But at a conference organized by the independent political coalition Bloque Popular-Coordinadora Nacional de Resistencia Popular in Tegucigalpa in January 2006, opposition politicians and members of various campesino and indigenous organizations expressed serious doubts about Zelaya.
Two years later, these critics find their skepticism was right on target.
Zelaya and his officials are mired in scandal and rising public discontent, with much of the population apparently viewing him as just as corrupt and willing to cater to the interests of multinational companies as past leaders.
By the end of October more than a million people had viewed recordings posted on YouTube by one “Juana Pueblo” of conversations between Zelaya and other top government officials, revealing ethically questionable and embarrassing plans and machinations. Zelaya has threatened to jail the as-yet unknown people responsible for the postings.
The tapes included the voices of Zelaya; his private secretary Raúl Valladares; presidential assessor Enrique Flores Lanza; and Marcelo Chimirri, head of the state phone company Hondutel. Among other things Zelaya and the officials talked about how to manipulate the public and political opponents; the controversial proposal to lower taxes on international calls, which infuriated the phone company union; and propaganda plans to publicly label National Congress president Roberto Micheletti a “traitor.”
The tapes also caught Zelaya and his cabinet talking about how to control the media, naming specific journalists under the government’s control. This comes during a year in which Zelaya has claimed the media is against him, and journalists have complained of intense pressure and intimidation and blamed the government for a number of violent attacks on journalists. (More on this in a coming Upside Down World story.)
On Oct. 18 popular radio journalist/satirist Carlos Salgado, 67, was shot to death outside his Radio Cadena Voces station in Tegucigalpa in broad daylight, in front of heavy traffic. Journalists and Zelaya opponents were quick to suggest the government was behind or linked to the murder. Salgado’s comedic alter ego “Frijol, El Terible” was known for mocking the government.
Other journalists at the station reported receiving threats from people connected to the government, and they said their requests to the government for more security services were ignored. Two weeks after Salgado’s murder, station director Dagoberto Rodriguez fled for the after police informed him of a planned assassination attempt.
Meanwhile Zelaya’s record on free trade and foreign investment has been far different from his supposed allies Morales and Chavez. Zelaya was a vocal proponent of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which was implemented in last year. The government has talked about joining ALBA (Bolivian Alternative for the ), the alternative trade bloc spearheaded by , but the country has yet to do so.
Campesino and anti-free trade groups say development projects instituted in CAFTA’s wake have displaced people and made life harder for average citizens. The Centro Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC), a national campesino group involved in land reclamations, lost a community center which was once home to a local low-power radio station to CAFTA this year. The center, outside the city of Comayagua, was seized to make room for a highway to facilitate shipping through the region necessitated by CAFTA, according to CNTC leaders.
During a meeting near the city of La Paz in late October, CNTC members described how it is harder for them to make a living off their land with stepped-up imports of agricultural goods from the ; and they expect that trend to continue. They are also worried about the effect of genetically modified corn and other crops invading their stocks as imports increase.
Anti-free trade graffiti is scrawled on the walls of Tegucigalpa, La Paz and other Honduran cities. The CNTC and other grassroots groups have worked with members of the left political party Unificacion Democracia (UD) to argue against increased free trade. In June UD members met in Tegucigalpa with representatives of leftist political parties from , , and to discuss resistance to free trade across the region. Among other things, they pledged to resist the European Acuerdo de Asociacion (AdA) trade agreement with the EU which is in the early stages of negotiation.
Though there has not been much significant data collected on CAFTA’s impact on so far, various reports and studies compiled as the agreement was set to take effect predicted a harmful effect on the nation’s agricultural sector and textile industry.
A study by the International Development Research Centre, for example, concluded that:"Honduras ' traditional cereal and grain crops – corn, wheat, and rice (with the exception of frijol) – will not fare well under the new free trade agreement, given the high yields of USA large-scale industrialized farming (corn yields in Honduras are 7% of those of the USA), and because of the huge subsidies which the USA provides to its farmers to produce these crops.”
The report predicts that “Honduran production of these crops for export will essentially disappear, due to their inability to compete with the subsidized prices of the market. This will negatively impact the numerous small farmers who rely on the sale of these crops as their primary source of income.”
“When the free trade agreement was instituted it was described as a solution for the people and the community,” said Samuel Gonzalez, education director of the CNTC’s national office. “But if you are on the ground you know it’s not helping campesinos. The campesino reality is that each day that passes means more and more extreme poverty. This neoliberal model is a disaster, it’s just making the rich richer and the poor poorer.”
The long-time government repression of constitutionally-allowed land reclamations carried out by the CNTC and other campesino groups has also continued with severity under Zelaya.
CNTC national director Carlos Obdulio Suazo described the Liberal Party and National Party as “the same parties with the same bosses, just different flags.”
“The Liberal Party is in power, but nothing has changed,” he said.
