Our friends Dwight & Joanne Tomkins are missionaries in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I have copied part of their most recent mission report below, as it gives a first-person view of the political situation there, most specifically with respect to the so-called coup d'état (actually a perfectly legal congressional action) that occurred near the end of June.

Politics in Honduras

2009 August 17

In spite of what you hear and read on the news, we are not in any danger here. On July 29 Joanne even arrived at the Tegucigalpa airport, got a cab to the bus station with all of her luggage and bused out to Catacamas by herself with no fear or concerns.

And the current government is not a "brutal dictatorship", as one US newspaper reported last week. For the most part, things are going as usual. That's not to say there aren't a lot of angry people, but there are more accepting people than there are angry folks. The protesters are in the minority, and are pretty much concentrating their protests to Tegucigalpa (the capitol) and San Pedro Sula (which is considered to be the economic center of Honduras).

The previous leader was removed from office through a legal vote of the Congress because of his own illegal actions. The vote was ordered by the Judicial system, approved by the Congress, and carried out by the military. The current president was chosen by Congress in accord with the Honduran Constitution. The Vice-President had resigned previously and the president of the Congress was next in the line of succession. All of those government entities are still carrying out the same roles they did previously.

The hardest thing about the current situation, for us anyway, is the restricted travel caused by road blocks and check points. Military check points throughout the country are making travel much more time consuming. Also there still are intermittent road blocks on some of the roads by supporters of the previous president. We planned to take our truck down to the dealership in Tegucigalpa last Tuesday for it's annual check-up but were advised against it by the Embassy's report of anticipated demonstrations that day.

Dwight & Joanne Tomkins