Pepe's Not Superman

Mr. Lobo clearly campaigned on the promise of national reconciliation, which made sense in light of how fractionalized Honduras had become following Mr. Zelaya's ousting and all the animosity Hondurans felt toward each other. Trying to unite Honduras and get people to at least start talking to each other so as to minimize the possibility of insurrection has been no small challenge...

By Marco Cáceres
One of the main criticisms of President Porfirio Lobo is that he has done too little too late to combat crime, violence, and narcotrafficking in Honduras. President Lobo is also being widely attacked for not acting quicker and more forcefully in dealing with corruption within the National Police and its ties to organized crime syndicates and foreign drug cartels. It seems that Pepe can do no right by anyone, and by many estimates his presidency may go down as a failure. This may not be fair, given he inherited an angry and unstable nation that had experienced the overthrow of an inept and divisive president just six months prior, had been condemned and ostracized by the international community, and was peeking at the early signs of a popular revolt. But ultimately Mr. Lobo is responsible for the job he took on and the current state of the country, regardless of whether or not he created the mess -- much in the same way it is for Barack Obama in the United States.

President Obama did not plunge his country into two full-fledged wars and finance them through massive debt spending. Nor did he lead his country into the worst financial crisis and economic decline since the Great Depression by implementing dubious, shortsighted fiscal policies and ignoring the enormous greed, corruption and manipulation on Wall Street which has fueled the dismantling of the middle class. Neither did he destroy his country's image and reputation around the world by trashing international law -- casually violating national borders and bombing at will, unilaterally opting out of human rights treaties, and torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. He did not neglect his country's domestic needs for nearly a decade, including its public education system, its healthcare crisis, and its infrastructure of roads, highways and bridges. Yet Mr. Obama has had to accept ownership of the utter disaster with which he was entrusted by his predecessor, and he has to take the heat for not tidying up the mess more quickly and more neatly.

Mr. Lobo clearly campaigned on the promise of national reconciliation, which made sense in light of how fractionalized Honduras had become following Mr. Zelaya's ousting and all the animosity Hondurans felt toward each other. Trying to unite Honduras and get people to at least start talking to each other so as to minimize the possibility of insurrection has been no small challenge, and that is a large part of what Mr. Lobo has focused on during the first half of his term in office. The other large part has been re-establishing good relations with the many countries and organizations that broke off diplomatic and trade ties with Honduras after the Zelaya affair. Again, no small feat.

Mr. Lobo did not foresee the kind of threats Honduras is now facing from organized crime and drug cartels, funded by US consumers and equipped by US arms dealers -- even though he probably should have since the seriousness of the threats was already apparent early in the Zelaya administration. He vastly underestimated the professionalism of the National Police and overestimated the capabilities of the Armed Forces. He was too preoccupied with keeping a lid on the resistance movement by working with opposition leaders, placating Mel to keep him from stirring things up too much, restoring Honduras' place in regional and international institutions, attracting aid and credit, and developing strategies to reform the education system and encourage foreign investment.

By normal standards, Mr. Lobo has accomplished a fair amount in only two years. By normal standards (ending a major war and winding down another, eliminating Osama bin Laden, helping get rid of Qaddafi, saving the automobile industry, stabilizing the financial sector, restoring good relations with many countries, and gradually improving the jobs outlook and confidence in the stock market), Mr. Obama has not done horribly in his three. (1/28/12) (photo of Porfirio Lobo courtesy Internet)

Note: The author is the editor and cofounder of Honduras Weekly. He is also the cofounder of projecthonduras.com, an international network of volunteers involved in humanitarian development projects aimed at empowering the people of Honduras. He directs the annual Conference on Honduras in the town of Copán Ruinas in northwestern Honduras. He was born in Tegucigalpa.