In danger: Belize Barrier Reef

The Belize barrier reef is the second largest reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef. It is spread over a total of about 960 square kilometres, and reputedly has one of the most diverse ecosystems in the planet. It is home to more than a hundred species of coral, 500 species of fish and hundreds of invertebrate species. Such is the richness and diversity of it, that the reef has been classified as a United Nations World Heritage Site.

The massive ecosystem consists not only of the reef alone, but also of many small mangrove islands and lagoons, along almost the country’s entire coastline. The reef itself is so large that it had to be divided into seven different marine reserves, so as to be effectively managed by the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System. Needless to say, it is considered the backbone of the country’s tourism industry.

In 2009, it was suddenly discovered that the mangroves had fallen prey to massive deforestation. That the coral reef itself was suffering from global warming and rising sea temperatures had been evident for a long time. Reefs are generally sensitive to changes in climate and temperature- they bleach very easily and fail to support too many life forms thereafter. The Belize Barrier Reef was no exception, but the news about the mangroves sent alarm bells ringing, with environmentalists etc scrambling to chart out the consequences.

The reasons for the damage are many. Global warming and rising temperatures have done the most damage, but there are other factors as well. Direct human intervention has wreaked further havoc on the already fragile ecosystem. Tourism has resulted in frequent and invasive human presence- not many people know how to behave in a delicate ecosystem. Shipping and its impacts have damaged the reef to a large extent, inevitably, since the reef stretches along more or less the entire coastline of the country. Overfishing has also damaged the ecological balance in the reef (which is surprising, since the reef is a heritage site and hence should be adequately protected). The reef depends on the fish for sustenance almost as much as they depend on it.

The biggest avoidable cause of the damage to this large and crucial ecosystem is shoddy coastal development. This reef is a global treasure in many ways, and it is the duty of the Belize government to preserve it, protect it, and spread awareness about it. That duty has obviously not been taken very seriously.

When teachers are killed

On March 31, 2011, the Perifirio Lobo led Honduran government passed a law opening its education system to privatization. The legislation had been under deliberation for a long time, and protests had been long and violent. This move was the latest in a series of legislations opening up the most basic of country’s services to private players.

The teacher’s struggle has been the strongest and the most prominent among many different struggles that together make the Resistance movement in Honduras. In most of the protests, in most of the brutal police backlashes, teachers have been in the forefront. There have probably been more teachers killed in the past two years, than there have been journalists and policemen.

The plan and structure of private education was actually worked on during the Presidency of Ricardo Maduro (2002- 2006). Maduro had the reputation of a neoliberal, and it was under him that global private corporations received the maximum Honduran encouragement. It is a sign of the awareness and solidarity within the Honduran people that despite the glamour attached to global entrance in any market, protests movements were coordinated and consolidated and the Resistance took shape at such a massive scale. Moreover, socialist Manuel Zelaya was elected in 2006.

Regardless of such immensely strong public opposition, however, the legislation did get passed. Honduras will now have private, profit- motivated schools, despite many teachers having died to prevent it.

To pay for water

Imagine you are a farmer, or a daily wage laborer. You have a family of six to support. You have two children to be educated, and two old parents getting weaker and more dependent on you every year. You earn $1 after a good day’s work. What do you do with it?

Elsewhere, you would probably worry about your parents falling health, and your child’s neglected future. Then you would shove those worries aside for another day, for the sake of sheer peace of mind, and buy some food for home. You would go home, give it to your spouse, and wash up and be glad of the bite to eat and the mattress to sleep on.

In Honduras, even this basic choice is not simple. Because in Honduras, $1 can get you either a bag of beans, or a barrel of water. In most cases, you would chose the water and forego the food, because water is the single most basic necessity of life, which people like you and I take too much for granted. You can probably make it through the day without a bite to it, but how long can you survive without a drop of water down your throat, that you just can’t afford to buy?

The water distribution system in Honduras was privatized in early 2000, due to pressure from the World Bank on this already indebted country. The gates were opened and scores of private water corporations- mainly from Europe- poured in with proposals. San Pedro Sula, the country’s economic hub, was the first to hand over the distribution part of its waterworks system, DIMA, to a private company.

