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Rebels without cause?

05 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading the prophet Ezekiel speaks of the Lord’s protest toward “rebels who have rebelled against me.” Honduran President Manuel Zelaya might relate after being forced into exile Sunday by a military coup. Soldiers stormed the presidential palace hours before a controversial referendum that could have paved the way for Zelaya running for reelection. It was the first military coup in Central America in 16 years. The chief lawyer of the Honduran armed forces insisted that what soldiers carried out over the weekend when they detained Zelaya was no coup d’état. “A coup is a political move,” Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza Membreño said Tuesday. “It requires the armed forces to assume power of the country, which didn’t happen, and it has to break the rule of law, which didn’t happen, either.” Roberto Micheletti, a member of Zelaya’s Liberal Party who was named interim leader by the Honduran Congress following the coup, said Zelaya “has already committed crimes against the constitution and the law.” “No one can make me resign if I do not violate the laws of the country,” Micheletti said. “If there is any invasion against our country, 7.5 million Hondurans will be ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government.” Governments around the world insisted otherwise. The Organization of American States Wednesday gave Honduras 72 hours to reinstate Zelaya or face suspension from the group. Zelaya was elected in 2005 to a nonrenewable four-year term. On Tuesday he said he would not seek a second term in office, dropping his plans to try to run again for office in November elections which had provoked the crisis. Articles by Stephanie Griffith for Agence France Presse and Marc Lacey for the New York Times

honduras manuel zelaya coup herberth bayardo inestroza membreño roberto micheletti liberal party organization of american states
Honduran powers loosen the reins on rights

11 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"We have given up everything and followed you," Saint Peter tells Jesus in this Sunday's gospel. The citizens of Honduras, forced to give up nearly everything having to do with their civil rights by the interim coup government, will see some of their civil liberties restored now that a decree that empowered police and soldiers to break up public meetings, arrest people without warrants, and restrict the news media was to be lifted. Honduras' interim leaders issued the decree September 27 in response to "calls for insurrection" by ousted President Manuel Zelaya as he sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy after sneaking back into the country. He remains holed up in the embassy with dozens of supporters amid international diplomatic efforts to end the crisis. The emergency measures, which resulted in dozens of arrests and the closing of two pro-Zelaya media outlets, are no longer necessary because "we have peace in the country," interim President Roberto Micheletti told the privately owned Channel 5 television network. Zelaya was forced from office with the backing of the Honduran congress and supreme court for trying to hold a referendum on rewriting the constitution. His opponents charged he wanted to lift the charter's provision limiting presidents to a single term, an accusation he denied. With the backing of much of the international community, including the U.S. government, Zelaya is seeking to be reinstated to serve out his term, which ends in January. The U.S. has suspended millions of dollars in aid to Honduras, and its ambassador has refused to meet with Micheletti in hopes of pressuring the current government to relinquish power. The Organization of American States, local representatives of the Catholic Church, and others have been conferring with the competing factions, seeking to negotiate an end to the standoff. But the two sides remain divided over key issues, including whether Zelaya can reassume the presidency before scheduled November 29 elections. Zelaya was to meet foreign diplomats and envoys on Wednesday. Source: An article by Ben Fox for the Associated Press

Civil rights honduras manuel zelaya roberto micheletti civil liberties
Honduran bishop seeks active retirement--as president

16 Oct 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

If God unexpectedly used a Persian king to lead his people, as we read in this Sunday’s reading from the Book of Isaiah, could God also call on a retiring Catholic bishop? That will be the question before Hondurans in their next presidential election if retiring bishop Luis Santos Villeda of Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras gets permission from the pope to join the race. Santos celebrates his 75th birthday in November and plans to immediately submit his resignation to the Vatican as required by canon law. Once his resignation is accepted and he is freed from the responsibilities of bishop, Santos said he would like to run for president as a candidate of a progressive faction of the Liberal Party, whose last president, Manuel Zelaya, was deposed in a 2009 coup. "Now that I'm retiring as bishop, I hope to speak with the pope and get his permission. I would no longer be bishop or have any church office, but would remain a priest. I could celebrate Mass privately in the morning before showing up in the presidential office at 8 a.m.," Santos said. Some in Honduras believe the church should remain completely independent of political affiliation. But Santos rejects the notion. "It's very convenient for the rich that the church remains outside of politics, because that way they can mistreat and steal from the poor without the church protesting. They're happy because no priest will complain. And if one does, they label him a communist," Santos said. Sources: Articles by Paul Jeffries for Catholic News Service and National Catholic Reporter

church and state honduras luis santos villeda
Horror in Honduras

19 Feb 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the Second Letter to the Corinthians Saint Paul refers to God as “the one who gives us security with you in Christ.” A breakdown of security in Honduras has led to notoriously high crime and overcrowded and dangerous prisons. Tuesday night a fire tore through a federal prison in Comayagua, burning and suffocating hundreds of men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys. The death toll may rise above 300 in the world’s deadliest prison fire in eight decades. The country’s human-rights commissioner, Ramon Custodio, said on Honduran radio that 357 people remained unaccounted for in the fire that apparently was started by a disgruntled inmate. Ron W. Nikkel, president of Prison Fellowship International, an international nongovernmental organization, said Comayagua is the worst prison he’s visited in the country. “It’s horrifically overcrowded. The bunks are sometimes five, six, seven tiers high, with the lowest person on the totem pole sleeping underneath the bunk on the bottom.” “I’ve seldom been anywhere where I’ve seen such overcrowding. There have been a number of fires over the years and it’s surprising it hasn’t been worse or happened sooner than this. You wouldn’t have congestion like that in a dog pound, it’s so bad--and very little ventilation, so I can imagine a lot of the guys died from smoke inhalation,” said Nikkel. Human Rights Watch also pointed the finger at overcrowding and criticized the Honduran authorities for failing to address the conditions in which suspects and convicts are held. “Endemic violence, the very poor infrastructure, poor staffing, badly trained staff--all of these factors combined means that when something goes wrong, there’s a grave danger of loss of life and inability of the authorities to cope,” said professor Andrew Coyle of the International Center for Prison Studies at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Sources: Articles by Laura Smith-Spark for CNN, Jason Beaubienfor NPR, and Ken Ellingwood for the Los Angeles Times

honduras ramon custodio ron w nikkel prison fellowship international andrew coyl overcrowding prisons fires human rights watch comayagua