For those who doubt America’s capacity to influence events in other countries, this piece about Washington’s denial of a visa to a corrupt former official should set the record straight. A debate has now erupted in that Central American nation about why the U.S. has done this – and a furor has begun over the country’s culture of corruption and lost standing in the world. According to this news account from El Heraldo of Honduras, one anti-corruption official says, ‘This decision by the United States shames us, because we are the ones that should have acted against this impunity and complacency toward corruption. … the Executive has been robbed, Justice has been robbed and the legislature has been robbed, because we have created a country that embarrasses us before the entire world.’
Translated By Barbara Howe, January 26, 2008, Honduras – El Heraldo – Original Article (Spanish)
Tegucigalpa: According to Juan Ferrera, coordinator of the National Anticorruption Advisory Council, the U.S. decision to deny entry to the former chairman of HONDUTEL [the Honduras. Telecommunications Business] is a message to the government of Honduras. [Washington has refused to allow former HONDUTEL chairman Marcelo Chimirri to step foot on U.S. territory]. “The decision by the United States to deny former government officials entry only goes to demonstrates how we are seen from the outside.”[Editor’s Note: HONDUTEL – the Honduras Telecommunications Business – was created in 1976 to oversee and streamline the nation’s telephone system. It is an autonomous government-run body].
The former functionary was denied entry to that nation for his connections to “serious cases of public corruption.”
“This decision by the United States makes shames us, because we are the ones that should have acted against such impunity and complacency toward corruption,” explained Ferrara, the Anti-Corruption Coordinator.
And that is why, Ferrara continued, no one believed anyone in authority will take corrective action in these kinds of situations. “By this, what they [the U.S.] are saying to us – to the government of Honduras – is that since you don’t reform your public administration, we’re telling you, ‘you have someone corrupt’ or however many we have.”
“Double standards kill us,” Ferrera says, lamenting the years of institutional decline and a decline in the application of justice. “I’ve heard many rhetorically-good phrases, but the actual deeds that have been committed have cost the country dearly … this discourages the democratic participation of the public, and that isn’t healthy,” he added.
According to him, people ended up thinking that anyone who “rose to power” must be good, because even without principles, he can manage things. “The issue of double standards has done tremendous damage to this country … the Executive has been robbed, Justice has been robbed and the legislature has been robbed, because we have created a country that embarrasses us before the entire world. We must figure out how to get to a better place,” he advised.
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