Honduran Bishops against the ZEDES

At least since 2013. the Honduran government, ruled by the National Party, has promoted the idea of setting up ZEDES - Zones of Economic Development and Employment. These zones are mean to function autonomously. According to a 2019 Market Trends report, "They would be independent jurisdictions with their own laws, courts and police." 

There has been significant resistance to what people see as an attack on the national sovereignty of Honduras as well as another policy that exploits the resources of Honduras without the consent of the people involved and without benefit to the poor. 

Yesterday, July 28, 2021, the Honduran bishops' conference entered the fray with a strong statement. 

The original can be found here. Below is my translation. 

  CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL DE HONDURAS

Honduras Conference of Bishops 

  MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD AND TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF GOOD WILL

“Blessed are those who have hunger and thirst for justice,

for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) 

 Dear brothers [and sisters], 

We, the bishops of the Honduran Bishops Conference (C.E.H.) in an extraordinary meeting have prayed to the Lord and reflected on the reality of our country, as well as on the way our authorities govern; at the same time, we attest to the uncertainty, the fear, the indignation, and the anger which this reality awakens in those good, noble, and working Hondurans who look upon their future and that of their children with desperation.

As Pastors of the People of God, we are concerned that the government does not listen to or pay attention to the demonstrations and statements, just and well based, of many very important institutions in the country, such as the National Autonomous University (UNAH), the Association of Public Prosecutors [Fiscales], the Northwest chapter of the Honduran Association [Colegio] of Economists, the Lawyers Association [Colegio], the National Anti-Corruption Council [CAN - Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción], the Social Forum on the Foreign Debt and Development of Honduras [FOSDEH - El Foro Social de la Deuda Externa y Desarrollo de Honduras], as well as debates and other forms of expression of the people.

On the other hand, we are witnesses of the incomprehensible and suspicious insensitivity and laziness of the respective authorities and of most of the politicians of our country in the face of the voices which cry out for justice and respect of rights so fundamental as [the rights] of national sovereignty and the integrity of our country.

The Bishops Conference expresses its solidarity and joins itself to the statement of our brother bishops in their dioceses, who made their own the criticisms [reclamos] of civil society, demanding in a peaceful way that the Zones of Employment and Economic Development [Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico – ZEDES] not be put into effect, because they have been created in open violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Honduras and to the detriment of our national legislation.

Some state that in this moment is it juridically understandable that the demand should not be directed to the National Congress, because they “already fulfilled their duty to legislate.” How easy it then is to wash one’s hands of a problem so great, a problem that they themselves have caused! The attitude shown by the majority of the members of the National Congress is depressing and questionable. 

Members of the National Congress, firmly and with the respect which you your position [investidura] deserves, we say to you that the moment has arrived in which you show if you wish the good of the population. As we have stated before, show why you were elected and who you really represent. Show that you are concerned for the common good and that you do not seek to protect [salvaguardar] personal and egoistic interests. Therefore, we ask that you revoke [nullify] the reforms to the Constitution which have made the ZEDES possible and that you also revoke the Organic Law [Organizational Law] on the Zones of Employment and Economic Development.

Members of the Supreme Court of Justice, we ask you to not lend yourselves to the political game of the National Congress and that you maintain your independence, not bending yourselves to interests opposed to the good of the Republic. In a confused and muddled environment, as we are now living as a country, it is of supreme importance to recall the necessary separation and independence of the Powers of the nation.

Those who defend the ZEDEs exceedingly emphasize development and the jobs that these will come to create. According to some economists, this is not possible.

Will this project really give the promised benefits? Why continue promoting insistently, by means of various social communications media, the creation of the ZEDEs as the panacea that Honduras was waiting for? Will it not be a smoke screen that we’ll all be involved with, while time will pass without attending to the real problems of the country? However, if the ZEDEs are going to produce the development they say, why haven’t they done so already?

We bishops are not opposed to the development of Honduras; we are in favor that this come about – but not this way.

Instead, we support the Appeal of Unconstitutionality filed by the National Autonomous University of Honduras [UNAH]. By its legal representative, Rector Francisco J. Herrera Alvarado, before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) asking that article 34 of the Law ZEDE be declared inapplicable, with the effecting of repealing [the article].

The Rector of UNAH, anticipating whatever act of censure or disapproval, has stressed that the document was put together by the highest level experts, guaranteeing the character of the act in question as academic, objective, and above all, apolitical.

When the good of the population is in play, together with the well-being of every Honduran family, we are convinced that it is not a question of seeing who has the most political power or who defeats whom. We are part of a great family and part of a beautiful country. We are in the same boat; if one wins, we all win, but if one loses, we all lose.

The creation of the ZEDEs, with all the reality and projection with which it surrounds itself, is the saddest and most ironic way to celebrate the bicentenary of the independence: erecting “exclusive and privileged cities,” in the face of a population which lives submerged in poverty. The ZEDEs are not only unconstitutional but violate the first paragraph of the Act of Complete Independence of 1823, which calls to mind “the sacred rights of nature.”

Now, more than ever, Honduras needs all of us and hopes for the commitment of everyone, in the construction of a nation with greater dignity and prosperity, a nation where one struggles arm in arm [codo con codo], where the good of one becomes the benefit of everyone, where the happiness of one is the cause of joy for everyone.

We call on the blessing of God for our people and over every Honduran family, confident that their petition will be heard as well as the cry for justice which is born in the noble hearts of our people. 

Mary, Help of Christians, 

pray for us. 

 Tegucigalpa July 28, 2021 

S.E. Mons. Ángel Garachana Pérez 

Obispo de San Pedro Sula y 

Presidente de la C.E.H. 

 Rev. P. Emigdio Duarte Figueroa 

Secretaria General de la C.E.H.