Political News

Soldiers stationed to keep peace at a demonstration

One of the graffitied signs.

The political situation in Honduras is still unstable. Everyone is having a day or two of strikes. The meteorologists had strikes last week.

The teachers are striking all the time. Today was the first time that all of our kids were in school for the whole morning since June 26. (Remember, the former president was ousted on June 28.)

Teachers are always striking here. Before the president was removed from office and after. They used to strike against the former president because they weren't getting paid. Now they strike in support of him. Go figure. Some days some of the kids have gone to school for an hour or so. Some days none of them have gone to school. How glad we were this morning when everyone went.

Beginning on August 5, there was a five day march to the capitol. People marched from all over the country in order to participate in a demonstration. I saw one group marching. Marc saw two groups. The marches were peaceful. These people were showing their support for the former president. Some were prediction 75,000 people, which is 1% of the total population of this country. One percent. Not a very big showing. There was maybe 6,000.

After marching for five days they peacefully demonstrated in front of the presidential house last Tuesday. The demonstration remained peaceful until it was over and then some rioting and violence began. Windows of several American restaurants were broken. I had been in town that day, but, thankfully, was home before any violence began. There were demonstrations for a couple of days after that. We had a small group here and we were in town on Thursday, two days after the demonstration. Marc was driving down Morazon and I was following, when suddenly Marc drove across the median and headed the other way. I kept going and immediately saw hundreds of soldiers in an intersection where another demonstration was taking place. I certainly did not want to get in that mess, but close enough to get a picture would be nice. I asked Trey to get his camera ready. As I drove across the median, I paused just long enough for Trey to snap once. I am glad he has a good camera with a good zoom. We then heard there would be another strike at 3:00 at Loarque. We have to go through there to get home and it is the only route home. We headed home immediately to get through there before 3:00. Fortunately, there was no strike at Loarque.

When something is going on or it is thought something might happen, we see soldiers stationed different places. When all is well, there is no soldiers.

We usually know when something is going to happen in town and stay away. There are a few peaceful days and then something else breaks out. This morning we took the Childress group to the airport. Marc had errands to do and left. After the group cleared security, I left. I had three very small things to do and was going to stay in town until it was time to get Rosy. I thought I would be saving gasoline. I left the airport. In my mind, my first stop was going to be the hardware store. The exit I needed to take was blocked by 100s of taxis. And my camera was in the back where I could not reach it. The taxi drivers were not angry or violent. They were having a good time. To me, this was inconvenient more than anything. But, I knew another way and kept going. When I got to that exit, it was also blocked by 100s of taxis. This was becoming hugely inconvenient. Everywhere I tried to go was blocked or everyone else in town was trying to go that way to avoid the strikes. The only thing I was afraid of was getting in some of that traffic and not being able to get to Rosy in time. I gave up and headed home and drove back to get her. I used more gasoline trying to save a trip to town than if I had just gone home as soon as I left the airport. Gasoline went up again and I thought the drivers were protesting the price of fuel. I was not very happy to learn that this strike was led by the former first lady.

The supporters of this former president have grafittied a lot of signs and buildings in Tegucigalpa. The terms are derogatory. It makes me sad to see all of this graffiti.

We are still safe and expect to remain that way. When we know of something going on town, we stay away. When we don't know and we get to town and find something is happening, we get away fast. We are not going to get close to any demonstration. Not even to get a great picture. Things could turn violent quickly. We are using common sense in all situations.

I ask that you continue to pray for a quick and peaceful solution to the unrest in Honduras.

Terri