More glimpses of hope in Honduras

Advent is a time for hope – a time to recall a God who makes rough ways smooth and opens a path in the wilderness.

On the first Sunday of Advent this year, Honduras held elections for president, congress, and mayors.

There were concerns and there were even rumors that there would be a toque de queda – a curfew – on Monday or even for a week or two. Even last night, after the polls were closed, there was a rumor that the electricity would be shut off nationwide at 8:30 pm. These notices seem to have been part of a campaign to sow fear among the people.

But things went surprisingly well and peaceful. Yes, there were irregularities throughout the country, including closing voting stations when there were people waiting to vote. I have heard reports of a candidate offering voters 3 thousand lempiras (about $130) for their ids so they wouldn’t vote.

But I observed something different. 

The voting place here in Plan Grande was in the school right next to the church and close to my house.

I left in the morning for a celebration in a nearby mountain village and there were crowds waiting to vote. 

When I returned later in the morning there were still people waiting to vote. 

I left for a 2 pm Mass in San Agustín and when I got back about 5 pm, all was calm since voting had finished. Then they began counting the ballots.

I went out a few times to see what was happening.

The ballots were being counted in two classrooms – since there were two voting places – urnas - in the school. People were outside the classrooms looking in.

All was calm, with kids running around (and some stopping by my house asking for candy.) One kid and his friends even planted a flower that had been left by my door. 

The results began to come in. The four municipalities in our parish area have been controlled by the National Party, which has also controlled the presidency for twelve years. And so I was surprised when they told me that Xiomara Castor, the LIBRE party candidate had won the presidential vote– not only here but in most of the municipality. 

Though an alternative candidate for the mayor's race won by a slim majority in Plan Grande, the National Party candidate won in the municipality of Concepción, where I live. But he had defeated the incumbent mayor (whose family had controlled the city hall for years).

What surprised me, and a few people I talked with, is that here and in other parts of the parish and the country many people did not vote a straight ticket. They voted for persons, not parties. (in some places, however, people did vote “straight ticket – called “votar en plancha”- but for LIBRE, the opposition party that arose after the 2009 presidential coup. This is extremely significant for Honduras, where party loyalty has ruled for over a century, resulting in what was a closed two-party system. Locally, the majority voted for the LIBRE candidate for president and the National Party candidate for mayor.

Another surprise is that some towns very tied in the past to the National Party went for Xiomara Castro, the LIBRE presidential candidate.

But a very big surprise is that a young man I know and who had been active in the church was elected mayor of the municipality of Dolores, overthrowing the incumbent mayor, a member of the National Party  who had held city hall there for several terms. 

I haven’t seen the full results but Xiomara Castor is the present-elect, the Congress will probably have a LIBRE majority.

The two largest cities, the capital Tegucigalpa and the industrial center San Pedro Sula, have elected mayors from the LIBRE party. 

The people are fed up with the incompetence and the corruption they have seen in the rule of the National Party or other entrenched candidates, especially at the national level. 

The voters also showed a political savvy and political maturity that I was glad to see. 

What will happen next is critical. There is need for national reconciliation – which means looking for the good of all the people of Honduras but also bringing to justice those who have violated the trust of the people with corruption, incompetence, bribes, and connections with drug-trafficking and organized crime.

But last night’s speech by the president-elect was hopeful and offers a challenge. She began saying that she has no enemies. In fact, she called for dialogue with the opposition. But her priorities are clear:

We are going to build a new era, we are going to build together a new history for the Honduran people. Out with war, out with the hatred, out with the death squads, out with corruption, out with drug trafficking and organized crime, out with the zedes. No more poverty.

The path ahead will not be easy – but I have hope, since it appears that many people are beginning to think and act differently. The task may be to help people realize democracy in their lives and in the country – recognizing that though elections are important, they are, as Salvador Monsignor Ricardo Urioste used to say, only a note in the symphony of democracy.

Perhaps part of our social ministry is to help people mature and recognize how they can contribute to the common good. As Pope Francis wrote in Fratelli Tutti, 162:

“…political systems must keep working to structure society in such a way that everyone has a chance to contribute his or her own talents and efforts.”

Perhaps this is the time to carefully study that encyclical and its call for justice, political love, and reconciliation.

