While the upcoming election in the US dominants the news in much of the world, the small, often forgotten country of Honduras is also gearing up for November elections. Here Charissa Zehr, of MCC Honduras, provides a perspective from the community-level.
Right now Honduras is in campaign season leading up to internal elections in November. This means each party will vote for who they want to run on the ballot in the national elections next year (2013) for the newly elected officials to take office in 2014.
Here is my disclaimer: I am still new to all of this, and learning what I can from the newspaper, my (left-leaning) co-worker, television, and our neighboring office that has become campaign headquarters and invites me over for coffee. [I will not tell you which party joked about changing my residency card so I could vote in the election!] I also enjoy the catchy commercials on TV and my personal favorite: vans that drive around town with speakers playing a reggaeton re-mix of a very popular song, but with lyrics that say “vote for Yani.” Very original! But I digress…
Politics are sticky everywhere it seems, but there is a lot of passionate discourse in Honduras. There are several contributing factors:
1) Ever since the coup in 2009 where a wealthy oligarchy was blamed for ousting the “people’s president,” the country has been deeply, deeply divided. Red vs. blue doesn’t just come into play on CNN’s magical touch screen…it affects the color of t-shirt people wear to the office and the businesses they will patronize because of political leanings.
2) Corruption: Honduras is infamous on the world stage for a lack of transparency, political and judicial corruption, and a corrupt police force, to name a few things. Politicians are very, very, very mistrusted–at all levels. Corruption factors into even the smallest details of life here. But people just accept it because when politicians rob millions and millions from people who have next to nothing, where do you begin to fight back?
3) Insecurity: Mostly known for some pretty terrible human rights violations, having the highest murder rate per capita and an equally astounding rate of murders that are never investigated does not help Honduras’ reputation.
4) Drug trafficking: Really, this encompasses the other 3, because all of these things are intertwined and cannot be separated from the massive amounts of drugs and money that are laundered through Honduras en route to North America. The devastating effects are seen in rural and urban areas. No community seems to be untouched by this reality.
These things (and many more) are constantly on the minds of Hondurans because they live with the reality day in and day out. It is not just a pick-pocket in the seedy part of the “big city”…it is not just a couple of politicians taking bribes to smooth over a new law…it is not a few teenagers selling pot in the park. It is really big stuff. It impacts every movement of every day…and people are sick of it.
Hondurans know change does not happen overnight because they’ve been living in this manner for a long time. They know that corruption has no easy fix because they’ve been seeing foreign investment dollars line the pockets of the (already) rich for decades. They know that gangs and drug trafficking will not disappear with a bit more military pressure because it has been taking over slowly and steadily for years.
But as with any sort of political season, there is some shadow of hope. People desperately hope their new party will propose solutions to even a few of these issues; that their leader will be the one to turn this country around. That their next vote will be for someone honest, who won’t rob the tax coffers and will do something to tackle the economic situation of this country.
Isn’t that what we all secretly get excited about with a fresh political voice? A new charismatic speaker? We hope that it will be the change we believe the country needs.
It breaks my heart to see all of these seemingly insurmountable issues and think “but how can it ever get any better?” But I see Hondurans who are fiercely loyal to their families and communities and they want to see change, if not for themselves, for the next generation. Anyone who lives here can’t help but hope that this next election could spark something different, and start to turn the country around.