Editorial

Hugo Chávez's Tasteless Stump

You have a pig's tail, a pig's ears, you snort like a pig, you're a low-life pig. You're a pig, don't try and hide it.
-Hugo Chávez

By Jerry Brewer
Incumbent President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is finally facing a formidable opponent in the presidential elections to be held in October of this year. As usual, when under pressure or perceived ridicule via his own ego he has failed to consider the consequences of his venomous tongue. Henrique Capriles Radonski easily won the opposition's presidential candidacy election on February 12, with two-thirds of the 3 million votes cast in the primary; 1,900,528 votes (64.2 percent) of the 3,059,024 votes cast. Capriles, 39, is a Venezuelan politician that served from 2000 until 2008 as mayor of Baruta Municipality of Caracas. In November 2008 Capriles was elected Governor of Miranda State.

Are We Earthlings So Special?

If you think of the Earth within the context of the universe(s), it is difficult to cling to any certainty you may have about the significance or uniqueness of our planet, and thus the degree of specialness we like to attribute to its inhabitants.

By Marco Cáceres
We humans live on a relatively small planet named Earth that is part of a solar system consisting of a medium-sized star that we call the Sun. Besides Earth, there are nine planets in our solar system. Our solar system is part of a galaxy that we call the Milky Way. Our galaxy consists of more than two hundred billion stars and their planets. There are more than a hundred billion galaxies in our expanding 156 billion-light years wide universe, which would suggest that there are trillions of stars, planets, and moons. Obviously, these numbers are only extremely rough estimates. We will never know exactly how many galaxies, stars, planets, and other celestial bodies there are in the universe.

Does It Really Matter Who Governs Honduras?

Honduras Weekly
There are many people who are ready to jump on every crisis that befalls Honduras and blame it on the current Honduran government, the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya, or the United States... or all three. The fires at the National Penetentiary in Comayagua last week and in the market area of Comayagüela yesterday are a good example of this overly simplistic view. Some in Honduras and in the US have sought to use these tragedies to promote their own narrow political agendas that favor an immediate and total revamping of the power structure in Honduras through some sort of popular uprising. These advocates of radical change are very good at criticizing and cynically pointing out all that is wrong in the country; everything that is bad can be attributed to a conspiracy by the government or the wealthy or the US. What they consistently fail to do is craft a thoughtful strategy for resolving the problems of Honduras that does not focus solely on "kicking the bums out" and "letting others rule", as if simply moving chairs around is the magical formula we have somehow neglected to consider.

The Pragmatism of Prison Reform in Honduras

Prisoners don't vote and prison reform projects don't provide immediate visible and tangible results that voters experience, so the problem moves way down the list for local politicians and foreign aid donors.

By James Bosworth
It is unfortunate that it takes a prison fire killing more than 300 people to raise awareness of the problems with Latin America's prison systems. Beyond this one terrible event, the general state of this hemisphere's prisons are a daily human rights tragedy. Honduras is among the worst of the region, with serious overcrowding, undertrained staff and conditions that you would not want to experience for even an hour, much less years on end. The broken prison system is part of the larger violent crime problem in Latin America. The region has incredibly high rates of impunity, with less than 10% of murders being solved in many countries. But even for those tried, convicted and sentenced, they go to prisons that don't function. In many cases, criminals run operations out of the prisons and exercise significant control within. Rehabilitation programs are largely unsuccessful. Prisons end up serving as training and recruiting grounds for gangs and criminal organizations, exacerbating rather than solving problems.

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Honduras Prison Fire: History Repeats Itself

In 2004, more than a hundred incarcerated gang members were also killed in a jail blaze, while in 2003, a fire in a nearby facility killed another seventy gang members. Prison riots, fires, and other deadly episodes have plagued the country dating back to 1994 when one particularly ghastly fire broke out in an overcrowded prison and took the lives of 103 inmates.

By Melissa Beale/Alex Gibson
When a horrific fire broke out in a Honduran prison on Tuesday night, the 350-plus inmates trapped in the blaze received what was tantamount to their de facto death sentences, well beyond what their original sentences might have been. While the blaze in this particular case seemed to be caused by a mattress purposely lit on fire, it was a catastrophe long in the waiting, and could have been just as well witnessed in scores of prisons throughout Honduras, or in the rest of Central America. The facility that went up in flames was located in the town of Comayagua, just north of the capital city of Tegucigalpa. According to numerous eye witnesses, the gruesome scene was pierced by screams from dozens of inmates who were trapped behind bars while security guards desperately fumbled in search of the keys. According to local firefighters, about a hundred prisoners burned to death or suffocated in their cells.

