tlf news

Vol. xxxi #1

June, 2010



Theatre in Times of Coups




Our world in the teatro has been dominated the past year by political events in the country: June 28, 2009, we experienced a coup d'etat in which the military captured the sitting president, sent him into exile in Costa Rica and imposed a de facto government. The de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, is from Progreso; he was the president of the Congress previous to taking over the presidential palace.

The rejection of the coup by the international community was immediate and universal: Honduras was expelled from the Organization of American States; many countries withdrew their ambassadors. The deposed president, Manuel Zelaya (popularly known as "Mel") made two major attempts to return to the country, the first by air (accompanied by various presidents and high officials), the second by land. Both attempts led to nothing.

A movement in opposition to the coup sprang up immediately; the Resistencia, as it is known, had a strong popular base whose backbone were the organizations of teachers. During July and August of last year there were large and frequent demonstrations throughout the country, but especially in the capital, Tegucigalpa. These led to frequent clashes with the police and the army, and to frequent violations of human rights. And the country became highly polarized between the two camps of the coup supporters and the Resistencia.

Then in late September Mel Zelaya suddenly re-entered the country -- nobody is sure exactly how. He took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, and from there remained a thorn in the side of the de facto government the rest of the year: but although his presence put new life in the Resistencia, it was still not enough to dislodge the usurpers.

The de facto government followed through with the previously scheduled November elections, and managed to control them completely. The Resistencia called for a boycott of the elections, and a majority of people probably followed that path (it's hard to know for sure since the media were completely controlled and not to be believed).

Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo, the president-elect, had run in the last election against Mel Zelaya and lost. For a pair of months we had three presidents: the legitimate but deposed president, Mel Zelaya; the de facto president Roberto Micheletti; and the president-elect Pepe Lobo.

Pepe Lobo officially took office at the end of January. His first acts were to grant a safe-conduct to Mel Zelaya so he could leave the Brazilian embassy and the country; and to grant an amnesty to all those involved in the coup.

The United States immediately recognized the Lobo government. But while a handful of Latin American countries acknowledge Lobo, the majority do not. In fact, those countries that have suffered most from coups in the recent past have been those who have most strongly opposed the Lobo regime, and that have led the OAS in refusing recognition. We remain an international pariah.

Those are the bare facts, but they give little sense of the chaos that has dominated the country. That chaos has calmed in the course of this year (the Lobo government has a certain legitimacy in being elected, despite the very questionable election) but many factors remain up in the air and unresolved. Among other things, the level of violent crime has risen dramatically throughout the country, and we now have the dubious honor of being one of the most dangerous countries in the world. It seems that disregard for the rule of law at the top engenders disregard at every level.

Where has the teatro been in the midst of all this? It took us a few weeks to find our bearings, but a note from the deposed minister of culture of the Zelaya government gave us the framework we followed. He wrote us that:

I remember that when Hitler was taking and burning Moscow, the Symphony insisted on playing their concert. Art must not cede even for a moment in the face of fascism; it is the antidote.

Following that lead, we decided that our basic job was to keep on working and "playing our concerts". Which was not an easy thing to accomplish in the context of our reality: the chaos of the coup affected every aspect of daily life, but most especially all those things thrown together as "leisure activities": tourism, restaurants, movies -- and of course, theatre. The chaos also disrupted the school system; and like all theatres everywhere, we are heavily dependent on school groups to fill the house. Those groups have been hard to come by.

Things this year are slowly returning to normal, but we are only beginning to feel the blow to the national economy which the coup delivered; it will take a long time to overcome its effects. In my thirty-plus years in Honduras, this prolonged damage to the national economy compares only with the lingering effects we experienced in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch.

So as we approach the anniversary of the coup itself, we continue to play our concerts or, more literally in our case, to stage our plays. Politicians come and go but art continues to light our path to the future. "Art must not cede even for a moment in the face of fascism; it is the antidote."







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