overturn this article of the constitution which was supposed to be irrevocable!)

In the midst of this, the parish of Dulce Nombre is hosting two seminarians on a three-week pastoral experience. Since our pastor is gone for a well-merited vacation, I am working with them.

I met them on Saturday at the ordination of two new priests in Cucuyagua and brought them to Dulce Nombre. Sunday morning after a 7:00 am Celebration of the Word and communion in nearby Concepción, I presided at the Rite of Entry into the Catechumenate of 51, mostly young, people at 10 am in Dulce Nombre. They will continue their formation and discernment and will God willing, be baptized at the Easter Vigil next year.

I was going to stay in Dulce Nombre Sunday night with the seminarians but since we were going to a Celebration of the Word with Communion in Plan Grande that afternoon, I decided that we’d stay at my home in Plan Grande.

Monday, we planned to finish harvesting coffee in the parish coffee field which is in Plan Grande. We had two groups come last week but still there was plenty to be harvested. I went and picked up about 15 people in Delicias, Concepción, and made a second trip to pick up three people in El Zapote. There were about 68 people harvesting coffee, including the two seminarians, Dany and Marvin.

We finished the harvest about 2:30 and I took the two seminarians and the others to Delicias.  When I was about to leave I got a call from people in the other car which had gotten stuck taking people to Buena Vista Concepción. This was a long process and we ended up driving in the dark past 6 pm, not knowing that the start of the curfew had changed.

Today, I left my car for follow ups to the major rebuilding of the motor that had to be done a few weeks ago.

Though life has been tense for people in the cities and in some other parts of the country, it’s been calm here. But I must be careful lest this calm clouds my perception of the problems that have come to a point of crisis here in Honduras.