To close with what may seem rather far-fetched, I would suggest this is the moment for tenderness, meditating on these words of Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti, 94:

“Politics too must make room for a tender love of others. ‘What is tenderness? It is love that draws near and becomes real. A movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands… Tenderness is the path of choice for the strongest, most courageous men and women.’ Amid the daily concerns of political life, ‘the smallest, the weakest, the poorest should touch our hearts: indeed, they have a “right” to appeal to our heart and soul. They are our brothers and sisters, and as such we must love and care for them’.”

That would be a way to make hope real.

Touching with hope

It has taken me some time to adapt to some aspects of the Catholic religious culture of Honduras. 

There are some things that I will probably never get used to – and a few with some good theological and pastoral reasons. But there is one that I first reacted to somewhat negatively but which I have begun to understand differently.

At times, after adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the priest walks through the assembly with the monstrance, the fireburst metal vessel which bears the consecrated host in the center. As he passes many reach out to touch the monstrance. 

My first reaction years ago was very mixed. I recognized the devotion to the Eucharistic presence of Jesus in the host, but I wondered whether it was almost a substitute for communion or just a type of magical piety.

But two years ago, on the feast of Christ the King, the pastor asked me to carry the monstrance through the crowd, halfway through the crowd. I wrote about it two years ago here.

This year the pastor had me carry the monstrance through the whole crowd. Again I was filled with emotion as young and old, men and women, children and young people, reached out to touch the monstrance. Again, I thought of the pain and suffering of the people reaching out for some healing. Then I thought of the Gospel story of the woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. She knew that there was something about this Jesus who was passing through. So, she reached out to touch the hem of His garment. And she was healed. (Mark 5: 25-34) The people who reached out are searching for the Presence of One in their midst who will take on their sufferings.

I could only respond humbly, aware of their great faith, looking around and stopping when I saw someone wishing to touch the monstrance, stooping when a little child reached out.

May Jesus heal us.

But the nation of Honduras needs to be healed and so we had someone read the recent statement on the coming elections by the Honduran Bishops. Here a short selection that I translated.

We ask the people to overcome sentiments of indifference, apathy, and skepticism, brought on by our deficient system of government and its institutions, and which result in absenteeism. 

We, the bishops of the Honduran Bishops Conference, make an urgent call for you to go and vote, with responsibility and liberty. Our country is living through momentous and significant times. Therefore, we urge you to give you vote to the best candidates, with the best personal, familiar, and social profile, who are honest candidates, responsible and sensitive to the needs of the people, who participate in good politics, in favor of life and the family. This is to say: elect those candidates who, like you, think in favor pf a better future for your children. 

If you discover that you have in your hands the potential to aid the good of our fatherland and change the ineffective and unproductive direction that we have as a nation, you will take into account that your vote is sacred and that you cannot give it to someone who does not deserve it. 

Honduras does not deserve you voting for those who want to destroy it and seek to gain the elections “as it happens” [a como dé lugar], including fraudulent and deceitful actions. Elect candidates who are not stained with corruption, organized crime, and drug trafficking which have damaged the population so much. Be careful with the call of some candidates to “vote a straight ticket” [votar en plancha], which means renouncing the capability to elect conscientiously, as a fruit of a profound reflection. 

The electors should not be part of a fraud, for no reason at all and in no circumstance whatever, nor should they approve or consent to abuses of power, like the ones that happened in the last electoral processes: you have to live the electoral process as a true civic festival, during and after the elections. 

As Bishops and pastors, we feel obligated to make a call to the consciences of all citizens to be objective observers of the electoral process, in order to avoid any irregularity, and, if there are any, to know how to denounce them.

 

Potholes, elections, rains, and more

Yesterday I drove back from Quimistan to my home in Plan Grande, Concepción, Copán, on CA-4, the international highway that connects to San Pedro Sula and then, on another road, to the Honduran Caribbean port of Puerto Cortes. The road is a major route for goods from the port and San Pedro Sula to the Salvadoran and Guatemalan borders in the southwest.

The road is, to a great extent, a mess. There are a few good portions, notably from La Entrada to Santa Rosa de Copán. But the road south of Santa Rosa is a disaster, partly because of a major geological fault

The road to San Pedro Sula from Sula to La Flecha is another disaster. I have often traveled this road and I think it’s worse now than when it was really bad ten years ago. They did some repairs some years ago, but it’s really been neglected in the last two or more years.

I think the state of this road is a good metaphor for Honduras at this moment.

Honduras has potential – great coffee, hard-working and welcoming people, natural resources, archeological sites, beautiful mountains, and more. But how can the country go forward with massive insecurity with roads that are treacherous? How can Honduras go forward when many politicians have deep ties with organized crime and drug trafficking? 

