#  Reflections on Human Rights in Honduras After the Coup 

 





March 15, 2010

 

 

*For a week in late January 2010, five Harvard Divinity School students witnessed firsthand the impact of human rights abuses suffered by many Hondurans after the 2009 coup, in which the former Honduran president, Manuel Zelya, was ousted by the country's military.*

*Karen Bray, Tiffany Curtis, Garrett Fitzgerald, Julie Rogers, and Marianne Tierney traveled to Honduras with human rights experts and met local leaders to examine and discuss the fragile situation surrounding the ongoing Honduran constitutional crisis.*

*Monica Maher, former HDS lecturer and current research fellow at the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, organized the trip and led a discussion of the group's findings at an informal presentation in February, held at Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS).*

*Below, master of divinity candidate Marianne Tierney discusses the importance of the trip, what she and her fellow participants faced while there, and how the experience has affected her.*

Each one of us who went was significantly impacted by this trip. When we came back to school and people asked, "How was your trip?" it was really difficult to put into words. I started saying things like, "It was incredible, rejuvenating, inspiring, heartbreaking, intellectually stimulating, exhausting, depressing, amazing." Ultimately, it was an extremely powerful experience.

The trip was not an official J-term course (there was no course credit obtained); it was more of a pilot program to see how something like this would go in the future. It was structured and organized by Monica Maher and the Harvard University Committee for Human Rights Studies (HUCHRS). Monica is a fellow this year with the HUCHRS, after having taught at the Divinity School for two years as part of the WSRP and then as the Lentz Memorial Lecturer. She thought this trip would be a great opportunity to bring a group of students to do some research about the human rights situation.

Honduras is in the middle of a crisis period regarding human rights, and it happens to be where Monica has spent a lot of time and has a plethora of contacts. When she talked to people at HUCHRS about the trip and saw that there was student interest in going, she applied for funding, which was approved. DRCLAS grant money paid for our plane tickets and housing while we were there, which included breakfasts and dinner, the van we drove around in, etc. We brought our own money for lunches, souvenirs, Internet café use, and other little things.

In planning the trip and doing preparatory work, we also had a few Harvard undergrads working with us. We had been meeting since around early October to prepare for the trip, reading articles, talking about our research interests, going over logistics, and learning about the situation there. Two freshmen were all set to come with us, but because of a travel advisory warning issued by the U.S. Department of State, they ended up not coming with us.

On the trip, we had several objectives, which we had all agreed upon. We had academic objectives that included five points—for example, "test a model for J-term human rights study opportunity" and "meet with prominent academics for human rights analysis."

We also had six human rights objectives, such as: "establish vehicle for ongoing communication and support to advocates" and "meet with labor, women's religious, public health, and peasant rights leaders." And we had five group objectives, including "stimulate each others' thinking through interdisciplinary collaboration" and "define ethical framework for human rights work and engagement."

Unofficially, our purpose was to spend time with the people of Honduras and bear witness to the situation there. We were there to research and to show solidarity. We met with different groups every day and heard about the work that they do and how it has changed since the June 28, 2009, coup d'état. We went to a few communities in the northeastern corner of Honduras and met with different groups, people, and organizations.

One of the organizations we visited, Casa Corazon, an orphanage for HIV-positive children and children living with AIDS, is run by a group of Sisters of Mercy. The orphanage has a van that it uses to drive the children around, but we paid to use the van for the week and paid the driver to drive us to these different communities. We stayed at a retreat center in San Pedro Sula that Monica had stayed at many times before. They prepared our breakfasts and dinners.

When we were planning our itinerary for this trip, Monica developed a pretty substantial list of friends, contacts, and organizations she knows well and presented the list to us. From this, we all selected different organizations that we would be responsible for while we were in Honduras. Although we were all present for all the interviews, different people were "on point" for different organizations and made sure that we collected the interviews we needed for our research and our individual questions. This was helpful because these people all trusted Monica, and so trusted us. We also traveled with three parishioners from a church where Monica used to work.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch blasted San Pedro Sula and the northern coast of Honduras pretty significantly. Monica was working at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan, and she assembled a small group of parishioners to travel to Honduras to help with disaster relief. Since then, some of the parishioners have been extremely committed to some of these communities, and the parish as a whole has partnered with some of the places we visited.

