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by Willy Gutman
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by Willy Gutman
Dear Mr. President:
I am a widely published veteran journalist. I have been on regular assignment in Central America since 1991.
Three months have passed since I first tried to secure an interview with you. Contacted repeatedly, your press secretary, Mr. Armando Villanueva, and your consul general in Los Angeles, Vivian Panting, promised to intervene (intervenir) on my behalf. Instead, they both resorted to evasion and stalling tactics -- including dead silence -- to thwart any effort at a face-to-face encounter with you. I am disappointed that your door remains open to non-journalists whose personal interests (such as feel-good reassurances about tourism) prevent them from asking the hard questions that I have prepared.
Having given up any hope of meeting you in person (I was told you will not talk to foreign journalists) I now call upon the media to offer me the voice I was denied. I in turn respectfully request that you address fully and candidly, through the same public forum, the following themes:
THE NATION
1. Citing cultural, economic and political factors, several of your predecessors have privately admitted (and history tends to confirm) that Honduras is "almost ungovernable." What, specifically, is your mission for Honduras and why do you believe you can succeed where others have failed?
2. The economy is in shambles. Millions of dollars in foreign aid are pouring into Honduras. Lending nations are again and again asked to forgive a mounting debt while the hand of beggary keeps asking for more with a frivolity that borders on impertinence. If gross mismanagement, fiscal ineptitude and a colossal lack of integrity (not to call it corruption) are NOT at the root of the problem, what is?
3. Your "zero-tolerance" platform has seduced a nation convulsed with chronic violence. This agenda has encouraged the army and the national police --- both implicated in human rights violations --- to join forces in the fight against crime. What will you do, specifically, to insure that (a) the military are not given carte blanche to commit wanton murder and that they remain under strict civilian control? (b) members of uniformed services implicated in extra-judicial crimes are swiftly and severely punished? (c) intractable socio-economic problems that plague Honduras and have been responsible for years of epidemic discontent and misery are significantly reduced?
4. Street children and other "pariahs" --- both products and victims of a dysfunctional society --- continue to be sacrificed in record numbers in Honduras. Why? What is your administration prepared to do, specifically, to put an end to the carnage and to allocate resources to their safety and rehabilitation? What will you do, specifically, to help Casa Alianza continue its work of mercy in the face of public hostility against the children and the shelter? How do you propose to reeducate a constabulary that is naturally predisposed against the homeless?
5. Violence against indigenous peoples, including some well-publicized assassinations, keep fueling national discomfort and sharpening the mistrust these ethnic groups have for their country's body politic. What will you do to bring justice to these persecuted minorities who now face extinction by forced assimilation? What will you do to help solve the murder of Candido Amador Recinos and other slain tribal leaders?
6. When will Honduras stop selling its most precious lands and natural assets --- including its forests --- to foreign speculators?
THE REGION
1. What specific steps are you planning to take to bring to a final and
peaceful resolution territorial disputes with Nicaragua?
2. What specific role is Honduras prepared to play to consolidate its position vis-à-vis its Central American neighbors?
THE WORLD
1. Have relations with the United States changed since the events of September 11, 2001? If so, how?
2. Has the recently publicized passport scandal revealed a larger terrorist potential in Honduras? What specific protocols are currently in place to help unmask, pursue and prosecute terrorists operating in your country? If such operatives are linked to cells dedicated to harm American interests, will you freely and expeditiously extradite them? Are you aware of any attempt by your government to locate your former consul in Amman, Jordan, Faiz Roberto Elmadhy? How do you explain the theft of 1,500 Honduran passports from Foreign Ministry offices in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula?
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
As a Jew, are you absolutely certain that the attempt on your life was engineered by criminal elements and not by Muslim extremist "sleeper" agents in place in Honduras? Could the assassination plot against you have been made to look like an act of vengeance by mafia syndicates when it was if fact an attempt by terrorists to silence a pro-Israeli president? How will the Honduran people react to the freshly-divulged Elmadhy-Maduro-de Villeda connection?
Respectfully,
W. E. Gutman
A former contributor to Honduras This Week, W. E. Gutman has been published by La Tribuna, El Heraldo and La Prensa in Honduras. His investigative reports have also appeared in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama. He continues to write about politics, the military, and human rights for mainstream US newspapers. He currently lives in southern California.
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