We are in the last two weeks before the national elections, which are held every four years. The country will elect the president, the congress, and mayors. There are three major parties and there are serious questions about the presidential candidates of two parties and their connection with money-laundering, corruption, and drug-trafficking. There are serious questions about the fairness of the coming elections – not only because of anomalies in the election process voted on by Congress (which is controlled by one of the parties).

There have also been a number of cases of intimidation of candidates, and even worse. Some candidates have been killed and there have been cases of violence at some campaign rallies, including attacks in nearby San Jerónimo, Copán, where one person died and three were seriously injured. There have also been at least two candidates killed in other parts of our diocese. 

According to a new report, “Honduras' National Autonomous University Observatory of Violence reported that at least 64 people have been victims of political violence between December last year and October this year.”

In the municipality where I live there has not been any violence, but campaign banners have been slashed. Tensions are high.

On a national level, there are also some people and groups calling some opposition candidates and parties communist, attempting to spread fear and more in the population. 

Many doubt the elections on Sunday, November 28, will be fair and transparent, remembering certain irregularities in the last election.

November 28 is the first Sunday of Advent.

We’ll be having Masses and Celebrations of the Word throughout the parish, as usual. But there will be one change. Usually we have the rite of the entry of candidates for baptism (over 14 years old) into the catechumenate on the first Sunday of Advent. This year we’re transferring it to December 5.

To close this blog post on the same note as I started it, I have to write about the dirt roads in our parish. 

The persistent rains, accompanied by cooler temperatures and little sun, have left some roads extremely muddy and slippery. I am glad I have four wheel drive, or I would have gotten stuck a few times.

The causes for these problems are many, including, of course, failure of the government to maintain the roads. 

At this time of the year we often have several days with rain, throughout the day and night; with little sun and temperatures in the low sixties the roads don’t have much chance of drying out.

Since many of the roads are clay, they can become rather slippery. If the authorities have put down gravel, it is considerably less slippery. But there are some road with little or no gravel, some because it has been washed away, some because the gravel was spread out too thinly or was pushed to the side when a tractor was brought in to level the road or fill potholes or trenches. It can get to be quite a mess. In addition, the soil is not stable in some places and there has been at least one landslide in the parish that blocked a road between two villages in the mountains.

But Honduras is going to open a new international airport in the coming weeks at Palmerola (which was a US base for many years, particularly in the 1980s). And it has a military budget of 392 million US dollars (with no wars or threats of war on its borders.)

It is also a recipient of millions of dollars of aid from the US, much of which is supposedly to fight drug-trafficking and decrease the migration to the US. But drug trafficking continues, since it has deep roots in politicians and in other elites. 

And migration continues, since many people see little hope for the future and there is a real lack of security for many people in the large cities, as well as for opposition politicians and human rights advocates. 

It doesn’t look good.

But I’ll try to write later this week on some events that might give a bit of hope.

The rulers of the nations and the Reign of God

This weekend I preached three times.

When I read the Gospel (Mark 10: 35-45), I thought of Martin Luther King’s “Drum Major Instinct” sermon on the text which he delivered two months before his assassination. It became the inspiration for my preaching.

Since I preached to people who are mostly not powerful, I had decided to concentrate on what King calls a new definition of greatness. Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.

I made a reference to the difference between the way of the Lord and the rulers of this world and cited a few paragraphs from the Honduran Bishops’ Conference statement on the elections. But I mostly wanted to help people recognize their dignity and their capacities to be great – by being servants – as King emphasized.

Yet my first experience preaching moved me to a stronger critique of the powers of this world. 

When I arrived in Dolores on Saturday night , I found out that I couldn’t park near the church. The central park and the area in front of the City Hall had been taken over for a large rally for the mayor who is running for re-election. She is a member of the National Party. (The previous mayor was her husband who was murdered.)

The noise was deafening. The crowds were dense with little efforts for biosecurity measures, despite the fact that the mayor is a nurse.

I parked by the house of a Delegate of the Word and asked his wife who was outside their house if there would be a celebration tonight – with all the noise.

I walked up to the church past the rally as they cheered the candidates and entered the church.

The noise pervaded the church. At times, the noise from the political rally was overwhelming. Thanks be to God, the church had a good sound system, and the musician put the volume on high. 

 

I was frustrated. I knew that there was a danger of speaking out of my frustration and becoming strident. So, I prayed that God would help me speak a word that would give hope to the people.

