Another US State Department Honduras travel warning

On January 23, 2017, the State Department  issued the most recent travel warning on Honduras. The seventh warning since July 2013, it is the shortest of all the travel warnings I have read. It is also, as were the previous warnings, very misleading.

It's more of the same - but less.

For example, it states

About 70% of U.S. citizen homicides since 2010 occurred in these urban areas [Tegucigalpa. San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba].

But it does not tell you have many were killed. In another US State Department site, from March 14, 2016, the number of US citizens killed is listed as 42 since 2010. Anyone reading the State Department warning without the facts and the context might be led to believe that there have been hundreds!

The warning also notes that

“San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa rank as two of the most violent cities in the world.’

But looking at another non-governmental site from 2016, whose credibility I have not studied, here are the ten most violent cities in the world.

• 10. Caracas, Venezuela
• 9. Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
• 8. Cape Town, South Africa
• 7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 6. St. Louis, Missouri
• 5. Acapulco, Mexico
• 4. Baghdad, Iraq
• 3. Kabul, Afghanistan
• 2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras
• 1. Detroit, Michigan

Another source from 2017, The Business Insider, a list of violent cities includes:

• 1. Caracas, Venezuela
• 2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras
• 3.San Salvador, El Salvador
• 4. Acapulco, Mexico
• 5. Maturin, Venezuela
• 6. Tegucigalpa (Distrito Federal), Honduras (73.51 homicides per 100,000 residents)
• 7. Valencia, Venezuela

Yes, the major cities are dangerous and I take precautions when visiting – especially when I am not exactly sure where I am going. I would do the same in Philadelphia, Camden, New York City, Chicago, or Saint Louis.

But the report notes that some of the tourist areas are safer, but it does not note that there are cities, neighborhoods, and rural areas that are relatively safe. Santa Rosa de Copán, near where I live, is perhaps the safest city in Honduras, though I usually don’t walk around the city after 10 pm. It’s just common sense.

But the report also doesn’t distinguish types of violence. There is gang violence, mostly in the major cities. There is violence related to organized crime. There are cases of armed robbery. But it is very different in the countryside, where I live and work. There is violence. I have presided over one funeral of Honduran victims of violence and have been at the site of a killing in the village where I live, a few hours after the killings. But most of these killings are due to two major causes: vengeance and retribution (which flourish in a country where there is massive impunity) and abuse of drugs and alcohol. They are targeted killings.

I would also note that there are other killings and attempted murders – human rights advocates (e.g., Berta Cáceres in 2016), lawyers, and journalists. These too re targeted murders, though often by political, economic, and social elites whose privileges are threatened.

But what about the earlier warnings?

The current State Department Warning refers to the report on Honduras from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, dated March14, 2016. This seems to repeat what I have found in previous warnings. I will try to analyze it in the next few weeks, but it appears to me to be the same alarmist approach found in the warnings.

A first look revealed a serious error, speaking of the danger around “Suyapa Cathedral.” There is no Suyapa Cathedral; there is the basilica of Suyapa near one of the major highways circling the city and there is the Cathedral of San Miguel in the central of the city.

The last section of the 2016 report is entitled “Tips on How to Avoid Becoming a Victim.”

Some of the advice is common sense – what one would do visiting cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Camden, and Detroit.

The majority of U.S. business persons conduct their daily activities without security-related incidents by following basic security precautions and exercising good judgment. The U.S. Embassy recommends that travelers exercise caution.

But I think there is an underlying alarmist tone, noted in the next to last paragraph:

Be alert for two men on a motorcycle, as this is against the law. All should be considered armed and dangerous until proven otherwise. 

I found the last sentence of that report amusingly sad, though probably quite true:

“Do not lower your guard because armed security is present. They are not always reliable.”

I would note that armed security also includes police and military.

Sadly, there is no note in the report or warning of the attacks on human rights workers, journalists, or lawyers in the past several years, nor of the continuing US military presence in the country and the continuing US political and economic support of the government and military of Honduras.

----

Posts on previous travel warnings can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Mission and ministry

Before I came to Honduras in 2007, I worked for almost 24 years in campus ministry and social ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center.

When I went to Ames to be interviewed for the position at St. Thomas I was pleasantly surprised at the sense of outreach and mission that the parish had in its ministry with students at Iowa State University.

I felt that at St. Thomas the students were being welcomed to live their faith in an active way. My impression, at that time, was that many Catholic universities relied on a campus culture of Catholicism to reach Catholic students. But St. Thomas had the wisdom to see the importance of reaching out and challenging the students, in the midst of a culture that was not Catholic. It was refreshing.

When I began ministry there in July 1983, I noted that there was an interesting item in the job description – “campus walks.” I soon learned the wisdom and the importance of that responsibility.

