Oscar Estrada: "La vida no vale nada" (Life is worth nothing)

Honduran film-maker Oscar Estrada weighs in on Vos el Soberano about the rush to attribute the multiple homicide in a factory in San Pedro Sula to "gang rivalry" that has received such unquestioning coverage in the English-language media. It would be wonderful if some of the reporters who find the story-line they are reporting so compelling would present even a bit of the context he provides:

At whom does the horror point?

When in 2007 I began work on the documentary "El Porvenir", seeking to understand and portray the most complex massacre that up until that moment had occurred in the country, in which 69 people lost their life in the penal center of La Ceiba at the hands of the prison guards in alliance with the common prisoners, one thing motivated me: I knew very well and wanted to present it that way in the film, that if as a population we allowed this frightening crime (and another four massacres that occurred in the same period) to be lost in oblivion, the horror would end by catching up with us.

In those dark years of the mano dura, public opinion that the media of communication manipulated at will succeeded in demonizing gang-member youth in such a way that, without subterfuge, many people publicly said that the massacre was good, since according to them it annihilated delinquents that otherwise would cause more damage to society.

The war against the gains was won physically eliminating almost all the gang members of the time, hence the fame of personages like Oscar Alvarez, to the point that today the gangs barely appear in the media spectrum that seeks constantly to create internal enemies to justify state repression.

But the robberies, extortion, rapes, assassinations, dismemberment of corpses, massacres and the rest of the crimes committed-- supposedly-- by the gangs continue happening. Every day in Honduras there are reported between 10 and 14 violent deaths, many of them by firearms and the numbers continue rising placing Honduras in the list of the most violent countries of the continent, only behind Mexico and Colombia.

Then came the Coup d'Etat and those persons who devised (or allowed to pass) the massacres, returned to appear stronger and unpunished. The government of the mano dura returned, now with the face of Christian humanism, to impose by force the reconciliation and unity of the gravedigger.

Who at that time was Minister of Security today continues being it and his practice, now less in the media because anti-insurgency can be carried off only in a secret fashion, continues as well to be repressive.

Who at that time was the president of Congress, today is that of the republic and, like Ricardo Maduro on the 4th of April 2003 left the country on the day of the massacre, so as not to be witness to the pain and indignation that left the dead wholesale.

In this country life is worth nothing. Literally speaking. With fifty dollars you can pay an assassin so that he will eliminate a person, with fifty dollars more you can eliminate the assassin and the traces of the crime. At 100 dollars per death, 1900 lempiras at the present exchange rate, the impunity of barbarism has been embedded in the depths of this Honduras that today falls on us.

Yesterday, while some of us marched following the call of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular for a national civic strike, demanding among other things a raise in the minimum wage, respect for the labor laws, a halt to repression and violations of human rights, in San Pedro Sula, in a barrio that carries as its name Cabañas (ex-president of the 19th century, bulwark of Morazanism and of the ethics of power), in a small shoe factory, Marxist symbol of the worker, 19 young workers were assassinated, some of them apparently members of the resistance.

Beyond the symbolism of the massacre, it has to be clear that an act of terrorism of this nature is not done improvisationally. Calculated were the place where the crime was to be carried out, their routes of arrival and escape; calculated also the hour and the day. The assassins know very well how to create terror, for this they have been shaped in in this they are professionals.

While the bodies of the youths were carried away by the forensic doctor, Wong Arévalo, unconditional spokesman of the Coup and apologist for the violations of human rights squawked about the inactivity of the police and the intelligence corps. Not so much for the massacre (which he also did to a lesser extent), so much as for the windows of his building that the demonstration broke in its wake. "This group is only comparable with organized crime", shouted Wong Arévalo and his claim echoes the declarations of the prosecution that announced it would prosecute the members of the Frente de Resistencia for "illicit association".

There is a clear effort in the media of communication to link both events: the attack with stones on the golpista channels and the massacre in Cabañas. In this effort they mix maliciously to make believe that the resistance, while it is not directly responsible for this massacre, are equally detestable and dangerous and, the same as the gangs 10 years ago, any action of the system against us is justified.