But I could not help making a reference to the distinction between the noise outside which symbolizes the noise of the rulers of this world and the yearning for quiet humility which is at the basis of the Reign of God.

How often the political parties, especially here in Honduras, are like the rulers of the nations who lord it over their subjects and oppress them. So I preached on the greatness in the Reign of God, where everyone can serve, paraphrasing Martin Luther King.

 I also read a section of the Honduras bishops’ message on the elections, which I have put below. 

I noted that I was reading it without commentary – but it is a very pointed critique of the way politics is run here – seeking power, at whatever cost, and manipulating the people. Those who know the recent history of Honduras will recognize what the bishops mean when they write about politicians involved in corruption, drug-trafficking and organized crime. (I’ll leave that discussion to another post.)

When I preached twice on Sunday morning, I began noting the situation in Dolores the night before – the political hubbub outside, promoting a political candidate, and the desire of the people inside, to live a faith that is based on a God who became flesh – Jesús who washed the feet of his disciples. 

I ended all three homilies with a pointed contrast. 

John and James asked Jesus to sit on his right and left side – like those who sit at the right side of politicians at the front table of meetings and meals, representing power.

But Jesus offers another way of living; at his last supper, he knelt before his apostles and wiped their feet.

At this point, I was somewhat overcome – and ended up on my knees before the people. 

We serve a God who washes feet, in service of all, who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for everyone. What a contrast.

Honduras and Martin Luther King

Monday, on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., I spent most of the morning reading, writing, checking the internet (too much), and translating an open letter of the Honduran bishops to the two candidates of late November’s election.

In the course of my reading, I came across several amazing quotations from Martin Luther King that made me realize his perennial wisdom that could help us here in Honduras. I’d like to share some quotes from Dr. King – as well as from a few others, to help us reflect on how we Christians who live here are called to live and respond.

Why the demonstrations?

      The current barrage of demonstrations throughout Honduras arose after the November 26 election, but there have been other demonstrations in the past few years, most notably the marches of los indignados, the indignant, in 2015, against corruption and impunity. The presence of the young among the demonstrators was and is notable. What is also interesting is the lack of leaders calling people to the streets, at least in the initial stages. There was a spontaneity in the

      Some people are upset with the disruption of traffic, the blocking of highways, the marches. A headline in a newspaper, supportive of the government, characterized as “chaos” the opposition’s notice that they will not recognize any public authority after the swearing in of Juan Orlando Hernández as president on January 27. I have some reservations about the way this was expressed, but I think the statement and whatever happens must be seen in context.

      The marches are not the problem. I think Martin Luther King was right when he defended the demonstrations in Birmingham:

"Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."

      Is the non-recognition of public authority just lancing the boil and bringing it to light so that some healing might happen? I don’t know. But I do feel as if Honduras is already in a situation of chaos and tension – much of it under the surface.

 In that same letter from the Birmingham City Jail Dr. King wrote:

“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.”

      Is what is happening in Honduras the surfacing of a long-standing system of governments – under different parties – where the law is used to uphold the authority of those in power and to keep the political and social elites in control?

Why not negotiate? Why not dialogue?

      Many people are calling for dialogue. President Hernández whom the Electoral Tribunal declared the winner of the presidential elections, is among the most vocal. The Honduran Catholic Bishops have also called for a dialogue which is ““sincere, effective, creative, without conditions, and involve all sectors of society.” Salvador Nasralla, whose supporters consider him the “president elect,” has agreed with some conditions. The opposition Alianza has called for talks with a mediator before January 27, when Hernández is scheduled to be sworn in as president.

      But there is a problem. Dialogue is good, important, and necessary. But when the dialogue is called by one who monopolizes power, when the power relations are significantly unbalanced, it is difficult to have real dialogue.

      I think this is why the opposition is calling for demonstrations. Again. Ponder the words of Martin Luther King, writing to his critics:

The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

      This helps me think about the dilemma of calls for dialogue, without considering the real situation of the country.

What about the violence?

      There have been cases of violence by the demonstrators, mostly throwing stones. Some have blamed cases of violence on infiltrators, which is very possible. But it is also possible that many who demonstrate come with deep wounds from the structural violence they experience (the hunger, the corruption, the fraud, the impunity, and more) and are reacting with violence because of these wounds. Also, the violence of some demonstrators may arise from the massive show of military force by government police and military as well as the use of tear gas.

      I am not trying to justify violence but we have to consider violence in context.