Water privatization is one of the prime focuses of the Honduran Resistance movement, which has been going on for nearly a decade. But even something as necessary as this has been eclipsed by the coup of 2009, and the resulting violence and protests demanding the return of the ousted president. Manuel Zelaya had many faults, but he was primarily a socialist. He greatly resented the country’s economic helplessness before the global giants, and would talk against the privatization of water and education.

There is a very fundamental wrong in handing over such a basic necessity to the hands of profit- motivated organizations. In the distribution of water, the need for it needs to be the uppermost criterion, and not the people’s ability to pay. For people to survive in a humane manner, water needs to flow from the tap, regardless of where I live or how much I earn.

The Central American Drug Trail

The United States of America is the highest consumer of coke and marijuana in the world. Around 12.4 million U.S citizens- roughly 7% to 8% of the country’s population- consume drugs regularly. Columbia, the world’s leading producer of illicit drugs, sells most of its produce to this 7- 8% of the US population. Most of the drugs are delivered across the Mexican border, by drug cartels that weald immense economic and political clout in both Mexico and Colombia.

When a country falls into the hands of drug cartels, corruption and violence is inevitable. For years, Mexico has had the reputation of a country steeped in governmental corruption, murders and gang violence. In recent years, the Mexican government pressuri

sing the United States to take its drug consumption under control and take responsibility for what the drug trade has done to the Mexican system. As a result, Washington is now aiding the Mexican authorities and its police in what is commonly called the “Mexican drug war”, something many critics allege is a step further in the US attempt to hegemonies the western hemisphere through the Pentagon. The past six years or so has seen the Mexican government crack down on cartels and illegal traffickers with unprecedented brutality. The technique is working, but the cartels are now moving south of the Mexican border, into Guatemala.

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have traditionally been the transit points for the motion of drugs from Colombia to Mexico, on its way to the United States of America. Most of this transition happens via sea, with drugs dropped off or ships refuelled at points

along the Pacific as well as the Carribean coasts in the dead of the night. Sometimes, when boats or ships are being trailed and fear capture, they simply dump the wrapped bundles into the sea, near the shore, where they later wash up for the locals to discover and fall prey to. Moreover, local Central Americans who help with the trafficking out of sheer need for work and money are often paid in kind as much as in cash. This ensures their addiction, and also ensures that they have a stake in keeping the trail running. Such is the power of the cartels that they have managed to buy over powerfuls both in the government and in the police. Drug abuse, violence and corruption are as integrated in these countries as they are in Mexico.

However, with the recent further shifting of cartels into the Guatamala- El Salvador- Honduras triangle, the situation has worsened. In Honduras, it was further accelerated by the coup of 2009, which many now say was influenced by powerful right- wing families with business interests in the drug trade. Regardless of his many faults, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had begun a strong crackdown on the corrupt police force, suspending scores of officers with links to the cartels. With the coup, the situation came full circle. Daylight murders and attacks on journalists, NGO workers and honest police officials have become a common occurrence now. Anyone with a strong voice against the police- drug relationship is silenced.

The situation today in Central America today seems desperate and hopeless. So much so that Otto Perez Molina, the President of Guatemala, is pondering the option of legalising the drug trade altogether. While this has created outrage and heavy debate across countries, some realise that he might have a point. Any trade that is legalised is subject to taxation, leading to rise in prices and decline in profits. Moreover, such a move is also likely to bring down the homicide rate, for the simple reason that traders won’t shoot you down for having information about you, if they don’t have to fear the law. Most people, however, see it only as a ploy to seek US attention and intervention, now that the President of El Salvador has also joined the call. There seems to be no other way out.

Free, until the 21st Century

The ancient Mayan civilisation, almost 3000 years ago, was open and tolerant towards homosexuality. Indeed, there is evidence to state that ‘two- spirit people’, or people of the third gender, taking up unconventional gender roles in society, were widely accepted, and played an important part in spiritual worship. Male sex slaves for unmarried young men of elite families were common. Homosexual couples lived comfortably in society, along with heterosexual ones. Gays (if not lesbians), bisexuals and transgenders were, in short, accepted. Ironically, when the rest of the world is finally waking up to the possibility of such acceptance three millennia later, the Mayan descendents are trying to pass laws abolishing gay marriage.