Honduras' Prisons: A Death Trap

The combination of old and poorly-designed structures, massive overcrowding, non-existent maintenance, horribly paid and trained guards, incompetent administrators, and relatively disinterested and inadequately-funded federal, departmental, and municipal governments all combine to make Honduras' jails and prisons virtual death traps.

By Marco Cáceres
No one should be surprised about the fire that killed 382 people at the National Penitentiary of Comayagua late on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. The surprise should be that such a tragedy does not happen more frequently in Honduras' 24 severely overcrowded prisons. Why would anyone expect that -- given the extreme poverty; endemic corruption and negligence; non-existent building and systems maintenance; and horrendous management and administration; and pervasive ineptitude that plagues Honduras -- the jails and prisons in the country would not be a microcosm of the society... magnified to the worst? Why would anyone reasonably assume that the basic human rights and needs of inmates in Honduras would be respected and ensured when those of more than two-thirds of the Honduran population are not? Outraged, yes. Surprised, no.

Comments (1)

Honduras' Prisons a Death Trap

The combination of old and poorly-designed structures, massive overcrowding, non-existent maintenance, horribly paid and trained guards, incompetent administrators, and relatively disinterested and inadequately-funded federal, departmental, and municipal governments all combine to make Honduras' jails and prisons virtual death traps.

By Marco Cáceres
No one should be surprised about the fire at killed 377 people at the National Penitentiary of Comayaguack late on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. The surprise should be that such a tragedy does not happen more frequently in Honduras' 24 severely overcrowded prisons. Why would anyone expect that -- given the extreme poverty; endemic corruption and negligence; non-existent building and systems maintenance; and horrendous management and administration; and pervasive ineptitude that plagues Honduras -- the jails and prisons in the country would not be a microcosm of the society... magnified to the worst? Why would anyone reasonably assume that the basic human rights and needs of inmates in Honduras would be respected and ensured when those of more than two-thirds of the Honduran population are not? Outraged, yes. Surprised, no.

The Squandering of Venezuela's Wealth

Separating fact from fiction, Hugo Chávez has done little in his past 13 years to further Venezuelan's expectations of much needed prosperity and at least a decent quality of life.

By Jerry Brewer
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez approaches his latest reelection possibility, his dominated official government press cadre has risen yet again to purport, "With a socialist-oriented program for the country, the president continues to maintain popular support with an approval rating of over 60 percent, according to recent polls." Moreover, "The survey showed that 59 percent of Venezuelans believe the Bolivarian Revolution has improved the country's economic and social situation." The obvious question is, what are the true poll "sources" and exactly what is the content validity?

Beloved Community vs Beloved Economy

So, here we are as a nation, caught between two American Dreams: Beloved Community and Beloved Economy. Here we are, torn between two pursuits -- a spiritual quality of life and a materialistic style of life.

By Brian McLaren
You know how synchronicities happen. It's not just the song you're listening to or the book you're reading, but what you're eating or who you're with or where you are when you do so. So I was re-reading Adam Hamilton's Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity recently, "synchronicitously" with a mistake and a holiday. The mistake had to do with some yearend giving back in December. We make it our practice to give away a minimum of a certain percent of our annual gross income each year, and so before December 31 we made sure to write several checks to some charitable organizations we care about, proportional to our estimated annual income. Last Friday, my wife realized she had overestimated my income by quite a bit, which meant we had given away "too much" money.

Mexican Drug Cartels: A Transnational Killing Machine

Many of these transnational criminal organizations (TCO) appear to own the police, the judiciary and the prison system. They have viciously murdered and tortured government officials, police officers, journalists and citizens. With their virtually limitless funds and unlimited access to weaponry, they clearly have the ability to destabilize an entire hemisphere.

By Jerry Brewer
The fact is that in recent times we have heard the terms "drug war, war on crime" and "war against terror" ad nauseam. A vernacular that often seems to move us into complacency and formulates naive opinions that this is simply political rhetoric or a tool for aspirants to political office. However, a prolonged law enforcement campaign as we are seeing throughout the Americas doesn't appear to measure up in factual detail to anything short of ongoing and imminent conflict. The enemy is a transnational and systematic killing machine. The enemy's focus is a superior armed and capable strategy that is based on violence and territorial acquisition. Too, it is a fluid epidemic that filters through much of Latin America. This corridor is a gateway for illegal migration, drugs and other contraband, with financing efforts and other brazen sources of revenue that include kidnapping and extortion, cargo threat, human trafficking for a myriad of reasons, robbery, and related violent acts against local societies and governments.