      The late Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, Brazil, and nonviolent leader, wrote about the spiral of violence. First there is the structural violence, the violence of poverty and injustice; second, there may be the violence of those who revolt; third, there is the violence of repression of those who seek to maintain the structural injustice. To only castigate the violence of those who revolt is to miss the whole picture and excuses the structural violence that provokes the violence of those who revolt.

      Martin Luther King, Jr., saw this clearly and spoke often and pointedly for nonviolent action and against violence.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. (Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community)

      But in his speech “Beyond Vietnam,” delivered exactly a year before his martyrdom, he put the calls to violence of some blacks in context:

"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent."

      King realized that he had to speak against the violence of a system that purveys violence world-wide.

The challenge

      Martin Luther King Jr. offers us in Honduras a challenging way to try to see and understand what is happening.

      Honduras is not the US in the 1950s and 1960s. But his words have helped me begin to understand more deeply what is happening here.

      But I still wonder if something more is needed.

      Jesus said that there are some demons which are only cast out by prayer and fasting. Fanny Lou Hammer said, “You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.”

Initial thoughts on civil disobedience

There is much talk of insurrection, civil disobedience, and more in Honduras these days. This scares a lot of people. Thanks be to God, I have heard almost nothing of violence against the government.

But what about the election fraud, what about the efforts of political leaders to concentrate all power in their party or person, what about the tying of public employment in some cases to party affiliation, what about corruption, what about the poverty that has increased this past year? Does this concern us?

I hope and pray that real change comes about and that it comes through nonviolent organizing that empowers people at the bottom of society. This would be a long term project that won’t be completed in a month, because it means that real people begin to assume servant leadership in their communities. I don’t see it as being accomplished by a single leader or a single political party.

Right after the elections, while the Election Tribunal was delaying and obfuscating the vote tallies and, as some suggested, manipulating them, people took to the streets. What many noticed was the near spontaneous nature of the protests as well as the strong participation of young people.

Streets were blocked with trees and tires burned to prevent passage. There was some looting, but it is not clear whether this was the action of the protestors or of infiltrators and of common criminals taking advantage of the situation of unrest and uncertainty.

But I wonder how the people in the British colonies from Maine to Georgia felt when they heard of the Boston Tea Party in December, 1773. My guess is that some were very troubled, even though no lives were taken, as far as I know, but property was destroyed. (But the white colonials disguised themselves as “Indians.”)

I have very serious concerns about property destruction as well as the burning of tires and trees in the streets. I am totally opposed to any use of violence by protestors, even though I can understand the frustration. And I also wonder if there has been any serious training in nonviolent action – as was done in the civil rights movement in the US.

 But I am more concerned about the violent reaction of the security forces, who are financed in great part by a foreign country, the US. Even the government-related human rights office acknowledges some deaths from government forces.

Where this will go, I have no idea. In the meantime, I will continue to serve the people here in our parish, by the grace of God.

Ib all this, I am consoled and challenged by these words of Pope Francis to a meeting of popular movements in California in February 2017.

 We know that none of these ills began yesterday. For some time, the crisis of the prevailing paradigm has confronted us. I am speaking of a system that causes enormous suffering to the human family, simultaneously assaulting people’s dignity and our Common Home in order to sustain the invisible tyranny of money that only guarantees the privileges of a few. “In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history.” 
            As Christians and all people of good will, it is for us to live and act at this moment. It is “a grave responsibility, since certain present realities, unless effectively dealt with, are capable of setting off processes of dehumanization which would then be hard to reverse.”  These are signs of the times that we need to recognize in order to act. We have lost valuable time: time when we did not pay enough attention to these processes, time when we did not resolve these destructive realities. Thus the processes of dehumanization accelerate. The direction taken beyond this historic turning-point—the ways in which this worsening crisis gets resolved—will depend on people’s involvement and participation and, largely, on yourselves, the popular movements.
            We should be neither paralyzed by fear nor shackled within the conflict. We have to acknowledge the danger but also the opportunity that every crisis brings in order to advance to a successful synthesis.
…No people is criminal or drug-trafficking or violent. “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence yet, without equal opportunities, the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and will eventually explode.”  ...By confronting terror with love, we work for peace.
            I ask you for meekness and resolve to defend these principles. I ask you not to barter them lightly or apply them superficially. Like Saint Francis of Assisi, let us give everything of ourselves: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, let us sow pardon; where there is discord, let us sow unity; where there is error, let us sow truth.