It is interesting, in contrast to the other massacres, that in this terrorist act golpismo claims the inaction and "inefficiency" of its super Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez and demand immediate actions in respect to it.

It is very improbable that justice will be done. The most likely is that they will arrest some scapegoat to calm the demands of public opinion and will try to justify the massacre with the already trite "settling of accounts".

I was right. We as a society allowed impunity to embed itself like a malign cancer and today the horror points at us.

8 of September, 2010

Mano dura is literally "strong hand", the signature policy of Oscar Alvarez in his first incarnation as Security Minister of Honduras during the term of President Ricardo Maduro. Similar policies were widely implemented throughout Central America. In Honduras, they involved criminalizing gang membership, encouraging collaboration in policing by the armed forces, and formation of extrajudicial death squads targeting youths without apparent concern about whether those killed were guilty of any crime, or even actually were gang members. The majority of these killings went unsolved, and indeed, uninvestigated. Involvement of the security forces was widely suspected.

Anti-gang legislation was based on establishing "illicit association" as a crime. So the citation of "illicit association" as a supposed crime by the members of the resistance who marched in conjunction with the general strike is laden with disturbing overtones.

"How Democractic Should Democracy Be?": Oscar Estrada

Note: The original in Spanish was posted today on Quotha, with the first half translated there in a comment by Charles II and the second half in a comment by me. In the following translation, I make slight changes to the original translation of the first half.

For those of us who didn’t go to the national assembly of the FNRP in Tocoa because we weren’t elected as delegates by our organizations or simply because we weren’t active in any organization other than the Frente, the accomplishments of this week still seem unclear. In the afternoon, the assembly will have ended and we hope that everything will be more broadly known. Meanwhile, various ideas occurred to me which I think are important to explore to better understand the “conflict” which we live internally.

The Liberal Party, which historically had a moderately progressive origin, has been controlled by the right for at least the last 60 years. I previously wrote on the 17th of June, about the role which the Liberal Party played in the most key stages of Honduran history, such as the ‘54 strike, the coup d’état of ’63, the different military governments of the ‘70s, the dirty war of the ‘80s, the neoliberalism of the ‘90s, and about how always, with rare individual exceptions, it bent itself to the interests of the national oligarchy and transnational capital. And while the labor code, voluntary military service, and certain legal changes were given in Liberal administrations, it would be remote from history to try to say now, that the changes that have been achieved in social matters correspond to the political will of the Party alone, making invisible the social and popular movements which drove those changes. One should understand that in Honduras, nothing is ever done except through pressure.

The crisis which the Honduran people lives in actuality originates in essence in a struggle of classes [class war]. It is the product of the erosion of an economic and political model which favors the most wealthy, displacing from wealth a broad sector of the population which lacks representation within the power structures.

The Liberal Party as a an institution never, through its individual leaders, owners, and caudillos, will be able to understand the urgencies of the dispossessed classes of the country, simply because they belong to another class, and therefore to another Honduras. This is not to say that there aren’t Liberals who belong to the popular classes. It’s clear that there are such and that they understand very well what it is to be poor in Honduras. But those who take decisions, those who today urge the rescue of the party, because without it they are nothing politically, those are NOT of the same class which filled the streets in repudiation of the coup d’état.

This is the basic contradiction of the Liberal Party in Resistance. To form a part of the FNRP and to propose to “rescue” the Liberal Party which amounts to rescuing the bipartisanship reigning for more than 100 years. To rescue the Liberal Party, the same Liberal Party would have to seize the Party. [To rescue the Liberal Party they will have to seize the Party, the Liberal Party itself.]

It has not been clear up till now what would be the strategy for the Liberals in Resistance to rescue their party. At times they can be seen seated in the gringo embassy, then in the office of Rosenthal and their goal seems remarkably similar to that of Elvin Santos or Micheletti: to return to power in the next elections.

They, the Liberals in Resistance, now accuse a faction of the left of the Frente of not being “inclusive” on blocking them from “storming the assembly,” placing 29 delegates more than those which by agreement they had obtained in the previous assembly in Siguatepeque. This strategy reminds me a great deal of the assemblies of the 90s in the UNAH, when it was a common practice to bring 100 delegates from another campus, normally from the north of the country, to flip the results and to impose a directive according to the interests of the caudillo of the student front and it was naive to think, that with all those years of experience, we would not have learned.

