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The prison «genesis» of the «Honduran topic» is evident. «Cons» could never allow Honduras to be the backyard, «the backwoods» of Central America. For them this country was personification of wonderful unachievable dream. They pictured the idolised image of that distant banana republic: without deadly frosts and barbed wire, with hot sun and palm groves, twinkling sky-blue sea and passionate mulattoes... Sometimes Honduras is called an «invisible country». It seems to be in the «shade of history», yielding the right to memorable events to its neighbours: Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador. Apart form Francisco Morazan2, elected the president of the country and then of Central American countries federation, Honduras has not produced any eminent historic figure. There were not even with the «negative sign» - like Dominican Trujillo or Nicaraguan Somoza. There are definitely no Honduran «stars» of world magnitude in art and culture. Even the recognised erudite persons will have to pull their socks up to list the names of writers, poets, artists, musicians born in Honduras. Honduran politicians rarely come up in the news of world mass media. Lack of exhibitionism — is an incredible property of politicians. And it is possible that the Hondurans are unique especially in this. You have the feeling that they prefer to contemplate the events of the global life but not participate in those. Judiciousness of politicians and commonplace Hondurans is united in one thing: both of them prefer «a lean compromise to a fat lawsuit».
Historical monuments are quite scarce in Honduras. Maya civilisation on the Honduran territory is only represented by one architectural complex in Copan. But in order to come there you have to spend a lot of time, efforts and money. Tourists prefer to go there from Guatemala. Tikal is but a step from Copan. Hondurans do not even possess their own volcanoes that are an integral part of Central American scenery. They have to watch the volcanoes across the border on the territories of El Salvador and Nicaragua.
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Poking the head of anyone from the «Soviet block» in Honduras at that difficult time of «bipolar confrontation» was equally to suicide. International «death squadrons», ominous «contras», omnipresent experts in «covert actions» from the United States, Honduran «uniformados», who became a skilled hand at repressions and «disappearances», were doing their black job, and the «Voice of America» and Reuters news, permanently presented Honduras as an advanced post of successful resistance to «communist threat». It was in that period (from 1981 to 1985), when John Negroponte was the omnipotent ambassador of the United States in Tegucigalpa. His then mission in the conditions of cold war was very much clear: to prevent the «domino effect» in the region. If communists capture Nicaragua, then El Salvador will crash down, then Guatemala, and the turn will come to Honduras. That is why Negroponte did not hesitate as for the methods of fighting the rebellious movements. At the same time «clean-up» of different structures of their support and suspicious dissidents was carried out in Honduras. It is not accidental that in the epoch of Negroponte the country, which was militarised to the limit, was called «Aircraft carrier Honduras».
1. The origin of the name Honduras is attributed by tradition to Christopher Columbus, who, during his fourth, and the last voyage to the New World in 1502 almost lost his ship during a severe storm. After that dramatic experience the admiral allegedly cried out: «Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de estas honduras» («Praise God, we managed to escape the these depths!») 2. Years of life: 3.10.1772 – 15.09.1842. 3. Elogio de Tegucigalpa. Antologia. Prologo, selecciones y notas de Oscar Acosta. Consejo Metropolitano de Distrito Central. Tegucigalpa, 1978.
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