I began to walk on campus, sometimes with other campus ministers, sometimes with students. I soon began to meet a good number of faculty members and students. I got involved in a number of groups, mostly as an outsider accompanying them. I also got involved in some activities of the campus’ Committee on Lectures.

At the church I also began what I consider one of the most important part of my ministries – greeting students before and after Mass. I would stand at the entrances and exits and greet students, sometimes asking their names (and quickly forgetting them), sometimes starting a conversation, sometimes inviting them to specific events we had at the center. And then, when I’d walk on campus, any number of students would greet me.

Being present where people are has been an important part of ministry for me.

It was not enough to wait in an office in the church for people to show up.

Coming here to Honduras, this has become even clearer, especially as I’m working in a parish. I have the witness of our current pastor who is often on the go. There are about 50 villages and towns in the parish and he tries to be present for Mass in each village at least once every two months. He also has between five and seven Masses each Sunday – a Saturday evening Mass in the seat of one municipality, a 7 am Mass in the seat of another municipality, a 9 am Mass in one of the churches in the parish center, an afternoon Mass in different villages or in the seat of another municipality, and a 7 pm Mass in the main parish church.

The sacraments are mostly celebrated in the distinct towns and villages. This means that the religious education takes place in more than 40 places in the parish. So I have training sessions about five times a year – often repeating the workshop in each of the four zones of the parish. I’ve also accompanied the pastor often to preach and baptize in different places on Sundays and during the week.

Mission and being a missionary means going out, not staying fixed. For a hermit like me, this can be difficult at times, but the calling is a real blessing.

Hands, communion, water - a deacon's meditation

The Mass for the closing of the centennial year of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán was celebrated today in the atrium of the cathedral – since the crowd could not fit inside. 

On this bright, sunny, hot morning, I was one of five deacons at the Mass.

The other four deacons in the picture are “transitional” deacons who will be ordained, God willing, this year. I am the old guy, the permanent deacon, on the left.

The concept of a permanent deacon is still very hard for some people to grasp, since there only experience is the transitional deacon. The deacon as a permanent sign of Christ the Servant is new – even to some priests.

I had to explain this to people several times today. A young priest, who is very accepting but continually talks about me and the priesthood, had to tell a young man that I was not a minister of the sacrament of reconciliation. Later, speaking to a small group of young people from Santa Barbara I explained the importance of witnessing on the altar the image of Christ the Servant, but quickly had to correct myself by explaining that part of my ministry is to facilitate their ministry as servants.

But as I served today at the altar I remembered the remark of a US priest about the role of the permanent deacon. As I have reinterpreted his quote, a deacon serves at the altar, the table of the Lord, with clean hands because his hands are dirty from serving at the table of the poor.

My hands aren’t really dirty, though I do have some residue from coffee picking on my thumbs and forefingers and under my nails. That is a good reminder of my ministry - showing the link between the table of the Lord and the table of the poor in the world.

But as I distributed communion today at the Mass, the importance of hands come clearer to me.

Here most people, out of a sense of reverence and a feeling of unworthiness, receive the host on the tongue. But today there were many people who came forward, as I walked into the crowd, with their hands extended to receive Jesus. I noted the hands – especially several hands stained and calloused from hard work. What a fitting place for Jesus to rest – in the hands that daily sought to do the will of God, working God’s holy creation.

I was overwhelmed at one point, near tears. For here Jesus was finding his resting place in the hands of people like him, people he identified with, people he loved.These were people who made His presence felt in the world.

The Mass ended and the bishop moved with the deacons and the priests into the cathedral behind the altar. But I knew that not all the plastic bags of water had been distributed and so I decided to go and help pass them out. I went to the car where the bags were and had the men there fill my arms with the bags. I proceeded, refilling my arms several times, to pass the water around – in my vestments.

What better way to end the Mass – having served the people the Body of Christ, I was now serving them water for the journey. What better ways to serve as a deacon.

--------

A few other comments about today's liturgy.

The first reading was read by a Lenca woman from Intibucá. I didn't take a picture of her during the Mass since I was seated behind her, by the bishop. But I did take this one from a distance before Mass, as she was preparing to read.

During the Mass the five deacons shared their roles.

I carried the Gospel book in the opening procession.

I also ended up receiving the gifts from the offertory procession. As I think of it I find this most appropriate for a permanent deacon whose ministry, is in part, to witness to and to highlight the connection between the altar and the world.

I also was asked to assist the bishop with the incensing - accompanying him as he incensed the altar and the gifts. I also them incensed the bishop, the clergy, and the people. I go all out with them and sometimes fear that I'll send the charcoals and the incense flying over the people. But I see this as a way to recall and to reverence the presence of God in all God's holy people gathered around the table, so that our prayers go up to God with the incense . It is also a recognition of the holiness that God has poured out over the People of God.

Incensing at the Mass of my ordination in July 2016.