On September 24, 2009, the Congress of El Salvador tried to pass reforms that would ban same sex marriage and prohibit homosexual couples from adopting children. Thanks to the ruling party in power, it failed. Gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens in this country have been enjoying social and legal acceptance in a way that is unimaginable in most other parts of the world. Articles 32, 33 and 34 of the Constitution make it possible for homosexual couples to live and adopt in the country with legal legitimacy, and also recognise their financial rights as partners and parents. El Salvador is one of the few, rare countries in the world to have reached such levels of equality in terms of LGBT and human rights. LGBT citizens in El Salvador, today, even enjoy right to inheritance.

However, in recent years, catholic and evangelical churches have been lobbying and protesting for same- sex marriages to be prohibited by law. They feel that only marriage between a man and a woman should be legally recognised, and that only such (i.e. heterosexual) couples should have the right to adopt and raise children. In their opinion, they are acting to preserve the sanctity of the institution of marriage by working for such reforms. Importantly, unlike in India until recently, they are not calling LGBT relationships “abnormal” or rejecting them from society outright. Their only concern is the institution of marriage, which, they believe, is sacred and only legitimate between a man and a woman.

For the 2009 legislative vote on the issue, the conservative churches had their hopes pinned on the many right wing parties in the assembly. The reforms needed 56 votes in favour to be passed in the Congress by the required two- thirds majority. It didn’t. The leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) is the single majority party with 35 seats out of 84, and hence could stave off the required two- third majority vote through its own strength in Congress. The party had come to power in May 2009, with a strong pro- LGBT stance in its campaigning.

Despite the fact that a pro-LGBT party was voted to power by the people in 2009, the community is facing increasing discrimination in recent years in the country. In the months running up to that crucial vote in Congress, prayer meetings and demonstrations had been aplenty in the streets of El Salvador, and violence against LGBTs suddenly escalated.The catholic and evangelic churches have still kept the pressure mounting, and till date, tensions among the people of the country are only increasing.

Connecting habitats across a continent

The narrow landmass of seven countries that connects North and South America is home to 7- 8% of the planet’s biodiversity. The forest areas that are home to this flora and fauna, together make up only 0.5% of the earth’s landmass, making Mesoamerica (Central America) an incredibly rich biodiversity hotspot. The third richest in the world, to be precise.

The forests and rivers are important to the people here. Tropical rainforests line the Caribbean side of the land throughout most of the stretch, as heedless of national borders as a mountain range would be. Nature and environment are revered assets to a majority of the people in this part of the world, especially to the numerous indigenous peoples descendent from the ancient Aztecs and Mayans. Moreover, these rainforests are one of the biggest carbon sinks in the planet, though they have been shrinking at an alarmingly rapid pace in recent years. Hence, it is in international interests to conserve and protect them. The forests are as much dependent on the diverse wildlife, as vice versa.

Each of the seven countries is battling its own set of development and environmental issues today. The rates of deforestation have skyrocketed in the past two decades, with governments opening their gates to international mining corporations and hydroelectric projects out of sheer pressure from loan sharks like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This has threatened not only their precious forest ecosystems, but also their own human rights, which is why resistance movements have sprung up across the countries, with people protesting everything from the privatisation of water (Honduras) and healthcare (Guatemala) to the mining of gold and nickel. With forest cover reducing drastically conservationists have been frantically searching for a viable method of preserving the biodiversity and making it flourish again. They finally found it in the 1990s.

When forest cover in any given area increases by 100%, the biodiversity within it increases by 300%. This wonderfully encouraging piece of fact inspired scientists and conservationists of the seven countries, Mexico and Columbia to connect their national parks and wildlife sanctuaries through “green corridors”. A green corridor is an expanse of endemic trees and wilderness, some hundreds of kilometres wide (depending on the location), that would connect a sanctuary in one country, say, Panama, to the closest one in, say, Costa Rica. This would make it possible for animals to wander from one park to the other in search of food and habitat. It would be dense and deep enough to prohibit humans and domestic animals from venturing too far inside, and ensure safety for the wild.