The ideological separation within the Frente has been evidenced basically among what the Liberals call "los bloqueros", in reference to the bloque popular, but that is composed as well by the parties of the left (PSOCA, TR, MND, OPLN, CNRP, BP, unions, guilds and social movements) on one side and on the other the Liberals, who independently of the name that they use continue being a party of the right with all the practices and vices of traditional politics.

We have all always said that the FNRP is a diverse and pluralistic organization. And although pluralism as a concept can seem sound to us, what is certain is that this has pushed us to accept, on some occasions, actions contrary to the will of the base, both by political organizations as well as by individuals, that far from unifying in their political pragmatism have weakened us.

I would put as an example the decision of the UD to participate in the elections of last November, legitimating the same and their inflated results, and later to participate in the Government of National Unity of Lobo Sosa, permitting him to say internationally that his government is of Reconciliation since he counts among his ministers one that is "of the resistance". This action, accepted by that mistaken sense of plurality, has brought a great political cost for the Frente and will continue doing so.

On the other side, and as a prelude to the assembly, the COPINH launched a communique that has had a certain replication, both by the Feminists in Resistance, as well as by some independent authors. The basic propositions of the public communique of COPINH, far from representing differences in the objectives of FNRP, show a discussion that sooner or later it will be necessary to have.

What those communiques demand, more than representation in the leadership of the Frente, is a different vision of power. It is a call to attention to the traditional left that continues thinking about democratic centralism, the political bureau or the negotiations of realpolitik distant from the will of the base. It is a questioning about the concept of popular representation and democracy as an expression of the will of the majority (denying voice to minorities). It is a demand, to the entire FNRP, that it see power as something that is constructed from the base, from below, because the history of the peoples has demonstrated to us that in the end, a revolutionary government without popular power is nothing more than a reactionary government with a populist discourse.

While all this happens, the machinery of terror does not stop. Lobo journeyed to Miami on a lightning visit to meet with Insulza in relation to the return (in August, according to CODEH) of the expresident Manuel Zelaya, as a prior requisite for there to be total recognition of Lobo Sosa in the extraordinary Assembly of the OAS at the end of July.

"We are near a solution, but I don't believe that it is possible to speak of a solution still nor to be overly optimistic", said Insulza.

And that's something the un-government understands very well, because its master Colombia has demonstrated it, that international recognition is one thing and internal legitimacy is another very distinct thing.

In Tocoa, the same municipio where the Assembly was carried out, "various police and military commandoes advanced toward the land where more than 190 families in the Bajo Aguan are found" according to a report of COFADEH, violating in this form the accord signed by the president with MUCA the past month of April, throwing fire on the powder keg of the national agrarian conflict.

And the repression continues and while this week in Tegucigalpa we say goodbye to two known fighters of the Bloque Popular (dead of natural causes), Luis Morel and Oscar Padilla, on the north coast they assassinated in front of his house Julio Fúnez Benítez (57), union member of SANAA and member of the frente, and Jorge Alberto Castro Ramírez, of 41 years, horchata vendor in the numerous marches of 2009.

Oscar Estrada
11 de Julio de 2010

"The vacation of Lobo and his lambs in South Africa"

I was conducting research near San Pedro Sula the last time Honduras went to the mundial, and remember vividly the way that it united people and completely absorbed their attention. While understanding that this event has a special status for those in Honduras, I have been noticing how little attention the world press has been able to pay to actual political developments in Honduras, in contrast with the wall-to-wall coverage of its world cup participation.

From Oscar Estrada, Honduran filmaker and contributor to "May I Speak Freely?", comes a thoughtful commentary on the spectacle of Honduras' participation in the World Cup and how odd it is to want to cheer for the national team while experiencing the effects of the ongoing aftermath of the coup.

