On July 20, 1969 US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the Moon. Apollo 11 departed Cape Kennedy at 1:32 pm on July 16, 1969. Michael Collins was the third crew member.
The US will now prohibit the granting of asylum to anyone who arrives at the Mexican border with the United States if they traveled through another country. Guatemalans and Hondurans of necessity must travel through other countries to reach Mexico. The new policy in effect requires that they have applied for asylum and been turned down in at least one other country while en route to the US. If not they will be deported to their home country.
Honduras fleeing crime, violence and poverty continue to migrate to the US illegally even though many are deported and returned to their native country. Some of the deported have told journalists that they will wait for a few months and attempt another journey to the United States. In 2018 close to 29,000 Hondurans were deported from the US. Honduras comprised the largest group in the 2018 Central American caravans.
On May 31, 2019, a fire was set close to the access gate of the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa by masked individuals that tires on fire. The embassy building itself did not sustain damage. Firefighters quelled the blaze and a police spokesperson indicated that a 23 year old male suspect had been arrested. Others were still at large. May 30th and 31st saw the capital city rocked by violent protests against proposed public sector health and education reforms.
In New York City, George Washington publicly read the Declaration of Independence.
The proximate causes for the recent protests and violence in Honduras relate to the potential impact of policies that would have restructured the Honduran health and education ministries. The May protests resulted in President Juan Orlando Hernández rescinding the decrees and the Congress revoking the law that would have implemented the President’s policies.
There are deeper reasons for the continuing protests linked to popular sentiment with respect to the legitimacy of the 2017 reelection of Juan Orlando Hernandez, and beyond, going back to the 2009 removal of then President Manuel Zelaya. A goodly percentage of Honduran citizens question the legitimacy of the ensuing political process. This might explain why the protests continue despite the fact that the health and education reform law was rescinded.
Another context is the lack of economic opportunity and crushing poverty combined with violent criminal activity that has increased thanks to the presence of gangs and drug traffickers.
For its entire history Honduras has been a poor country whose population has been mostly poor and rural. The historically rural, agrarian economy was supplanted by large scale banana plantations developed by the United Fruit Company, a US based corporation. These agricultural endeavors built railroad infrastructure, created jobs, but, being banana centric, failed to provide Honduras’s overall economy with the capital infusion needed in the early twentieth century to develop a middle class that could spur business creation and increase employment.
There has been little industry, a very few wealthy individuals and almost no middle class. The Army has been the dominant institution and until the 1980s ruled the country for most of its history. The infrastructure of the country for most of its history has been meager although the road network has expanded in recent years. Socio – economic indicators have historically been the lowest in the hemisphere save perhaps for Haiti.
Despite the advent of formal democracy in the 1980s, the Army retained its influence both politically and as the guarantor of public safety and security. The military has always been the best funded public institution in that society, so lacking in basic services.
Funding for the Honduran military increased significantly in the 1980s stemming from US concerns regarding the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN in El Salvador. The US gave security guarantees coupled with funding and training for the Honduran military and was provided access to Honduras as a military, special operations and intelligence base to undermine the Marxist – Leninists in the neighboring countries who received support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.
US economic aid and that of the IMF and World Bank has increased in recent years. Progressives would argue that neo-liberal exigencies and austerity measures that come with the indebtedness have only exacerbated social ills, made Honduras less sovereign, more aid dependent and less able to stand up to the US while continuing to lack the resources so desperately needed to actually develop their economy and society.
Demonstrators voice their opinion that the government’s policy of privatization has markedly driven up the cost of electricity, the cost of transportation, the cost of fuel, all without the privatization resulting in more employment. Many argue that the extensive funding of the military and police needlessly absorbs the limited capital available to Honduras, capital that would be better spent on job creation to solve the poverty that supplies unemployed Hondurans to the drug traffickers, gangs and the ‘migrant caravans’.
The one million odd Hondurans living in the US send remittances that amount to billions of dollars annually, a far greater amount than the IMF and World Bank provide on an annual basis. Protesters argue that the government misuses the funds available for purposes other than job creation while failing to attract significant financial and investment support from other nations, as former President Zelaya attempted to do with Brazil and Venezuela.
Supporters of the government’s policies argue that a socialist approach will not solve Honduras’ problems, as has been demonstrated in Nicaragua and Venezuela. The government, they say, has primary responsibility for providing security, and the security problems caused by drug traffickers and gangs must be resolved before funds can be freed up to support job creation projects.
On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to deliberate the issue of independence. On July 2, 1776, 12 of the 13 colonies voted for independence from Great Britain, with New York abstaining. The 3rd and part of the 4th were spent discussing and revising Thomas Jefferson’s draft declaration. On July 4th the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The actual signing was not accomplished till almost a month later as the Declaration needed to be engrossed on parchment. Except for Robert R. Livingston, most of the other delegates signed by August 2nd. New York approved the Declaration on July 9, 1776.
A Committee of Five, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston, were tasked with the reproduction and distribution of the Declaration of Independence. They procured the services of John Dunlap, the proprietor of a print shop in Philadelphia. Today, some two dozen or so of the Dunlap Broadsides still exist. These copies are different from the original signed copy which is currently located in the National Archives in Washington DC. In 2009 a Dunlap printing surfaced in the British National Archives.
For a detailed discussion of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, see the Declaration Resources Project at Harvard University at: https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/blog/signing
Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras has been wracked in recent weeks and for much of this year by protests that have seen the both the Army and the Police deployed. Reports indicate that at least two people have died of bullet wounds in the last week in the wake of looting of shops and attacks on government buildings. Protesters blocked certain roads and burned tires.
Protests began in January 2019 against President Juan Orlando Hernández to mark the one year anniversary of his narrow election victory in 2017. The Honduran constitution was changed to allow Mr. Hernández to compete in the 2017 presidential election. The protests since April have been linked to proposals to reform the ministries of education and health services. There is a widespread belief among the popular masses that budget reductions will be enacted as the first step onto a slippery slope that will lead to privatization of healthcare and educational services.
On July 20, 2015 the United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations which had been severed in 1961.
Earlier this month an Argentine Federal Judge ordered that the assets of foreign oil companies exploring and drilling in the area of the Falkland Islands, be seized. Judge Lilian Herraez also ordered the impounding of ships belonging to these oil companies.
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