The online newspaper Proceso Digital is reporting today that members of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) on Sunday night allegedly burned down a Proheco school in the village of Santa Rosita, near the municipality of San Francisco (Lempira). No one was in the school at the time, and there were no claims of anyone being killed or injured. According to an account by the mayor of Santa Rosita, Elmer Noel Molina, individuals associated with Copinh used desks and books to start the fire. No motives have been given for the incident, and details of what occurred remain sketchy. A second Proheco school is also believed to have been burned by members of Copinh in the department of Lempira. Copinh is one of many groups affiliated with the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP). It is made up of indigenous Lenca peoples from the departments of Intibucá, La Paz, Lempira, and Santa Bárbara. One of its primary aims is to legalize the ownership for the Lencas of ancestral lands and promote social and economic development managed by their communities. Proheco is a community-based education project administered by Honduras' Ministry of Education. (3/10/11)

We are witnessing two extremes -- teachers marching and demonstrating, while the youth of our nation sinks further into ignorance. It is a desperate situation that provokes much sadness within us.

By Billy Peña
While the military is patrolling the streets of Honduran cities to provide additional security in light of the continuing crime wave in the country, many of our classrooms are empty. What a sad irony this is. I wonder what they must think of us in Costa Rica, where education has always received top priority? Honduran teachers take to the streets and strike in protest against the financial anarchy within Inprema -- the institution entrusted to manage their retirement benefits. Both retired and active teachers have good reason to be concerned and angry, given all the years that they have worked and allowed a portion of their pay to automatically be deducted from their pay each month by Inprema. They cheerfully agreed to the deductions, even though the amounts deducted generated no interest for them, because the teachers believed that their money would at least be secure, and because many teachers received loans from Inprema that allowed them to purchase their homes. Inprema served as a financial support system for many teachers.

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... the US must consider that its military presence in any conflict area has the likely potential to make matters worse, rather than better -- that it may contaminate and transform the conflict into one in which the US quickly becomes seen as the aggressor...

By Marco Cáceres
One of the worst things the United States can do with regard to Libya is enforce a no-fly zone. Forget about the fact that the US is still involved in two major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is using CIA drones to launch missiles against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistan -- attacks that have killed more than 2,000 civilians in the past five years and have enraged the Pakistani people against the US. Forget that the US military is engaging more in Mexico and Central America to combat illegal drug trafficking from South America. Forget that the US government will have a whopping budget deficit in 2011 of US$1.6 trillion. Forget that the US national debt currently stands at more than US$14.1 trillion, which is larger than the economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined. Forget that the US Congress is forced to increase the debt ceiling every year in order to borrow evermore cash from China -- the country that has fast become the US' main economic rival and will eventually challenge the US militarily.

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President Porfirio Lobo on Monday created within the Council of Ministers a Coordinating Commission for the Special Development Regions (CORED) tasked with carrying out the establishment of the first "model cities" in Honduras. President Lobo's Chief of Staff, Octavio Sánchez, said that the commission will consist of five individuals appointed by Mr. Lobo for a period of five years. The CORED's first responsibility will be to identify the areas in the country best suited for these semi-autonomous regions. The Honduran government has proposed four sites for "charter cities", including near the city of Trujillo, the towns of Amapala and Ocotepque, and the Agalta Valley. It has recommended that the first of these cities be allocated 1,000 square kilometers of land. Additionally,the CORED would be responsible for developing a trust to oversee the management of the land and financial resources, as well as writing a constitutional statute to regulate that organization and the administration of the charter cities.

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In March 2009, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi named a new 11,000-seat soccer stadium in the Libyan town of Baninah (east of Benghazi) after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez "in recognition of his revolutionary program in Venezuela and his role in the future of South America". The act was symbolic of the close friendship between Col. Qaddafi and and President Chávez, who was the recipient of the al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights in 2004 for battling against "the effects of imperialism and the enemies of freedom inside and outside" Venezuela. Mr. Chávez reciprocated with a gesture of his own in September 2009 when he presented Mr. Qaddafi with a replica of Simón Bolívar's sword, inlaid with precious stones. He called Mr. Qaddafi "one of the greatest leaders of the 20th and 21st centuries in the struggle against imperialism". The award of the sword of the "Liberator" was established in honor of South America's 19th century hero of the national liberation struggle against Spain. It is Venezuela's highest honor. On Monday, the Libyan National Council, representing the pro-democracy rebels in that country, changed the name of the arena from “Hugo Chávez Football Stadium” to “February Martyrs Stadium”. The change was made at the request of the local population. (3/9/11) (photo of the former Hugo Chávez Football Stadium courtesy Internet)

There is a great difference between Liberals and Nationalists. The latter are those who on a weekly basis increase the price of gasoline -- the ones who waste the nation's money, while the hospitals remain without medicines and the schools lose their lunch programs.

-Yani Rosenthal

Yani Rosenthal, who served as Minister of the Presidency under the administration of President Manuel Zelaya, continues to tour Honduras to listen to public opinion and gauge support for his candidacy for President of Honduras. Mr. Rosenthal has been the most active and visible pre-candidate within the Liberal Party, traveling widely in Honduras during the past few months to convey the message that he is the person most able to unify the party. Mr. Rosenthal on Friday spoke at the College of Lawyers in San Pedro Sula and stressed that one of his main priorities is to convince the leadership of the Liberal Party to move up by a year its internal election primaries in order to gain a head start on the incumbent Nationalist Party. Speaking as if he were already in campaign mode, Mr. Rosenthal said, "There is a great difference between Liberals and Nationalists. The latter are those who on a weekly basis increase the price of gasoline -- the ones who waste the nation's money, while the hospitals remain without medicines and the schools lose their lunch programs."