A number of people have been killed in relation to land struggles during Zelaya’s tenure, including one during an Aug. 27-28 national action by the CNTC, in which they launched land reclamations around the country and held forums.
Land struggles are exacerbated by the fact that, along the coast and in other areas attractive to tourism, foreign investors are buying up land, even in violation of laws that are supposed to protect indigenous lands and limit foreigners’ ability to buy coastal land.
“A gringo or someone from the European Union or can buy land at prices Hondurans can never afford,” said Suazo. “Free trade is about selling off our land. Where before people fished, now they can’t because the land is private.”
Campesinos are also afraid increased mining by multi-national companies will destroy the water supply of small communities and ruin their agricultural lands. An investigation by the independent newspaper El Libertador published in October described how mining by a subsidiary of the company Glamis Gold has contaminated water and caused wells to dry up or become unusable in the Valle de Siria, where an inordinately high number of cancers and respiratory problems have also been reported. Zelaya’s administration has awarded a number of mining concessions to multinational companies which locals fear could have similar effects throughout the country, including at Montana Pacayatal not far from La Paz, a mountain with hundreds of springs that provide water for a large surrounding area. (More in a coming Upside Down World article).
Residents are worried about ongoing discussion of privatizing water, as has been done in many other Latin American countries and cities; education; and other public services and resources.
“It’s not right, they’re selling off our resources,” said Silbestre Manueles Mazariego, a CNTC campesino leader in the La Paz area. “We need to stop this privatization. People are dying of malnutrition in areas that are so rich in natural resources. We need these resources to provide a future for our children.”
Meanwhile urban dwellers in Tegucigalpa and other cities are also highly dissatisfied with the administration.
Hospitals have been closing divisions and cutting down on services because of a shortage of doctors and nurses and a lack of funds for medical equipment and machinery. In October the newspaper El Heraldo reported on the closing of 17 health centers nationwide, with dialysis and other services being cut at the nation’s hospitals because of the personnel and equipment shortages. The cuts are hitting impoverished, rural areas the worst, where malnutrition, infant mortality and other problems related to poverty and isolation are already acute. A report by the Organizacion Panamericana de la Salud found that Hondurans’ access to health services is among the worst in the region, with an average of 8.7 doctors and 3.2 nurses per 10,000 people nationwide. People who count on the public health system have much less access, with an average of only 2.4 doctors and 1.2 nurses per 10,000 people. also has the highest rate of HIV in Central America.
An October poll by El Heraldo – which is known for its alliance with the National Party – found that a significant majority of Tegucigalpa residents feel that the cost of basic household goods and the cost of living has increased under Zelaya, as compared to past National Party president Ricardo Maduro.
Meanwhile notoriously rampant violence and crime continues to escalate in the cities, including the severe gang problem essentially exported from the to , and . Zelaya’s government has been blamed for not doing more to address the violence, with an average 14 people killed per day. However security and crime is a tricky issue since the mano dura (iron fist) policies instituted by Maduro and other Latin American leaders -- but not as much so by Zelaya -- are known for fostering human and civil rights abuses and destructive criminalization of youth.
The exodus of people, especially young men, from also continues at a rapid pace. Scores of youth leave the country for the cities, where gang violence, poverty and exploitation are rampant, and then often for the and other countries. This situation has been going on for years; Zelaya’s government cannot be blamed. But during the broadcast of a new community radio station, CNTC members called on the Zelaya administration to do more to provide resources and opportunities for youth so they don’t feel forced to leave the country.
“The government is the main reason youth lose their principles and values, not seeing the hope of a better future for themselves and their families,” said Gonzalez. “They end up in gangs, getting tattoos all over their bodies, then they could be killed for those tattoos.”
“There’s no development, there’s no jobs, there’s no support here,” added Carlos Manueles, Silbestre Manueles’s son and a CNTC member who works with youth in the La Paz area. “All they find in the cities is drugs, alcohol and hopelessness. So kids go to the , and they come back sick or without arms and legs” – often from accidents hopping trains. “We need to do something else for our youth and our future.”
The murder of the 67-year-old creator of the popular satirical program “Frijol, El Terible” is being seen across as the latest example of brutal repression of journalists by the administration of president Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Two weeks after Salgado’s murder, the head of Radio Cadena Voces, Dagoberto Rodriguez, fled to the with his family after being informed by police of a tip that he would be assassinated within 72 hours. Police reportedly said his would-be assassins were not connected to the killers of Salgado. Though the department obviously has inside knowledge of the planned murder, there have been no arrests made.
Rodriguez said he had been followed by a car with mirrors continuously in recent weeks, and other journalists at Radio Cadena Voces have also reported receiving death threats and harassment from people they believe to be linked to the government.
For example reporter Edgardo Escoto said he got a call on his cell phone while covering a funeral in September saying, “If you carry on pissing us off, we will bury you like this.”
The station’s website was also hacked and sabotaged; at one point the content was replaced with pornography.
