12 July, 2005

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

With each passing week, we witness new progress towards our goal of strengthening Honduran civil society and nurturing a self-sustaining democracy movement there.

Our strategy in Honduras rests on several assumptions: First, that existing political and economic structures are corrupt and lack both the will and the capacity for self-reform. Second, that the passion for honest, accountable government exists across the spectrum of Honduran civil society. And finally, that authentic democratic leaders welcome international partners willing to work with them to end extreme poverty, to extend human rights and to address environmental degradation.

The Environment
We began the Honduran project in 2003, backing Father Andres Tamayo in his efforts to organize peasants and to end illegal logging in Honduras' Olancho province. This courageous priest, and the peasants who have joined his Environmental Movement of Olancho (MAO, in Spanish), are winning a grudging respect in Tegucigalpa, and global recognition for their campaign to force elected officials to protect the forest and to crack down on illegal loggers operating with impunity throughout the province.

In this battle, international recognition helps safeguard reformers from violence and provides incentives for the Honduran government to clean up its act in order to protect the country's reputation. Conferring the Goldman award on Father Tamayo focused significant international attention on Honduras. These news stories prompted other national and international organizations to recognize and support his cause.

• The Sierra Club and the Friends of the Earth invited Father Tamayo to speak in San Francisco and Washington, DC last month;
• Father Tamayo will soon travel to Brazil to receive the Chico Mendes Award, given for "courage and leadership in protecting the environment;"
• The Global Greengrants Fund, which aids grassroots environmental movements around the world, has begun supporting MAO.

The result is a leveraging of our initial investment and a growing momentum that begins to sustain itself.

El Libertador
It's axiomatic that a free and independent press is necessary for democracy. In Honduras, however, most media is controlled by the same elites who have corrupted the government and cornered the economy. Investigative reporters who write stories hitting too close to home are warned off; some have been imprisoned and even killed. CIP's support for Jhonny Lagos and his independent newspaper, El Libertador, is helping to change that dynamic.

Undeterred by threats, Jhonny fearlessly examines every corner of Honduran society. He challenges power by exposing members of the military implicated in the sale of weapons to smugglers, bankers plundering private accounts to back their personal businesses, and corruption in Attorney General Ovidio Navarro's office. He has brought an honest and analytical eye to more nuanced issues as well, including presidential candidates' development plans (or lack thereof); and the failures of the Honduran health care system.

Though only six issues old, El Libertador's strength and reach are expanding. CIP helped El Libertador connect with a private international investor, which has brought greater financial stability, the creation of an editorial board, the hiring of new reporters, and a tripling of the press run, from 3,000 to 10,000 copies.

On a recent visit to Washington, Jhonny met with The Washington Post, Reporters Without Borders and Oscar Reyes, the founder and editor of the widely-read El Pregonero. A former Honduran dissident, Reyes founded the School of Journalism in Honduras and was tortured in 1982. Jhonny formed a partnership with El Pregonero that will support training for El Libertador's editorial board and act as the newspaper's circulation department in the United States. The DC metro area has over 100,000 Honduras immigrants who are eager for unbiased news; their remittances - over $860 million in 2003 -- make them a significant economic and political force in Honduras. And, Honduran expatriates are also eligible to vote in the fall elections.

Fundación Democracia Sin Fronteras
If these initiatives are to be strategic and sustained, they can no longer be administered from Washington. Therefore, we have moved quickly to establish the Fundación Democracia Sin Fronteras (DSF or Democracy Without Borders) to carry these issues throughout Honduras. We have named prominent and respected Honduran reformers to provide sound guidance and advice. Within a short time American advisors will be named. As soon as this process is complete, I will send you the names and brief biographies of this bi-national board of directors.

We have also put together a small team to take charge of the organization, including a new executive director, Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga, an old friend and ally in the fight for a democratic Central America. In the 1980's I watched Efrain, then a member of the Honduran Legislature, wage a lonely battle against a U.S. military base in Honduras.

Efrain has been working for change in Honduras as an economist, elected official and human rights activist for more that thirty years. His reputation for integrity and his deep understanding of the link between economics, agriculture and human rights makes him an ideal fit with the Honduran Project and Democracia Sin Fronteras, and we are excited about having someone of his stature and talent in this position.

Book Publication
CIP has also sponsored the publication of a book, International Cooperation and Transparency: The Honduras Case, by forestry economist Rigoberto Sandoval. Sandoval broke ground as the first policy maker to link forest protection with the economic and cultural needs of Honduran society. The book looks at the approximately $40 million in aid that has been poured into Honduran anti-poverty efforts and suggests that there are few concrete results from this investment. It invites international agencies to reassess their role in Honduras.

Future
CIP and its Honduran colleagues are organizing a conference on human rights and the environment to be held in August. The conference will seek to increase public awareness in Honduras of the connection between civil rights and land and water degradation.

Later this year CIP and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) will release and distribute an explosive video and report, identifying some of those who profit from illegal trade in Honduran timber, especially through exports to U.S. markets. We hope this report will influence this year's elections by prompting civil society to demand a more coherent plan for ending environmental abuses and corruption from their presidential candidates.

These initiatives have helped convince Honduran leaders and civil society not only that change is needed, but more importantly, how change is possible.

With warmest regards,

Robert E. White
President
Center for International Policy