All in all, a total of 17,000 species of plants, 440 species of mammals, 690 species of reptiles, 550 species of amphibians, as well as numerous aquatic species have a stake in this corridor. It is explained in this article best, through the story of the monkey that Lobo couldn’t eat. The idea is to connect all the wild habitats from Southern Mexico to Northern Columbia, creating a corridor that would stretch the entire length of Central America and beyond, and reserving it solely for the animals, the birds and the vegetation. But, doing so requires great financial investment, as well as legislation. More importantly, it requires an immense effort at both the local and the governmental level from nine different countries working together. Needless to say, problems are aplenty, and more than two decades later, the corridor is still incomplete.

The biggest reason for this is that the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is not the only plan in motion for the integration of the Americas. There are three more plans, all on developmental lines and funded either by the World Bank or the IMF, which is what has prompted many critics to shrug off the entire set of plans as an excuse to open up Central America and privatise its resources. The most controversial is Plan Puebla Panama, which looks at integrating four southern states of Mexico (including the state of Puebla), with the Central American countries right up to Panama, via transport, communication and disaster management and mitigation among other things. Many other “corridors”, roadways and highways have consequently been planned, and clash with plans for the biological corridor. Both have international funding, and have been sanctioned by governments concerned.

It all comes down to Earth vs. development.

Survival beyond Kyoto

Nicaragua is feeling the brunt of climate change. It is a country greatly dependent on its farms and plantations, and rightly proud of its immense forest cover. In the past decade or so, however, rising sea levels and change in rainfall patterns have been threatening the country’s agriculture as well as forests – and people’s lives and livelihoods with them. So much so, that global warming is considered a national security issue in Nicaragua.

Around 40% of Nicaragua’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. It contributes to about 25% of the GDP. One of the prominent agrarian communities in the country is the rice- growing Miskitos Indian. The Miskitos have traditionally been farming for centuries. They have a reputation for depending on natural harbingers to gauge the weather, and plan their sowings accordingly. That is the practice that they have followed since ancient times and still do today- letting the first sighting of silver fish or blooming of avocados decide step after step. Climate change in recent years, however, has left them completely baffled. The change in the pattern of seasons and sudden bouts of rain, draught and heat- waves that even their reliable harbingers now fail to predict has reduced their annual production drastically. For most of these subsistence farmers, earning a minimum amount and surviving has now become a challenge.

According to Dr. Paul Oquist, President Daniel Ortega’s personal advisor for development policies, Nicaragua has been losing “since 2006… $200 million a year in lost agricultural production due to climate change”.

Coffee is one of the country’s prime exports. It is usually grown at a height of 1,300 metres (m) above sea level in the areas of Nueva Segovia, Jinotega and Matagalpa, where the temperature conditions are ideal. With rising temperatures, however, it appears that entire plantations of coffee will have to be shifted to higher altitudes, from time to time. If the change in location is over a large distance, it might imply migration and space issues. Moreover, there are concerns that if the rate of temperature rise increases, coffee won’t be cultivable on Nicaragua’s not- so- high mountain tops beyond a point. This is another source of worry for the country.

With global warming and climate change already having a direct impact in the country, economically and otherwise, global response- primarily the Kyoto Protocol- has been a major disappointment. Kyoto was a further disillusionment for Nicaragua, adding to the fact that the Green Climate Fund was never translated from paperwork to living reality. The Green Climate Fund was a fund created in 2009, with a $30 billion target, meant to aid underdeveloped countries in their fight against global warming. The money never came forth, and many Central American countries today are convinced that they will have to handle their own share of climate change- issues by themselves, despite having ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

In the case of Nicaragua, a major abettor of global warming in the country is illegal logging, leading to massive deforestation. The Daniel Ortega government has decided to deal with this nuisance head- on, and has found a novel way to do so. It has formed what it calls an “Ecological Battalion”, a veritable green army whose job centres on patrolling the countries forest areas in search of illegal loggers. These “soldiers” are armed not only with basic weaponry to stop logging, but also equipment like shovels, to plant trees in areas already deforested.

Everyone knows that the government’s interest is mainly in securing water for upcoming hydroelectric projects, and not the plight of its poor. Nevertheless, this step is still one of the most direct and impactful ones taken by a government in its fight for the planet. Nicaragua, in this aspect, has much to learn from.