Estrada reminds us that there is serious governmental work that is not being done in Honduras, masked by the press attention to the world cup. He points to the looming deadline for labor organizations to decide what to do about an impasses over setting a new minimum wage-- a process where the president is supposed to step in and settle things (which Manuel Zelaya did in 2008, in one of the steps that earned him the anger of certain businessmen). As we have previously noted, Porfirio Lobo Sosa has declined to settle the issue.

Estrada also reports that the Armed Forces have been deployed into the countryside, in the wake of coup rumors. While Honduran press reporting makes it hard to assess exactly what is going on, we have also been hearing reports that there is an increased visibility of the Armed Forces. Honduran media printed reports this week of congressional approval of a plan by the Minister of Security, Oscar Alvarez, to use the Army to supplement the police force in fighting common crime, which is to say, to militarize the country. The approved law is said to "limit" the length of time this arrangement can continue-- to the length of the current government (that is, four years).

It bears repeating that the Honduran Constitution assigns the role of fighting crime to the police force, expressly as part of a move intended to end the history of militarization of what should be a civilian function. As the Honduran people experienced last year, having the Armed Forces involved in police actions creates both a climate of intimidation and the potential for confrontations to be rapidly escalated. Shamefully, there has been no coverage of this anti-democratic development in any of the English language media.

Instead, as Estrada notes, the national and international press is ready for a feel-good story: one that will, if Honduras does well in its first games, run directly up against the first anniversay of the coup d'Etat, a national day of mobilization. It will be interesting to see how much international attention is given to demonstrations that day.

The vacation of Lobo and his lambs in South Africa

I did not think of writing about this, the truth is I would like to give a certain distance to the theme and not get involved in one of the few distractions that the Honduran people have. But it is impossible not to comment on the nerve of the governing class, which in an historic lack of respect...has taken 15 days of vacation, after three months of assuming their offices, to go to South Africa with all the costs paid by the national treasury...

It is certain, that like many Hondurans that are in the resistance I would like to see Honduras win, to break in victoriously among the best teams in the world and give us that pride to this people that lives filled with bad news. But I cannot. While the international media inform us of a Honduras empty of power, they forget to mention that Pepe Lobo had NOT governed at any moment, this has not been his job, he was contracted to appear in front of the camera and let himself be seen, with his phony smile while others clear the field. Others, the obscure personages that can be found in the shadows conspiring against this worthy people, to torture, to kill our hope.

We know that this world cup, more than any other in history, will be used sinistrally against our people. The show that is being mounted with the complicity, yet again of the national and foreign press, reminds me of that day in August, when while in the houses, bars, restaurants, streets, sidewalks and offices the goals of the team were celebrated, dozens of people suffered torture in the basement of the National Congress, afterwards to be transported to the humid dungeons of the Cobra battalion, of the antisubversive police commandos: because their shouts might ruin the football party of Micheletti....

And this is the thing that does not let me celebrate. The Honduran Resistance is in an intensive process of organization. Practically in every corner of the country we are learning to work together, to debate, to politically discuss and reach consensus on this complex project of refounding the country. This effort, with our advances and setbacks, can only be stopped by terror.

And for that they have called out the Armed Forces, who, taking advantage of a suspect denunciation by Sr. Lobo who said this week that "they are preparding a coup d'Etat against him", have gone into the streets, supposedly to combat organized crime, but invading the hamlets and villages positioning their weapons against the people as if preparing themselves for something bigger.

Meanwhile, Monday the 14th the three workers centers will report what they will do in relation to the minimum wage that should have been defined by the government since last December, and which Lobo Sosa has avoided touching in order not to anger the oligarchy. Possibly they will go on strike, I think that is the only way out they have. And in a municipality in Choluteca [State] the people have taken over the city hall in objection to the barefaced corruption of the mayor and they say they are prepared to resist against the army, until the mayor is fired.

We are two weeks from the first anniversay of the coup d'Etat. If the Honduran team makes it to qualify for the second round, it will play on the 28th of June. That same day, hundreds of thousands of Hondurasn will be in the streets and will let the world know that here no one surrenders and that team, is also of the same pattern.

Oscar Estrada, Habla Honduras
http://hablahonduras.com/2010/06/12/las-vacaciones-del-lobo-y-sus-corderos-cuando-el-mundo-con-los-ojos-sobre-una-pelota/