Jeff Abbott
Honduras protest
A woman protests the administration of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández outside the country's congress on February 6, 2018.
June 28, 2019, marks the 10th anniversary of a coup d’etát against the democratically elected government of President Manuel Zelaya. The subsequent decade has seen the country descend into a near-constant state of crisis.
“The coup d’état is the root of the political and social conflicts and the lack of hope and subsequent migration,” Hugo Noé Pino, an economist and the Minister of Finance during the Zelaya administration, tells The Progressive. “The public politics [following the coup] do not respond to the aspirations or the necessities of the population.”
The 2009 coup was widely denounced across the hemisphere, and Honduras was barred from participating in the Organization of the American States. But the post-coup regime found an ally in U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who pushed for new elections, rather than the return of the ousted democratically elected Zelaya who she considered a leftist trouble-maker. On the ground, citizen mobilizations in protest of the coup, were met with widespread violence, including the murders of at least eighteen people in the six months that followed.
“The coup d’état is the root of the political and social conflicts and the lack of hope and subsequent migration.”
The far-right, led by the National Party, has maintained power ever since. While Zelaya returned to the country in 2011, his presence and return to politics have done little to diminish the power of the far-right ruling party
The administration of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who was inaugurated in January 2010 following the coup, promoted private investment in the country, austerity measures, and the expansion of the military’s presence in all aspects of life. These efforts were expanded on following the election of Juan Orlando Hernández in 2013. Hernández formed a new Military Police unit found to be responsible for rampant human rights violations.
These policies have done little to improve the lives of Hondurans, says Pino. The coup created a fiscal crisis, he observes, which contributed to the approval of austerity measures that cut social spending in key social services, especially health care and education.
Gang violence expanded, leading Honduras to being considered one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. While violence has decreased in recent years as a result of anti-gang operations by the police and military, gangs continue to control neighborhoods.
Yet the situation has grown worse with drug cartels gaining influence in the government. The United States has brought drug trafficking charges against both the brother of the current President Hernández as well as the son of former President Lobo, who has been sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.
In Honduras, a culture of impunity and corruption reigns.
The re-election of Hernández in 2017 marked the solidification of the post-coup regime. According to the Honduran constitution, the re-election was illegal, but this did not stop the president from running again and winning in an election plagued by accusations of fraud.
The administration has already received complaints of corruption as it has further decreased public spending in the health care and education systems. According to Bloomberg, Honduras contributes little to public health care, creating further crises for the country’s citizens.
Hernández’s decrees have been met with widespread protests as families struggle to survive. On June 20, the administration announced the deployment of soldiers to suppress further protests against his neoliberal reforms. Subsequent clashes between protesters and the military have led to several deaths and injuries. On June 25, soldiers invaded the Autonomous National University of Honduras and opened fire on protesting students, injuring four.
“The coup opened the door to the debilitation of the constitutionality of the state,” Pino says. “There were advances made in the democratic period since 1980, but these were destroyed by the coup. We have retrased to arrive at a place of economic and social crisis.”
Jeff Abbott
Honduran citizens in the neighborhood of Villanueva in Tegucigalpa face off with soldiers during a protest on December 15, 2017 against the re-election of Juan Orlando Hernández.
The deterioration of living conditions in Honduras has driven thousands to flee the country in search of a better future.
According to data from United States Customs and Border Protection, the number of Hondurans captured along the border was falling in the lead-up to the 2009 coup d’état. In fact, in fiscal year 2008, only 19,351 Hondurans were captured along the border, representing only 2.7 percent of the total number apprehended from Mexico and Central America.
The number of migrants has steadily risen over the past decade, culminating in 2018 and 2019 with caravans of Honduran migrants seeking to reach the United States. According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, in the second term of current President Juan Orlando Hernández, apprehension of Honduran migrants increased from 39,429 in fiscal year 2018 to 129,186 in fiscal year 2019.
“We have no work, there is no security, and the president is only making himself wealthy.”
Among those was Elson Espinal, who fled his home town of Tela in order to pay for medical attention for his 4-year-old daughter, Zoy, who suffers from pediatric hydrocephalus, or “water on the brain.” If not treated the condition can lead to permanent disability and even death.
“We want a better life,” Espinal told The Progressive as he walked down the highway leaving Esquipulas, Guatemala, during the second caravan of Hondurans to leave the country in October 2018. “We have no work, there is no security, and the president is only making himself wealthy. I want my daughter to have a better life, I want her to walk. We do not have the opportunity in our country for her to receive the attention she needs.”
It is not known if Espinal and his daughter managed to arrive to the United States or if they were detained in centers along the border and now await a decision regarding their request for asylum.
The situation in Honduras remains bleak. Even as the governments of both Mexico and the United States increasingly militarize their borders under pressure from the Trump Administration, the realities of the situation created by the 2009 coup in Honduras continue to push people from the region.