"Ghost in the Machine: The Poverty of Honduras that No One Created"

- By Grahame Russell
June 2000

There is good news and bad news in Honduras. The good news is that absolutely every "development" institution you can name laments poverty; they are all working ardently to end it, poverty being, after all, the greatest killer on the planet. The bad news is that most of these institutions (and their personnel) have stakes in how the economic development system distributes wealth and poverty across the planet.

Moral of the story: lament poverty, but don't ask why there is poverty; don't look in the mirror.

More Studies, No Shame, No Strategy
The government of Honduras has publicly presented a "Preliminary Diagnosis on Poverty" and designed a "Strategy to Combat Poverty". Elaborated by Cabinet ministers, Congress members and "participants from Civil Society", the Strategy aims at a "sustainable and equitable development model, where the human being is the main goal of the society." The Strategy will "establish a series of policies, measures, programs and projects that attack the symptoms and the roots of poverty, … recognizing that this is not an easy task."

There it is, at last, a commitment not to put Band-Aids on the suffering of the poor, but rather to attack the root causes of poverty. The time of justice is near, … Not!

So far, the principal development strategy of the Honduran government has been to implement IMF (International Monetary Fund) structural adjustment programs. "First" world governments force Honduras to keep on paying its unjust foreign debt, which has already been paid 1.5 times even as the principal builds. The Honduras government agrees to dedicate ever more of the country's best land to export products to northern breakfast tables. All of which increases poverty. [elHeraldo, 00-03-21, p.20]

Ghost in the Machine
On the same page of the same newspaper, on the same day the Honduran government announced its "Strategy to Combat Poverty", a headline reads: "10,000 citizens from Patuca facing hunger crisis". The United Nation's World Food Program is sending an emergency shipment of 123 metric tons of food to 18 communities in the municipalities of Wampusirpe y Ahuas, in the department of Gracias a Dios [Thanks to God!]. 1600 families along the Patuca River are the intended recipients. The Canadian government (supporting IMF structural adjustment programs, debt payment and using more land for export products) provides $50,000 for the shipment of emergency foods.

This food comes from surplus production in North America and the European Community. The beans and rice that get shipped in could easily be produced in the fertile lands of Honduras, but the fertile lands are owned by wealthy Hondurans and foreigners who produce bananas, pineapple, African palm trees, etc., for export to northern markets. Once the emergency foods arrive, the poor won't be hungry, until they run out of emergency foods, and then they will be hungry again. [elHeraldo, 00-03-21, p.20]

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Them Injuns Done It
Every year, tourists flock to the Copan Mayan "ruins" to marvel at the ancient Mayan civilization. In mid-March, four Chorti-Mayan men - not archaeological objects -- were murdered by gunmen who work for local landowner, Juan Angel Cuevas. The Cuevas family has an ongoing dispute with the Chorti people who claim historical ownership of 84 manzanas of land in the community of Monte Los Negros. The Public Ministry assures all that a full investigation will be carried out and justice done.

In 1995, men in the hire of the Cuevas family torched some Chorti huts. A one year-old baby - Ismael Ramirez Leon - burnt to death. Authorities mediated a "solution" whereby the Cuevas family was to give the Chorti families 5 manzanas of land, which never happened. In 1997, the Cuevas family -- it is suspected -- murdered Chorti leader Candido Amador, from the Monte Los Negros community.

Sergio Tabora Castillo of the National Department of Criminal Investigation fears that there will be more problems "because the Chortis are armed." [LaTribuna, 00-03-14, .87]

Right to Health
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have made it clear that "if Honduras wants to attract international investment," changes are needed in the health system. The IHSS (Honduran Institute of Social Security) has given orders to suspend lab examinations and X-rays; there are only 15 days of medicine in storage; 80% of the equipment is old or in bad condition. The changes that the World Bank and IMF are demanding are to "privatize" certain areas of the IHSS. … Right to health? Not if you can't afford it. [elHeraldo, 00-03-21, 03-22, p18, p2]

Ghosts in the Machine
A "development" organization reserves a room for me in a swank hotel in hot Choluteca, near the Nicaraguan border, near the Golfo de Fonseca. Organizations working to eliminate poverty provide aire condicionado and other delights for their consultants. Who else has sat by this pool?

In the early 80s, the La Fuente hotel was officially not full of CIA agents and US military officers, officially not meeting with Salvadoran military and Nicaraguan Contra counterparts, smoking Cubans cigars, drinking Cuba Libres, denouncing Fidel Castro, doling out dollar bills and torture manuals. Honduran soldiers guarded the door, while officers sat at the next table, cigars and rum, not hearing: "There are no Contras in Honduras, and the US is certainly not here supporting them." Young women frequented La Fuente in those days of "business", knives and pleasure - jobs galore to help the local economy.

Shortly thereafter, La Fuente filled with United Nations officials and international "aid" givers; buckets, blankets, shovels, food and medicine for camps full of refugees fleeing the repression of the Salvadoran military, caused by the likes of 'those men, sitting just over there'. Hundreds of thousands of people filled refugee camps, miserable but livable places, close, but far away from La Fuente where aid officials would come to commiserate, send off daily briefings, wipe the dirt and sweat from their eyes, jump in the pool and have a drink or two.

After the US's Cold War ended, the CIA schemers and international redeemers went home. Slow times for La Fuente, … until Hurricane Mitch. La Fuente was back in business, again filled with officials from the international development industry, visiting washed out communities and mudslide mountains in the day, gathering by the pool at night to share tales of lost lives and crushed communities, email reports of poverty and pandemonium, and finish it off with a few Cuba Libres and cigarettes. No young women or Cuban cigars this time round, but still lots of business.

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