High dudgeon in Honduras (July 7)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Suddenly everybody is worried about what is happening in Honduras. Well, perhaps not everybody. I have to admit I’m not all that worried.
As I understand it, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, decided he wanted to remain in office longer than the constitution said he could, and he set about to try to change the law. The guys in the Honduran Army did not think that was a good idea, and they threw him out in his nightshirt.
You can’t blame Zelaya for wanting to keep his job. Unemployment in Honduras is 28 percent, and jobs must be hard to get. He probably would wind up picking bananas or coffee, which is what a lot of the people do there, when they aren’t demonstrating in the streets or cleaning up after hurricanes. Also, he probably had just gotten to the point where he could pronounce the name of the capital city — Tegucigalpa.
Honduras is between Gua-temala on the north, Nicaragua on the south and El Salvador on the west. Much of its Caribbean shore, called the Mosquito Coast, is known to be barely inhabited — understandable, with such a name.
Other Central American presidents are urging that President Zelaya be returned to office, which shouldn’t be surprising. They do not like the idea of any elected president being tossed out of office in his pajamas by an Army, which is something that used to be quite common in Central American countries.
President Zelaya is not known for his successes in office. Honduras is worse off than it was when he took over. The government deficit is growing, just like California’s. The state energy and phone companies are operating at losses. High numbers of the people are dying of AIDS.
What is surprising is that anybody would want to be president there. If it were up to me, I would do away with Honduras and affiliate it with Guatemala.
You know the old saying — here today, Guatemala.
