The Honduran president lied about having Covid-19, and the real death figures resulting from the hurricanes have been buried

Hoaxes and errors with the Honduran president’s Covid-19 test results 🤯👀👩‍🏭

In June, Juan Orlando Hernández announced that he was the first president in Latin America to have contracted Covid-19. However, a Contracorriente investigation has revealed that the announcement was a hoax.

On June 16, Hernandez stated that he and his wife, Ana Garcia Carias, had tested positive for the virus. That same night, the Office of the President issued a statement reiterating the president’s earlier remarks, and specifying that the couple had undergone the PCR test. 

However, six months after we submitted a formal information request to the Institute for Public Information Access, the Ministry of Public Health released information confirming that President Juan Orlando Hernandez tested negative for COVID-19 the day before he publicly announced that he had tested positive. 

In a more detailed article published in November, we outlined the various loopholes and excuses that were put forward to deny releasing the president’s test results. The case is a classic example of deeper issues regarding the transparency and accountability of Honduran institutions.

But regarding the president’s test results, the other key question is why lie? After his announcement, he received support from various world leaders. He also went public about supposedly using the MAIZ (microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin, zinc) treatment. The Honduran health ministry has been recommending and acquiring the treatment, while the FDA has indicated that it isn’t yet clear if the treatment is effective.

The tribulations of Honduras: Pandemic, hurricanes, and coming elections

“The pandemic has rocked the entire world. When added to structural instability, two hurricanes, corruption, and authoritarianism, it becomes the perfect storm. As if that weren’t enough, an electoral process is underway in a country that, since 2009, has experienced the rapid debilitation of an already shaky democracy,” Jennifer Avila and Otto Argueta wrote for Contracorriente, translated to English for El Faro.

They argue that for Honduras, the pandemic has more deeply exposed existing problems, with stay-at-home orders placing women in dangerous proximity to their abusers and causing them more alarm than the possibility of contracting the virus at work.

Additionally, the pandemic became an excuse for implementing authoritarian and discriminatory policies, and it demonstrated the harsh realities of inequality within Honduras, and with other countries. “I'm more afraid of dying of hunger than of dying of COVID-19” is a refrain often heard on Honduran streets. 

Then came the hurricanes, and sticking to the pandemic measures could no longer be a priority for even more people. Streets in many communities are still flooded, and it’s not unusual to see a few youths with shovels trying to clear a path. “But a path to what?” the authors ask.

Official data distorts the true number of storm-related deaths in Honduras 📍

But some of her family’s deaths aren’t being included in the official tally. According to official data, Tropical Storms Eta and Iota caused the death of 96 people. That figure doesn’t include some people whose bodies haven’t been recovered yet or identified, as well as people who died in hospital days later, or people who died indirectly as a result of the hurricanes, due to things like heart attacks, resulting from stress, or from infections.

“By now we should have a report of the number of displaced people, the number of deaths, and the different types of diseases suffered by storm victims. All that information should be readily available if you have a well-designed epidemiological surveillance plan,” says Barahona.

Identity discrimination against trans people  🤯

As elections approach, the Honduran government has called on people to get their new identity documents.

However, for the author of this article, a trans woman, the process was difficult. Trans people in Honduras still aren’t allowed to change their names, but it was the treatment by staff which concerned her. In this piece (in Spanish), she describes other experiences that she has had to go through, including in banks, and registering with a political party.

In Guatemala, calling for the president’s resignation isn’t enough 📢  

Over November and December, protestors in Guatemala called for the president to resign, particularly in light of this year’s budget, which aims to cut social benefits even further. 

But many organizations want to go beyond this, to transforming the violent foundations of Guatemalan democracy. Rather than criticizing just the corruption, these groups say the entire political economic order is rooted in the violent exclusion and exploitation of the Indigenous majority. Read more, in this article from Nacla.

The people pictured are among many of those demanding a plurinational state. Photo: @RedJunNaoj

Feminist collectives are also playing an important role in the protests, and are also united around demands against corruption, but believe change needs to be more deepseated. 

Among the cuts to next year’s budget, were cuts to women’s programmes. “We do not exist in the budget,” Velasquez told Al Jazeera in Guatemala City’s central plaza after a transgender-inclusive women’s march against gender violence.
 

We’re back from a break

We took off two weeks, but plan to start the new year with even more in-depth and investigative pieces into corruption and power structures, resource extraction, human rights, migration, and more.

Here’s hoping that most of our readers were able to get in some rest and feel hopeful for the times to come.

Stay connected!

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