Hurricane Alma

Hurricane Alma hit the Honduran southern coast on Friday May 30—the same day as the plane crash. In the end the damage was quite minimal—several houses were damaged and one 7 year old girl drowned when she tried to cross a rain-swelled creek.

Update on the Fiscales Hunger Strike

The congressional committee which was set up to review the 24 corruption cases which had supposedly been purposely mishandled by the Attorney General –on Weds May 28th the committee asked for a 10 day extension which was not granted. Weds. June 24 the goverment announced that the International Development Bank would be funding an independent, international consultant who will carry out an audit of the corruption cases.

Plane Crash in Toncontin

Friday, May 30 at 9:40 AM a Taca plane with 109 passengers aboard went off the end of the runway of the Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa Honduras. It was a cloudy morning with a light drizzle coming down. From news reports it sounds as if the pilot made two circles around the city trying to get a visual of the runway and on the third path came in under the clouds and attempted a landing. It sounds like the pilot miscalculated and was coming in too fast and was already too far down the runway but he decided to attempt a landing nonetheless. They have security tape of the plane touching down about half way down what is already a very short runway.

The plane went off the end of the runway and landed in the middle of a road about 200 yds away. One car was crushed killing two young men. Several other cars were miraculously missed. As you can see in the picture the cockpit and the first class section hit the hardest and had the most damage. Two first class passengers died, one of a heart attack. The pilots were trapped for over an hour—this may have been one of the saddest parts. The door to the cabin was smashed and could not open and it took them a long time to break open a window to get them out—the pilot was alive when they got him out but died on the way to the hospital.

The Honduran president, Mel Zelaya, has announced that from now on only small planes (less than 42 passengers) will be allowed to land in Tegucigalpa. All larger planes will have to land in Comayagua (about 1 hour from Tegucigalpa) where there is a VERY big runway and the Palmerola military base which was built by the US during the 1980s to support the Contras and to keep an eye on guerilla movements in El Salvador, Guatemala…. The US Embassy has said that the Palmerola base is a “Honduran” base and that the US is only a guest there—and that the US’ only concern is to make sure its helicopters, etc… are protected. They claim that within 60 days the Palmerola base will be operating as a civil airport.

It will be interesting to see what happens. The Toncontin airport has just been completely rebuilt—multimillion dollar investment. Over the last 20 years there have not been any civilian aircraft accidents at Toncontin. In 1989 there was an accident when a plane started its approach about early and crashed about 40 miles short of the airport. In 1995 and 1997 there were two military plane accidents. At the same time, Toncontin is one of the most difficult airports in the world to land a passenger plane, a 757 is the largest plane that can land here. I have been told that there are so few accidents here only because the pilots are at the top of their game when they land here. Even with this crash it is clear that the pilot came close to stopping in time.
So while Toncontin is clearly not the best place for an airport, it has quite a good safety record and I think few people in Tegucigalpa look forward to a drive of over an hour to catch a flight or pick up passengers. I will keep you posted.

38 day Hunger Strike by Prosecutors ends

1000s gathered under the Congress building in support of the hunger strikers



For 38 days (April 7-May 15), 5 Honduran prosecutors carried out a hunger strike under the Honduran Congress building to protest what they saw as the intentional blocking of high-level corruption cases by the Attorney General (AG) and the Assistant Attorney General (AAG). By the end of the strike, the original prosecutors had been joined by over 50 more hunger-strikers from different sectors, there were supporting movements in several other Honduran cities and each night there from a few hundred to a few thousand supporters--including catholic and protestant churches holding services. Several times during the strike there were marches from a few hundred to several thousand people lending support.

Demands:

• They asked that an external audit be carried out of these cases,
• that the AG and the AAG be removed from office or suspended (in part because the process used to name them was improper)
• in the end the protest became an anti-corruption movement in general.

Results:

• External audit which will be carried out by a commission named by the Congress. The commission includes several congressmen, representatives of the Honduran Bar Association and one Anti-corruption organization. None of the hunger strikers are on the commission
• Neither the AG nor the AAG was removed or suspended, but the Honduran Congress did pass a law which will allow them to be removed from office if they are found to have been negligent in these corruption cases.

Indirect positive results

• The protestant church was motivated to get involved in justice/social action--and the role of a prominent mega-church pastor mobilized lots of protestants. He was also very good at verbalizing why Christians should be involved in this sort of action
  Honduras this Week Article--which highlights the important role of a protestant pastor of a mega-church who went from mediator to advocate to participant in the hunger strike. http://www.hondurasthisweek.com/national.html#corruption
• The strike showed the depth of concern in the general public about corruption and that it is possible to mobilize thousands of people around these sorts of issues.

Indirect negative results/rumors

• Politically--the President of Congress (who is running for President) was very resistant to the demands--and ended up both the focus of the protests.
• The current President--Mel Zelaya--from the same party as the president of Congress but not political allies--was rumored to be supporting the protestors in order to hurt the President of Congress's opportunities for winning the presidency.
• The Catholic church--including the Honduran cardinal played quite ambivalent role--probably mostly because of the high-profile role of the protestant pastor. Cardenal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez said that "when the legal structures are destabilised, false leaders or a ‘caudillo’ (strongman) can arise out of the resulting anarchy."
• One of the few times in recent history that the two major political parties and the Catholic church were largely united in trying to defend the status quo. The AG is from the National Party and the AAG is from the Liberal Party and it is rumored each is in place to make sure no serious investigations take place into political and economic leaders in their parties.
• National Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) Ramón Custodio told IPS that the rule of law cannot be overthrown, and warned that "those who stand to gain the most from a state of anarchy are the ‘parallel powers’ linked to drug trafficking, that want Honduras to become a narco-state. I have been saying this for days," he said. (END/2008)