Unrest

On July 5th I set out on my first leg of the journey to Ahuas, a 14-hour bus ride from Guatemala City to La Ceiba, Honduras, was made longer by a protest blocking the Guatemala-Honduras border in La Florida, Chiquimula. The national union of campesinos, ACUS, created a blockade to urge the passage of the  Rural Development Law,  a bill that, much like the our Guatemala Radio Project's Community Media Law 4087, has been approved by congressional committee only to be book-shelved for an
endless number of months waiting to be brought to a vote. I patiently wait out the 3- hour delay, understanding their frustration and wished them good luck. In Guatemala, as in many countries, corporate interests push law after law through congress while the interests and rights of Indigenous peoples are systematically ignored. Honduras, I am to learn, unfortunately is no different.

After the military coup ousting center-left president Manuel Zelaya last year, Porfirio Lobo took office promising to 'normalize' foreign relations. One of his initiatives has been to sign a contract with the Chinese company Sinohydro for the construction of the long-protested Patuca III Dam along the Patuca River. Local populations have been successful in holding off this project in its various incarnations for over a decade. But now, SinoHydro, infamous for its disastrous construction of the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river in China, is on board. As Norvin Goff, president of MASTA, commented, "the current government is obsessed with bringing external investments into the country.". And they are doing so without regard for proper environmental studies nor for the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent before any projects are built in their territories..


Finally, I'm ready to board a small plane from La Ceiba to Puerto Lempira, with plans to switch to an even smaller 5 passenger plane to get to Ahuas. At the landing strip in Puerto Lempira I'm surprised to find a notable military presence. I've already gone through customs, but upon arrival in Lempira men in army fatigues take my passport, write down my information, What am I doing here? Who do I represent? What are my interests in this region? I feel like asking them the same questions.