Survival beyond Kyoto

Nicaragua is feeling the brunt of climate change. It is a country greatly dependent on its farms and plantations, and rightly proud of its immense forest cover. In the past decade or so, however, rising sea levels and change in rainfall patterns have been threatening the country’s agriculture as well as forests – and people’s lives and livelihoods with them. So much so, that global warming is considered a national security issue in Nicaragua.

Around 40% of Nicaragua’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. It contributes to about 25% of the GDP. One of the prominent agrarian communities in the country is the rice- growing Miskitos Indian. The Miskitos have traditionally been farming for centuries. They have a reputation for depending on natural harbingers to gauge the weather, and plan their sowings accordingly. That is the practice that they have followed since ancient times and still do today- letting the first sighting of silver fish or blooming of avocados decide step after step. Climate change in recent years, however, has left them completely baffled. The change in the pattern of seasons and sudden bouts of rain, draught and heat- waves that even their reliable harbingers now fail to predict has reduced their annual production drastically. For most of these subsistence farmers, earning a minimum amount and surviving has now become a challenge.

According to Dr. Paul Oquist, President Daniel Ortega’s personal advisor for development policies, Nicaragua has been losing “since 2006… $200 million a year in lost agricultural production due to climate change”.

Coffee is one of the country’s prime exports. It is usually grown at a height of 1,300 metres (m) above sea level in the areas of Nueva Segovia, Jinotega and Matagalpa, where the temperature conditions are ideal. With rising temperatures, however, it appears that entire plantations of coffee will have to be shifted to higher altitudes, from time to time. If the change in location is over a large distance, it might imply migration and space issues. Moreover, there are concerns that if the rate of temperature rise increases, coffee won’t be cultivable on Nicaragua’s not- so- high mountain tops beyond a point. This is another source of worry for the country.

With global warming and climate change already having a direct impact in the country, economically and otherwise, global response- primarily the Kyoto Protocol- has been a major disappointment. Kyoto was a further disillusionment for Nicaragua, adding to the fact that the Green Climate Fund was never translated from paperwork to living reality. The Green Climate Fund was a fund created in 2009, with a $30 billion target, meant to aid underdeveloped countries in their fight against global warming. The money never came forth, and many Central American countries today are convinced that they will have to handle their own share of climate change- issues by themselves, despite having ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

In the case of Nicaragua, a major abettor of global warming in the country is illegal logging, leading to massive deforestation. The Daniel Ortega government has decided to deal with this nuisance head- on, and has found a novel way to do so. It has formed what it calls an “Ecological Battalion”, a veritable green army whose job centres on patrolling the countries forest areas in search of illegal loggers. These “soldiers” are armed not only with basic weaponry to stop logging, but also equipment like shovels, to plant trees in areas already deforested.

Everyone knows that the government’s interest is mainly in securing water for upcoming hydroelectric projects, and not the plight of its poor. Nevertheless, this step is still one of the most direct and impactful ones taken by a government in its fight for the planet. Nicaragua, in this aspect, has much to learn from.

Mining threat to indigenous Mayans

The Mayans are one of the oldest inhabitants of Central America, living today in parts of Honduras and Guatemala. Though both are descendent from the same ancient civilisation, the Honduran and Guatemalan Mayans have little in common today. The Honduran Mayans, called the Maya Chortis, are integrated somewhat into the mainstream. Those in Guatemala still retain their indigenous lifestyle, clothing and culture, and are one of the most marginalised sections of society. Both, however, are identified as “indigenous peoples” by their governments, as well as by the UNO.

The 21^st century has again brought the two peoples together in a common struggle. Both suddenly see themselves battling human rights violations they never saw coming- displacement, pollution of basic water sources, skin infections, birth deformities and miscarriages on an unforeseen scale, as well as the destruction of natural environments that they greatly cherish. In the Siria Valley in central Honduras, women and children live in inhospitable conditions near land that they are too attached to, to vacate. Most of the men in the community now migrate to faraway areas (and even to the US) for work, since agriculture and other indigenous occupations are no longer an option. In the San Marcos highlands of Guatemala, the violations are more direct and deliberate, with several cases of rape and killing having been reported besides the health and environment problems. Despite them being located far from each other, in two separate countries, the perpetrator of their grievances is the same- GoldCorp Inc.

