After experiencing the communist taking over Nicaragua in 1979 and after seeing them defeated in 1990, I never imagined that socialism would be returning to Central America.
Honduras is a country that I love and this is where I have spent most of my life. Honduras as always been a friend to the United States and even when the Iraq war started, Honduras sent troops to help. Now, the liberal party has taken over and Honduras has joined a new group started by Hugo Chavez called ALBA. This group was promoted to the people in Honduras as a social organization that would use part of the earnings of the oil revenues from Venezuela to help the poor. Some people bought into these lies. El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama would not have anything to do with it but Honduras, Nicaragua joined.
The first thing that happened was, a rally was held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. I was about two miles from the rally and their were so many buses parked that you could not even drive on the roads. The Honduran government had brought in over 100,000 people for this rally. What they did not want any one to know was that they paid every person $27 dollars for assisting the rally so you can imagine how many poor people were there.
Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and Mel Zelaya which is the President of Honduras, spent two hours calling the United States every vulgar word you can imagine. It made me sick at my stomach as I watched this on TV. Why did I watch this? Believe me, I live in a third world country and I need to know what is going on.
The next event that happened was a solidarity move. The president of Bolivia, which is part of ALBA, kicked out the U.S. ambassador from Bolivia. Hugo Chavez followed by doing the same. The U.S. embassy was in a transition with the ambassador and when the new ambassador came to Honduras to take his post, the Honduras government did not accept his credentials. This means that Honduras would not recognize him as the ambassador. When the president of Honduras was asked about this, he used the word solidarity. He said that he was showing solidarity with his brothers, the president of Venezuela and Bolivia. I think I left out that CUBA is also part of ALBA.
Here is the good news. Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has a popularity rating of only 24%. Mel Zelaya of Honduras has a popularity rating of less than 20%. This means that in a couple of years, their party will definitely lose the elections.
Let's just hope and pray and in the next couple of years, nothing really bad happens.
Philip
