US Ambassador to Honduras meeting

A few friends of mine are meeting with the US Ambassador to Honduras tomorrow. Another friend of mine a Honduran who went to school in the states and I had the pleasure of working with took this opportunity to present this message to the delegation going to meet with the Ambassador. I thought her email and the attached testimonial were so good they should be shared with everyone possible.

I noticed Mitch's comment on facebook about a meeting with Llorens tomorrow. As you all know, I'm very worried about the current situation and am finding it very hard to believe that we still have a very anemic international backing regarding the ousting of Zelaya. I´m sending this note to you all because I will never have the opportunity to meet Mr. Llorens, and if I did, this is what I´d bring up. But these are just my two cents-take them or leave them. :)

I found a transcript of Llorens´s written testimony before the US Foreign Relations Committee which I´ve attached for your review. I´ve taken the liberty of highlighting very relevant portions of his "objectives" while serving as Embassador in Honduras. The most important thing to mention right now is the link between Zelaya and Chavez and the drug trafficking which we all know was happening. It´s no coincidence that ever since Zelaya signed the ALBA most of the narcoavionetas that came to Honduras were from Venezuela, and also, since Zelaya was ousted, there have been no narcoavionetas coming in.

Llorens mentions that one of his key objectives in Honduras was to "...support..common efforts to dismantle narcotics organizations." I find it hard to believe that this guy is still pushing for Zelaya´s return when:
1. The US Congress names Venezuela and Chavez directly for becoming a major drug trafficking hub in Latin America.
2. Drug trafficking in Honduras has systematically grown since Zelaya has been in power and has established close ties with Venezuela and Chavez.
3. One of the criminal investigations going on against Zelaya is that he accepted funding from Venezuela to carry out a lot of his political campaigns.

Additionally, Llorens states that another of his objectives while serving in Honduras is to "ensure that the fight against lawlessness and impunity is done in full adherence to the law and respect for individual human rights." If so, why does Llorens continue to back Zelaya and his ministros when they have all been charged with performing or aiding in illegal and corrupt activities? Every single person representing Zelaya in Costa Rica has a judicial warrant for their arrest AND have all been tied to mishandling of government funds and possibly accepting monies from Venezuela (Enrique Flores Lanza, Rixi Moncada, Patricia Rodas, Milton Jiménez, Arístides Mejía, Mel himself, etc.). Additionally, why is so much importance placed on what everyone OUTSIDE of Honduras is saying about this situation, when the clear fact is that more that 70% of the people living IN HONDURAS support the ousting?!?!?! I guess what I´m trying to say is that I would assume that the people living in Honduras who have lived through Zelaya´s corrupt gov´t. and who are more than happy to see him go should have more of a say-so in what happens here than those who don´t live it, breathe it, and have to deal with it on a day to day basis.

Regarding international aid - most of it was cut off or put on hold because of Zelaya´s blatant disregard for the law and his repetitive attacks against it. As you all remember, earlier this year Sweden pulled all its aid programs from Honduras, the Millennium Account, specifically the ERP funds - Estrategia para la Reducción de la Pobreza were put on hold because of questionable uses by Zelaya´s government of money disbursed. Remind Mr. Llorens that if it looks like a cow, sounds like a cow and smells like a cow...it probably is.

It´s hard for me to believe that Llorens is backing Zelaya after everything he´s seen firsthand:
-Zelaya not accepting Llorens´s credentials off the bat.
-Spewing of anti-American sentiment by Zelaya and Chavez during an event sponsored by the Honduran State.
-Innumerable acts of corruption in Zelaya´s government
-Increase in unemployment rates due to the highly questionable decision of the Salario Minimo
-Public defiance of the other branches of government
-Outright calls to violence and insurrection made by Zelaya and his followers
-Questionable alliances with Chavez and the ALBA crew
-Almost constant state of chaos because of Zelaya promising people things which he couldn´t give them (the maestros, the taxistas, enfermeras, etc.)

and so many more.

I hope the meeting goes well and you guys can at least try to talk some sense into Mr. Llorens.

Saludos,

Marcia

Here is the testimony she elluded to

HUGO LLORENS
OPENING WRITTEN TESTIMONY
US SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
CONFIRMATION HEARING
April 16, 2008

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lugar, Senators… I am 
truly honored to appear before you as President Bush’s 
nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras. I am
deeply grateful for the trust and confidence President Bush
and Secretary Rice have placed in me. If confirmed, I look
forward to working with the members of this Committee
and the Congress as appropriate to advance U.S. interests in
Honduras.

I would like to take a moment, Mr. Chairman, to
acknowledge my wife Lisett. She has been my life partner
for 25 years and a dedicated representative of our country
in seven overseas postings. My son, Andrew, a student at
Loyola University in New Orleans, and Dirk, who is living
with us in Madrid, could not be here today. I consider
myself fortunate to have my family’s constant love and
support.

I came to this great nation with my family 46 years ago as a
7 year old Cuban refugee. We arrived with a suitcase in
hand and a buffalo nickel in our pocket, but knew we were
richly blessed by America’s freedoms.  We worked hard 
and had an unquenchable faith in America as the land
where dreams come true. It is difficult to convey in words
how proud I am to have been given an opportunity to serve

my adopted land these many years and what a profoundly
humbling experience it is to be in the presence of this
Committee today.