It was wonderful for us to see how some of these relationships have made such a difference to individuals and communities. We met students who received scholarship money from the church, and we saw exam rooms at a clinic built with money the church sent down. The three parishioners who were there had previously been to these areas 6, 14, and 16 times, respectively. It was really helpful for us that these relationships were already established, because they allowed a level of trust that was really incredible.

In the wake of the June 28, 2009, coup d'état, Honduran people are no longer willing to remain voiceless. Those who are in opposition to the coup have formed coalitions, largely known collectively across the country as the resistance movement. The women and men (mostly women) that we met with are involved in the resistance in various ways, and it was inspiring and frightening to hear about some of what they have endured. Even though the coup government, or the "Golpistas" (those who supported the coup), is in power, the resistance is made up of citizens who refuse to be silenced.

Their lives are literally on the line, and they have friends and family members who have been tortured, beaten, or killed for their involvement with the movement, but the future of Honduras is so important to them that they are willing to continue on in the fight. They have hope in the future, and they want to be a part of crafting that future.

The resistance movement has a slogan that says: "They fear us because we don't fear them." But it was explained to us that, in fact, many of them are afraid; they are afraid of living under an oppressive regime where their rights are not recognized and they are seen as less than human. These people feel compelled to act as part of the future of Honduras.

We asked Sister of Mercy Sr. Masbely, "Are you involved with the resistance because you are a Sister of Mercy or a Catholic? Is that where this motivation comes from?" She answered, "No. It is because I am a Honduran."

People have a civic pride and they care about the political situation in a way they never had before. This kind of courage and conviction was incredibly inspiring for me and made me want to do anything I can to help this situation. It left me feeling that I want to be a part of making sure these people are not voiceless and that their fight has not been in vain.

It also scared me, because we heard many stories about people being pulled out of peaceful demonstrations and marches and being beaten. We heard stories of women being raped as an example to other women participating in the resistance and stories of students being killed for their efforts.

Those participating in the resistance are living under severe threat, and it made me scared for the people who opened their homes and their hearts to us. The fact that they were all willing to trust us and to share with us so candidly was largely a testament to Monica's continued relationships with many of these people, and it was incredibly humbling to hear these stories. It was a great privilege and I felt honored to be in the presence of these people, who fight for what they believe in every day, even under the harshest of conditions.

Our last morning in Honduras, we met briefly with two women who would be considered "Golpistas" by the others we were with. They are from the Honduran elite and they have a lot of money. They were happy former President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from office last June, since they felt his communist leanings were bringing down Honduras and he was associating himself too closely with Hugo Chavez.

They support the military and see the police who patrol the streets with guns as protectors rather than violent enforcers. They, too, are friends with Monica from the several years she has spent in Honduras. They wanted to meet us, but we did not discuss anything political with them. They really just wanted to say "thank you" to us for visiting. It was striking to me that even they think Honduras is in tough shape.

They said to us: "Please pray for Honduras. Please tell others to pray for Honduras." Their hope for Honduras is peace, and, hopefully, someday peace will reign in Honduras. The point is, no one is happy about the current situation in Honduras, and I feel an obligation to question the dominant view that everything has settled now that there is a new president. Whether free elections can take place under an illegitimate government is up for debate. Members of the resistance, and I, would say no.

Spending time with those in the resistance movement and hearing about how they live made me want to be involved in their struggle. I want to be able to communicate with them more effectively and to be a part of their fight.

I recognize the unbelievable privilege that I have as a student here at Harvard, and I want to be able to tell others about this struggle and to make sure it is an issue that is on people's radar. I would love to return to Honduras and further develop relationships with the wonderful people we met there and let them know that we all carry them in our hearts.

—by Marianne Tierney



 

 

 



 

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