Meanwhile on Sept. 7, Channel 13 TV reporter Geovanny Garcia was shot during broad daylight and hit in the hand. Garcia, who left the country after the attack, had reported on official corruption related to street paving and repair contracts.
Also in September, Martin Ramirez, a reporter for La Tribuna newspaper, received multiple threats after running a story on maras (gangs) and their ties to police. The threats intensified after police publicly identified Ramirez.
Journalists and human rights groups in say the attacks are likely precipitated and tolerated by government officials in response to media reports on government corruption.
“The murder of Carlos Salgado confirms the deterioration in press freedom in ,” says a statement from the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders. “The worsening and terrible climate between the government of Manuel Zelaya and the media unfortunately contributes to this situation.”
Zelaya has responded in the press that the attacks are the work of well-organized crime groups, and that the government will provide extra protection for journalists who request it. Police spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia told El Heraldo that the attacks could be the work of a few people trying to create a crisis and fear among journalists.
Meanwhile on Sept. 28, the state-owned phone company Hondutel charged six journalists who had reported on corruption in the company with defamation. Two Radio Cadena Voces reporters were charged, along with two reporters from the TV station Televicentro, the director of the paper La Prensa and a chief editor from the paper El Heraldo, known as a voice of the right-wing anti-Zelaya National Party.
In the last five years, including two years under Zelaya and three years under former president Ricardo Maduro, more than 20 journalists have been charged with this infraction. Defamation is a criminal offense in (unlike the , where it is civil); carrying a possible jail term. Journalists who “offend the president of the Republic” can be sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Constitution.
Hondutel head Marcelo Chimirri, who filed the charges, was caught on tapes recently posted on YouTube and viewed by more than a million people talking to Zelaya and other government officials about, among other things, controlling the media.
(Last year, an official of Hondutel also allegedly punched and threatened reporter Octavio Carvajal, host of an opinion program.)
International free press and human rights groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American Press Society and Reporters Without Borders are continuing to call for a meaningful investigation of Salgado’s killing. On Oct. 27 a 29-year-old man with several previous arrests for petty offenses was detained on illegal arms transport charges and held on suspicion of Salgado’s murder. He was briefly released because of a blatant error on the police report – his arrest date was wrongfully recorded as Oct. 22 – until a judge ordered he be taken into custody again. However critics say there is no meaningful evidence linking him to the crime. Immediately after the murder police made public statements insinuating Salgado’s personal life and “moral” issues led to the attack – an unprofessional “blame the victim” tactic many see as an attempt to divert attention from government culpability.
Salgado’s “El Frijol” show had run for more than 20 years, dealing with the indignities and challenges of everyday life including high food prices and transportation problems. He was known for mocking and satirically criticizing Zelaya’s administration as well as past governments.
Journalists marched in Tegucigalpa after Salgado’s murder demanding an investigation and an end to what they describe as intense and growing suppression and intimidation of the press. Meanwhile Zelaya has publicly complained numerous times that the media treats him unfairly. In late summer Zelaya told a Radio Cadena Voces reporter that he would no longer grant her interviews, saying that, “If I was Hugo Chavez, I would have had this radio station shut down a long time ago.”
On May 24, 2007 Zelaya announced that TV and radio stations would be compelled to broadcast 10 separate dispatches and interviews from public officials to “counteract the misinformation of the news media.” Under regulations of the National Telecommunications Commission, in emergencies or situations of serious national interest the president has the power to order simultaneous national broadcasting of these “cadena” messages which pre-empt regular programming.
A May 31 letter from Committee to Protect Journalists president Joel Simon to Zelaya charges that his use of the cadenas to counter negative publicity violates the Honduran constitution’s guarantees of press freedom and free expression, as well as the American Convention on Human Rights, signed by .
Reporters Without Borders ranks 87th in press freedom worldwide (the is ranked 17th; is 75th).
Press freedom has long been precarious in , especially in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 when then-president Ricardo Maduro’s administration allegedly instituted government policies and took various measures to silence press criticism of corruption in the country’s recovery efforts and use of aid money.
A 1999 report from the Committee to Protect Journalists noted that the country’s few independent journalists regularly had their phones tapped, faced ridicule in the establishment press and suffered threats and intimidation. That year Rossana Guevara, who is currently one of the defendants charged with defamation by Hondutel, was harassed and had her dog poisoned after reporting on government corruption. Another TV reporter suffered an attempted kidnapping after reporting on a possible coup.
But journalists say the current situation under Zelaya – who ironically was heralded by many as a member of the “new Latin American left” leadership club and an anti-corruption reformer when he was elected – is worse than ever.
“Never in 30 years of my career have I seen such intolerance for criticism and the independent press,” Renato Alvarez, one of the Televicentro reporters charged with defamation, told Reporters Without Borders. “They want to silence us so we can’t talk about corruption in the public administration.”