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Hickory church group escapes Honduran unrest

Teens, chaperones and businessman leave country after coup

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: July 2, 2009

HICKORY - Maria Punch of Hickory, along with 27 youths and adults, was able to escape the chaos in the streets of Honduras and return safely to her home Tuesday.

The group from First Presbyterian Church of Hickory traveled to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa last week as part of a senior high mission trip .

While they were there, Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was expelled from the country and replaced with Roberto Micheletti.

Some are calling it a coup; others say it was a legal transfer of power. Punch said it caused riots and civil unrest that stopped her and her fellow volunteers from completing the construction work on the two houses they had traveled to that country to build.

"The power went out every day from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m.," she said. "On Thursday, we were told to stay home, not to go out and not to go to church, either."

"Everybody was protesting," Punch said. "When I was there, two people were injured."

Two people brought international cell phones on the trip, and everyone was able to maintain contact with their friends and family back home and let them know they were OK.

"The youth were afraid. They thought we might not be able to come back," she said.

Their fears proved unfounded and they departed the country Tuesday as scheduled.

Punch was born in Honduras but has lived in Hickory for the past 25 years. "This is my country now," she said.

She said she spoke to many Hondurans before leaving the country of her birth and they're glad their former president is gone.

"The Honduran people are worried that if they keep the same president, the country will be like Cuba," Punch said. "They don't want this man as president — they want him out."

Punch and her fellow travelers weren't the only Catawba County residents with a front-row seat for the Honduran coup who managed to get back home safely.

Terry Michael of Maiden flew into Atlanta at about 7 p.m. Wednesday after cutting his business trip to Honduras short due to the governmental shake-up.

He said his plane was full.

"I'd estimate that three-fourths of the people on the plane were Americans coming back to this country," Michael said.

He's no stranger to Honduras. He travels to San Pedro Sula about twice a month as the site manager of a textile chemical plant owned by Georgia-based StarChem.

The city is about four hours north of the Honduran capital, where the worst of the riots took place.
"We felt fairly safe where we were," Michael said.

He said it was business as usual Monday, but the city's mood darkened Tuesday and he decided to cut his trip short.

Michael said he started to see a shift in the people's mood about six months ago when Zelaya began to seek a way to extend his presidency beyond the single term mandated by Honduran law, and the people reacted by accusing him of "crooked dealings."

"If this hadn't happened, Zelaya would have been just like Castro and Chavez," in terms of his power and total control over the country, he said.

"It's just a bad situation for the people over there," he said. "They're just trying to keep the same type of government we've got."

He said he was relieved to be back on American soil and hoped to get back to his Maiden home by midnight Wednesday.

ABOUT HONDURAS:
• Originally established as a Spanish colony in the early 1500s, Honduras gained its independence in 1821 and a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982.

• During the 1980s, the Central American nation proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan government and an ally to Salvadoran government forces fighting leftist guerrillas.

• Honduras is slightly larger than Tennessee and home to 7.8 million people.

• Honduras is roughly 1,568 miles southwest of Hickory.

Source: CIA Factbook

ABOUT THE UPRISING:
Background
Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was elected in 2005. His four-year term expires in January 2010. According to Honduran laws, he cannot run for another term. Zelaya planned to hold a referendum on Sunday, June 28, to place on November's ballot for a constitutional assembly to modify Honduran laws so Zelaya can run for another term. The Supreme Court ruled it illegal.

Timeline
June 25:
President Jose Manuel Zelaya fires Gen. Romeo Vasquez-Valasquez, the top military commander, for saying the armed forces wouldn't support the referendum because the Supreme Court said it was illegal. The head of the Army, Navy and Air Force resign in support of Vasquez-Valasquez. The Supreme Court re-instates him.

June 28:
The referendum is supposed to be held. Instead, military arrive at Zelaya's home in the morning and force him to leave, taking him to Costa Rica.
Congress votes to strip Zelaya of his power, and appoints Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress, in Zelaya's place. Many countries condemn the coup, including the U.S.

June 30:
Micheletti's newly appointed foreign minister said if Zelaya returns to Honduras, he will be captured and arrested for several charges, including violating the constitution and corruption. Zelaya remains in Costa Rica, although he continues to perform several activities on behalf of Honduras.

Source: cnn.com