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There is growing bipartisan support in the United States Congress for enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent attacks against pro-democracy rebels by Libyan government warplanes. In a counter-offensive against rebels during the past week, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi ordered airstrikes against the oil port of Brega and the oil refinery in the city of Ras Lanuf. Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and John McCain (R-AZ) are among the Congressional leaders pushing President Barack Obama to consider US military operations in Libya. Asked if Col. Qaddafi knew his time had come, Senator McCain responded, "he's insane," but that may be a no-fly zone would inspire some of the people around him to "depart the sinking ship". The Obama administration has been reluctant to the idea for fear of involving the US in what is quickly evolving into a civil war in Libya. The US is already engaged in two distant wars in Muslim nations, with 150,000 troops continuing to battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Pentagon under pressure to reduce spending in light of growing budget deficits and an out of control national debt.

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Mr. Zelaya is not all that different from Muammar Qaddafi, who still believes that his people love him and would die to protect him, even though practically all of Libya has risen up against the delusional Colonel.

By Marco Cáceres
Judge Óscar Chinchilla has been appointed to oversee the Public Ministry's legal case against former President Manuel Zelaya regarding a series of criminal charges of corruption for the embezzlement and outright theft of Lps 57 million. One of the first tasks of Judge Chinchilla will be to decide whether to consider the request by President Porfirio Lobo to annul the charges, so that Mr. Zelaya would no longer have any excuse to avoid returning to Honduras. President Lobo has consistently sought to encourage Mr. Zelaya to end his self-imposed exile in the Dominican Republic by promising that he would not be prosecuted or imprisoned. The primary reason for Mr. Lobo's advocacy on behalf of Mr. Zelaya is that the Organization of American States (OAS) is reluctant to lift Honduras' suspension from that body until Mr. Zelaya is brought back from exile and fully welcomed into Honduran society, safely and without any threat of persecution. In other words, so long as Mr. Zelaya remains outside of Honduras, Honduras will remain outside of the OAS.

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The churches lost the moral authority to talk about forgetting and forgiving, as their hands are stained with the blood of Hondurans murdered as a result of the coup d'état.

-Juan Barahona, FNRP

In his sermon yesterday, Bishop Juan José Pineda of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa called on the people of Honduras to avoid hypocrisy in their relations with each other. He said, "If we are not capable of building a community of fraternal relations and a just and humane society, then we would be hyprocrites." He added, "If we spend our lives saying 'I do not steal, I do not kill, I do not smoke, or I do not drink', and we omit 'I love my neighbor, I forgive my neighbor, I serve my neighbor, I extend my hand in solidarity', the it would be a very hypocritical life -- from both a human and Christian standpoint -- simply to say 'I do not do this'". He stressed that "the Christian life is not only about prayer or repeating a few simple words". Mr. Pineda's sermon seeks to address the divisions within Honduran society that have grown more acute since the political crisis generated by the overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, emphasizing forgiveness and reconciliation.

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A new book about Abraham Lincoln, based on recently uncovered documents by authors Philip Magness and Sebastian Page found at the British National Archives near London and in the US National Archives in Washington, DC, is stirring renewed controversy about the racial views and legacy of the 16th President of the United States. The book, "Colonization After Emancipation", contains comments made by President Lincoln in 1862 urging free black men and women to leave the US and settle in Central America. "For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people," said Mr. Lincoln, promoting the idea of resettling blacks in foreign countries. According to the book, Mr. Lincoln said that free blacks who wanted to live permanently in the US were being "selfish", and he promoted Central America as an ideal area for them to colonize "especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land -- thus being suited to your physical condition". The fifth US president, James Monroe, also supported the idea of resettlement of free blacks. In 1821-1822, thousands of former US slaves resettled in Africa and founded the nation of Liberia. (3/6/11) (photo of Abraham Lincoln courtesy Internet)

Honduran Minister of Education Alejandro Ventura announced yesterday in a radio broadcast that he has a list of 25,000 unemployed teachers who, sooner or later, may be hired to replace teachers who insist on remaining on strike. He said that he has been instructed by President Porfirio Lobo to "contract another teacher whenever there is one who does not wish to conduct classes because he or she is on strike". Minister Ventura expressed his concern that the new school year is barely a month old and already some public schools have missed two weeks of classes, but that it is important to "clarify that the majority of the teachers do not observe the strikes". He said that there is no reason for the strikes because the government is paying the salaries that it owes to some of the teachers. He reiterated that "the striking teachers will be substituted by teachers who do wish to work". (3/6/11)

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington, DC today that the US government is ready to provide additional funds to the nations of Central America to combat organized crime and illegal drug trafficking. While Secretary Clinton did not specify a dollar amount, she noted that it was a "substantial" sum. She also pointed out that equally important to US monetary assistance is training and the strengthening of the region's governing institutions. "Our experience indicates that dollars alone are not enough," said Mrs. Clinton. The Obama administration submitted its proposed fiscal year 2012 US national budget to Congress last month. The document contains US$100 million for the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI). A recently released annual report by the US State Department regarding international drug trafficking cited Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, and Guatemala as principal trafficking routes. (3/4/11) (photo of Hillary Clinton courtesy Internet)