MIAMI — Honduras’ chief diplomat in Miami flips to page 117
of his nation’s election manual and insists that his fellow countrymen living
here must vote for their new president at the consulate in South Florida.
In Tegucigalpa, more than 900 miles away, government
officials say Fernando Agurcia is wrong. His consulate no longer has the
authority to organize elections outside the country.
“Right now, we’re on standby,” Agurcia said.
“Not knowing what is going to happen has been very stressful.”
Hondurans may go to the polls on Nov. 29 with hopes of
resolving the 20-week-old presidential crisis that was triggered by President
Manuel Zelaya’s sudden ouster in a military coup.
Yet, for the half-million Honduran citizens living in the
United States, a new crisis is brewing over where they will vote, and how.
That’s because Agurcia was appointed by Zelaya. A framed
photo of the toppled populist hung prominently in the consul general’s West
Miami-Dade office where he defended his authority to administer the Nov. 29
balloting.
But the interim government of Roberto Micheletti, shunned by
the Obama administration and Organization of American States, ordered Zelaya’s
diplomats out. The U.S. State Department told him to stay.
The showdown in South Florida, where 61,000 Hondurans live,
may not be a tipping point on the magnitude of the 2000 Bush-Gore elections
that hung on dimpled chads and butterfly ballots.
Still, it is rattling nerves in particular here because the
more outspoken Hondurans support Micheletti and his coup — and don’t want to
vote in a process administered by a Zelaya ally.
In the months since Zelaya’s June 28 ouster, South Florida’s
small Honduran community has united around a mutual concern for the political
future back home. Activists, some for the first time, organized barbecue
fundraisers for presidential candidates, voter registration drives and rallies.
Beyond Miami, Hondurans will be invited to vote in Chicago,
Houston, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C. — all cities with Honduran
consulates.
In 2005, when the last presidential election was held in
Honduras, that nation shipped 11,000 ballots to the U.S. Only 990 votes were
cast. This year, Tegucigalpa has sent 18,000 ballots based on registration.
But rather than have citizens submit them at their local
consulate, the Honduran elections council says it will collect the votes
independently.
“The consulate has nothing to do with the electoral
process,” Carlos Romero, director of Honduras’ Supreme Tribunal of
Elections, said by telephone.
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Romero points to congress’s revisions to the electoral law
in February 2008 that eliminated the need for a consul general to oversee the
voting sites.
Here in the United States, the electoral council will set up
a five-member commission — made up of representatives from each of Honduras’
political parties, Romero said. Each city has until Nov. 20 to report a voting
site back to Honduras.
In Miami, the committee has chosen the Polish American Club
— not the consulate.
“It’s strange to me,” Agurcia said. “They say
they are following the law. It is against the law to do the elections outside
the consulate general.”
The uncertainty has left local Hondurans worried about
whether they’ll be able to cast their ballots.
“There’s a lot of confusion among Hondurans because we
are going through a terrible situation back home,” said Miriam Laitano,
48, owner of a Honduras shipping company.
Laitano recently learned that the identification card she
once used to vote was no longer valid; she needed to register with an electoral
tribunal and the deadline had passed.
Some direct their frustration toward the consul, which is
not granting passports or travel visas because of severed relations with
Tegucigalpa.
“It’s a mess — they don’t help anybody,” said
Rosemary Pell, 60, an insurance agent and activist with the anti-Zelaya group
Alliance for Honduras.
Still, concerns over Honduras’ immediate future are evident
throughout what may be the closest thing to Little Honduras, a neighborhood
rife with bodegas, cafes, shipping businesses and restaurants. Blue flags with
five stars abound.
The owner of Los Paisanos restaurant has hosted voter
registration drives.
A flier is taped to the front window: Salvemos a Honduras—We
Will Save Honduras.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” said the owners’
son, Javier Pavon. “I just hope the elections go through.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