Gold Corp Inc. is a Canada- based multinational mining corporation. It is among the top two private producers of gold in the world today, with its shareholders being largely Canadians. Over the years, Canadian mining companies like Goldcorp, Hudbay and Pacific Rim have established, for themselves, a steady reputation of environmental destruction and human rights violations in developing countries across the world. This is largely because Canada has no rules in place to regulate its companies’ overseas activities. There is no law under which Canadian corporations can be held responsible to the Canadian government, for atrocities committed abroad.

In Honduras, work began on GoldCorp’s San Martin Mine in 2000. Evacuation of residents had begun in 1999. By 2007, reports of health complications, birth deformities, migrations and unemployment were rampant. It was common knowledge that the water bodies around had become heavily polluted by toxic metals like lead, cyanide and mercury, which in turn entered the locals’ bloodstreams in poisonous amounts. Even the well that the company had built for the community was contaminated by the leakage of heavy metals. Physical disfigurement and mental illnesses became common. Agriculture aside, the cattle started dying, too. Regardless of constant protests by the small community and some amount of media coverage, the mining continued unabated. GoldCorp was in constant denial of the situation, as was the Manuel Zelaya government. 12,000 tonnes of ore was extracted before GoldCorp finally closed the San Martin mine and left the Honduran people to their suffering. There was no acknowledgement, no accountability and no compensation.

In Guatemala, GoldCorp has taken over a mine that had already been in operation for years. The Marlin Mine had been exploring (not excavating) for gold in the Sipakapa and San Miguel municipalities of San Marcos since 1999. It was originally owned by Montana Gold, whose parent company, Fransisco Gold, was bought over by GoldCorp’s Glamis Gold in 2002. Full- scale mining began in 2004, with impacts similar to those experienced in Honduras. The Guatemalan reaction, however, was stronger, and much more organised.

The areas affected by the mines are inhabited by 18 different communities of Mayans. The ground water and surface water used by these communities for consumption and agriculture was contaminated by high levels of leaking arsenic from the mines. The peoples’ bloodstreams also had extremely high levels of concentration of lead. The people knew well the cause of this steady poisoning of themselves and their environment, but lacked technical proof. Plus, their awareness of the Honduran San Martin Mine case told them that help would not be given to them till they rallied for it themselves. Community laws were passed and numerous petitions were signed and sent to the government, but to no avail. Protests took place time and again, and many local leaders were killed by the Corporations security forces, mostly ignored, sometimes aided by the government. In 2010, several among the communities, along with a few NGOs, sent a Consitutional Petition to the Secretary General of Guatemala, demanding that all mining activities in Mayan land- including and other than GoldCorp- be suspended.

This particular petition had great substantial backing, since it brought to attention the order given to the government by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to suspend the mine. The ILO was well within its rights to pass such an order, since Guatemala had signed and ratified the ILO Convention 169, which protects the rights of indigenous people across the world. Under the Convention, a government is obliged to inform and consult with the indigenous communities of its country before taking any steps that would affect their land and livelihood. Any economic activity on the land of indigenous peoples can only happen with their consent. Neither the Honduran nor the Guatemalan government, despite having signed and ratified the convention, had bothered to hold such consultations. The ILO had woken up to the situation following international media reports about the ongoing human rights abuses (i.e. poisoning, killing, destruction of environment and livelihood) and ordered the Guatemalan government to suspend all mining till it could investigate the situation itself.

A similar order was passed by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR), in May 2010. Possibly because the IAHCR is an inter- governmental organisation, and has the power to pressurise and sanction member countries, this particular order finally drew a response from the Alvaro Colom- led Guatemalan government. The government, in June 2010, annnoounced compliance to the IAHCR request, but said it would take time, considering administrative procedure and the like.

Mining operations in San Marcos continue till date, despite GoldCorp today facing pressure from both sides. In March 2011, GoldCorp’s own shareholders presented a resolution to the company, requesting suspension of work at the mine in Guatemala. A letter signed by representatives of many Mayan communities, as well as certain NGOs, had been sent to the GoldCorp offices in Vancouver, and was read out at the Annual General Meeting. Public pressure, too, is mounting, with Canadian citizens feeling that the image of their country abroad is at stake. As of yet, however, the exploitation continues.

