"Teatro in times of plague"

The State of Siege has been officially extended until 12 April. The government has published a list of days and hours for people to go out and buy food: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, depending on your ID number: if it ends in 1, 2 or 3, Monday, etc. I’m 9 and that puts me on Friday.

I just saw a post that California got 170 ventilators from the fed. They’re broken. Honduran version of the story: The government sent people to Miami to buy ventilators when there were still flights. 140 ventilators were shipped to Tegucigalpa. The Honduran Medical College says they’re the wrong thing.

Sunday is a normal day for people to go to market, and Martín (who went on a food run for the house) said there were quite a lot of people downtown. The supermarkets remain closed but the smaller food stands were doing a brisk business. People had to get there and get home in their own vehicle or on foot; there are no taxis or other public transport functioning.

There is no chicken in the markets of Progreso. There are stories of the beginnings of food riots in San Pedro Sula.

The government seems to have taken Sunday off. One figure puts total cases at 110. I’ve seen nothing to vouch for that. And I think that’s yesterday’s datum.

Monday, March 30, 2020

Radio Progreso reports 139 cases, 4 deaths as the updates statistic. Most of the new cases are in the San Pedro area: that has become the focus of the country. I haven’t figured out yet if there are more cases in Progreso – doesn’t seem like it.

The death toll has risen to 7.

Luís of our teatro office went downtown today, trying to find someone to repair his cel. He reports:

"The new measures imposed by the government as of Monday do not turn out to be restrictive: there is congested traffic in the vicinity of bank agencies, and a greater influx of people on the sidewalks, which were empty a few days ago. Part of the trade has been reactivated, without fear of the authorities whom I did not see in the vicinity, and despite the crisis, the government’s inoperation, and the indifference of the political class, there are Hondurans who surrender what little they have to cover their obligations, like Dona Maria, an elderly woman who was at a bank kiosk trying to pay her electric bil. She was unsuccessful as the system was down. At this rate, Honduras is about to plunge into a catastrophe, a situation that seems to be being provoked by the political class with the intention of accessing state funds to continue its enrichment."

(Las medidas que ha impuesto el gobierno a partir de hoy lunes no resultan ser restrictivas, hay tráfico congestionado en las cercanias de agencias bancarias, y mayor afluencia de personas transitando por las aceras, mismas que hace unos días permanecían vacias. Parte del comercio se ha reactivado, sin miedo a las autoridades las cuales no vi en los alrededores, y a pesar de la crisis, de la inoperancia del gobierno, y de la indiferencia de la clase política, hay Hondureños que entregan de lo poco que tienen para cubrir su obligaciones, como Doña Maria, señora de la tercera edad que estaba en un quiosco bancario intentando pagar su factura de energía eléctrica, lo cual no tuvo éxito ya que el sistema estaba fallando. A este ritmo, Honduras está a punto de sumergirse en una catástrofe, situación que pareciera estar siendo provocada por la clase política con la intención de acceder a fondos del estado para continuar con su enriquecimiento.)

Radio Progreso is reporting all kinds of price speculation in the markets, especially for food of course.

Wash your hands and take care.

Jack.

 

 


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