More Honduras in the News

As you probably have heard by now, Honduras has made the news once again.  Last month it was the big earthquake, and now it is the supposed military coup that the whole world is talking about.

Even though we live here in Honduras, we feel fairly removed from what is going on.  Almost all of the activity has been down in Tegucigalpa, which is on the other side of the country of our beach town of La Ceiba.  If you have no idea what I am talking about, here is a quick review:

President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya

Over the last few months, the President of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, has been pushing for essentially a revision of the constitution to allow him to stay in office for another term.  He proposed a vote for this past Sunday (6/28), but the Honduran congress and supreme court said no way, the vote would be a direct violation of the constitution.  Zelaya didn’t listen and began to distribute ballots.  His actions violated the constitution, the congress, and the supreme court.  With the illegal vote looming, it was essentially Zelaya and his supporters versus everyone else, and the mood was tense.

Well the vote never happened because early Sunday morning, the Honduran military, acting under direct orders of the congress, supreme court, and the constitution, arrested Zelaya and sent him packing to Costa Rica.  The result in Honduras was that a small group of Zelaya supporters protested in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, and smaller protest broke out in other cities, including La Ceiba.  As of today, Zelaya is still in Costa Rica, but planning on returning on Thursday.  A new president has been sworn in, a new cabinet has been appointed, and the government is moving forward.

Translation: The SURVEY (vote) is illegal, The SURVEY is an offense (crime) DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN A CRIME! On June 28 STAY in your house caring for your family.

What has this meant for us? Well everything was just normal, until Saturday night when thousands of these pamphlets dropped from the sky advising us to stay home and not vote on the illegal ballot.  On Sunday we awoke to the news of the “coup” and watched the TV as reports came in.  The US Embassy advised all Americans to stay in their homes as a precautionary measure.  We ventured out, hoping to attend church, but it was canceled.  We went downtown and saw lots of armed soldiers, barricaded streets, and a small group of pro-Zelaya protesters outside the local municipal building.  Despite the warnings of chaos, everything was very calm, we even had lunch at Pizza Hut with lots of other peaceful Hondurans.

Our visiting short-term missions team decided to stay indoors to play it safe, a wise decision.  As reports continued to trickle it, it became apparent that the military wasn’t doing anything illegal, they were simple acting in accordance to their constitution and government.  We felt safe, and on Monday, we all headed out to resume our normal lives and ministry.  For now, the lasting effects are an indefinite curfew, and very irregular travel.  We had a special bus take our team to the airport this morning, and for now it looks like all international flights are proceeding as scheduled.

It has been an exciting few days, and who knows what the next week will hold.  Although the vast majority of life is going on peacefully, Obama, Chavez, Cuba and other nations have weighed in, so this isn’t going away anytime soon.

We are safe, we are happy, and it looks like all of our ministry can proceed without problems.  We greatly appreciate your concern and prayers, both for us, and for our adopted country.