Honduras: The Coup of 2009

On June 26, 2009, the Supreme Court of Honduras ordered the military of the country to arrest the then- President, Manuel Zelaya. The military (allegedly aided by the Pentagon) obeyed, and two days later, took the President at gunpoint from his house, put him in a plane and dropped him off on a runway in Costa Rica, in the middle of the night, in his pyjamas.

Zelaya had been growing increasingly unpopular among the people in the prior months, and there had been increasing fears of his trying to capture more power than he had. The Honduran people for years had been battling myriad, interconnected problems such as privatisation of water, transnational mining, powerful drug cartels and a corrupt and brutal police. It has a long history of military and authoritarian rule, which is why the most sacrosanct features of the Honduran Constitution are the Unchangeable Articles, which prohibit, among other things, re-election of the President for a second term. Zelaya had been re-elected in 2005, amidst widespread protests and allegations of a rigged election,

Hence, when in March 2009, Zelaya started talking about putting together a Constituent Assembly with the power to amend the constitution, alarm bells began ringing across the country. Interestingly, Zelaya (called the “egalitarian” President by his admirers) wanted this done democratically. His idea was to take it forward after popular approval, which is why, during the November 2009 elections, an extra ballot box was to be put at every polling centre for the people to vote for/ against the assembly. The ‘cuarta una’ or the ‘fourth box’, however, created a wave of suspicion, opposition and debate in the country. This was mainly because the Constitution was not an extremely rigid one, and had been amended many a times before. The people couldn’t see why Zelaya would want the Constitution more malleable than it was, so close to the general elections, if not to tamper with the re-election clause and come to power yet again. Such was the public reaction against it that a public referendum was decided upon, to be held on June 29, to understand what the people really wanted. On that very day, however, came the “coup”, backed by the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and the national Congress.

The coup took the entire country by surprise. Despite the fact that tensions had been growing, no one had expected the President to be whisked off and abandoned in another country in the middle of the night. Not many were happy about it, either. There was a fear of having turned full circle to yet another military regime after some years of democracy, and public outrage was immediate and immense. Youngsters, teachers, farmers and different factions of society took to the streets, braving severe police and military repression and organising itself gradually into what is today called the Resistance. Frente Nacional de la Resistencia Popular (National Front of Popular Resistance, FNRP) is an organised body of social workers, journalists and other strong voices, working towards regaining democracy in Honduras. It holds the authority to criticise the current regime and put forth its demands before it, and be heard. Its initial demand was the return of Zelaya to the Honduras from Brazil, where he had been given sanctuary.

This call was echoed by the international community, especially by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manual Santos. The two were on extremely good terms with Zelaya, and had been special guests at his swearing- in ceremony.

On the other hand, US President Barack Obama’s statements denouncing the coup and demanding Zelaya’s return were taken with a pinch of salt by most parties concerned. There are allegations that the US has been steadily strengthening its military bases at different locations in Honduras since the coup. More importantly, Michael Parenti, in a 2009 article, alleged that most of the military officers involved in the coup had been in trained in the USA, in the Pentagon’s School of the Americas. In Parenti’s words, “The Honduran military is trained, advised, equipped, indoctrinated, and financed by the United States national security state. The generals would never have dared to move without tacit consent from the White House or the Pentagon and CIA.”

Political pressure against the coup grew steadily. Honduras was expelled from the Organisation of American States, an organisation of all the democratic states in North, South and Central Americea. Aid was cut off, not only by the OAS but also by other countries. Interestingly, the USA, which has a law against giving financial aid to governments- by- force, continued aid to the country.

Manuel Zelaya finally returned to Honduras in May 2011, after spending almost two years in exile. By then, power had already exchanged hands, though not drastically. In an election that saw a turnout of 60%, Perifiro Lobo had been chosen the new President of Honduras. Zelaya had opposed the elections vehemently, as had Brazil, Venezuela and many other countries. The USA called it “a significant step”, though “not sufficient”.

Meanwhile, the resistance continues. Under the current rule of the government led by President Perifiro Lobo, the human rights situation is worsening by the day. More and more critical voices, be it journalists, judges, civilians or even policemen, are being stifled. In the capital city of Tegucigalpa, daylight murders of critics of police corruption and the drug cartel have become regular incidences. In May 2010, four lower- court judges who had criticised the 2009 coup were dismissed from office. Honduras retains the title of the crime capital of the world.