I have been a career Foreign Service Officer for 27 years. I
am a Latin America hand by trade having served in
challenging assignments in Bolivia, Paraguay, El Salvador
Honduras, and most recently as DCM in Argentina. In the
four years I served in Honduras, I traveled the length and
breadth of the country and I know the land and its people.
I’ve had the privilege of working Latin America issues in
Washington at State and the NSC. In my current posting as
DCM in Madrid I am well grounded on European
perspectives on Latin America and our Embassy cooperates
on these issues with our Spanish counterparts. If
confirmed, I will bring both the regional and executive
experience to lead our diplomatic team in Honduras.

If I am confirmed, a top priority will be the security of the
7,000 Americans residents in Honduras and the 60,000 who
travel to the country each year. This begins with the safety
of our Embassy staff and their families and the service men
and women who work with our Honduran hosts at the Soto
Cano air base.


Honduras has been a faithful and longstanding friend of the
United States. This year, Honduras will celebrate its 28th
year of unbroken civilian and constitutional rule and will
hold elections for a new President in November 2009. The
U.S. mission I hope to lead will work closely with the

current and future government in a spirit of friendship,
cooperation and respect.

Our hemispheric policy is based on consolidating
democracy, promoting prosperity, investing in people and
protecting the security of the democratic state. Our key
issues in Honduras include the rule of law and good
governance, regional security, and economic development.

If confirmed, I will support our common efforts to
dismantle narcotics and human trafficking organizations. I
will work to increase economic opportunities and enable
democracy to address the dramatic social obstacles
Honduras faces, especially poverty and marginalization that
contribute to insecurity. Criminal organizations and gangs
threaten our neighbors and it is in our national interest to
strengthen the capabilities of the Honduran police and
security forces. If approved, the Merida Initiative will be a
multifaceted tool to partner with our Central American
allies to build a regional strategy against crime and
terrorism. In addition, I will support Honduran initiatives
to revitalize the judicial system and ensure that the fight
against lawlessness and impunity is done in full adherence
to the law and respect for individual human rights.

3
If confirmed, I will support Honduran efforts to take full
advantage of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s 
compact signed in 2005 that provides $215 million for
building roads, as well as promoting rural development. I
also will seek to deepen the two-way trade and investment
flows derived from the CAFTA-DR. We have a solid
record of programs with the Honduran people thanks to the
work of USAID and the Peace Corps, which has one of the
largest programs in the world in Honduras. We also have
many public-private partnerships with U.S. organizations. I
will vigorously support these programs and all efforts to
deepen our engagement with the Government and people of
Honduras.

I would also encourage Committee members and staff to
visit Honduras. When U.S. Senators and staff travel
overseas, we are given an enormous opportunity to advance
our bipartisan agenda with our democratic partners. If
confirmed, I will look forward to welcoming the members
of this Committee and other Senators and Congresspersons
to Tegucigalpa.

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you again
for granting me the honor of appearing before you today
and respectfully ask for your favorable consideration of my
nomination. I pledge to you that I will work hard and to the
best of my ability in Honduras to represent our great nation.

Thank you very much.

2 steps forward 1 step back

The title is how we feel sometimes here trying to get things done on our little island in the sun. When we got back from vacation we noticed our TV reception was not what it once was and so we started trouble shooting. First thing I did was get the trees around the SAT dish trimmed but that did not help.

The 2nd choice was to call Paradise Computers and ask them to come out and get the dish re-aligned and see if the LNB was still ok. On Thursday they showed up to do this and then called me at my office to say that they go the dish re-aligned and that the LNB was still good but for some reason my DVR player was now not working in the living room.

Well anyone that knows me knows how much I love TV and I had a bunch of shows on the DVR that I had not seen yet and needed to catch up on since my vacation. I rushed home to see what they heck they did (always expect the worst is my motto). I figured they had maybe dropped it or something.

Well I got home and the DVR was not coming on all the way it seemed to be a power supply problem or something like that. They said they did not drop it and I can not figure it as a power surge problem since I have a whole house surge protector and it was on another surge protector at the tv. The guy was telling the truth I figured he seemed honest.

So now I am 2 steps forward and 1 back again. I get on the horn to Heston my local appliance repair guy and asked him when can I get my baby in to see you. You gotta remember its not like I can run down to Best Buy to replace the unit anything is a couple weeks out. It was 4:30 and Heston said "bring it on in Boss I am here now".

I cruised down and gave the unit to Heston. He opened it up and said a couple of filters had popped and he thought he might have the spare part somewhere in his shop. He started taken apart old dead units and scrounging for the right filters (here are the pictures of his shop). Sure enough in his mountain of old dead electronics he got the right parts, soldered them in and got it powered back on. I went home and hooked it all back up and things were as good as new.

It got me thinking however, if you know the right guy and hit things just right in a small isolated place like Roatan you can actually get some things done faster and better than in the "real world". That said you can never count on it so you really just can not have expectations and you just have to see how it goes.