Good news!

Well folks, I have good news tonight!

Many of you know that the US has sent the big guns down to Honduras to help resolve this conflict. Up to now it has been a complete impasse--a stale mate between two enormous egos. Well the US decided to come down to push their weight around this week. Well, that actually seemed to work! Thursday night October 29th they announced that they were signing an agreement between the two parties and were just weighting on congress to vote. I will write more on that soon. Well in response, the US embassy announced this:




U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa
Avenida La Paz
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

To: All American Citizens
From: American Citizens Services Unit, Consular
Section
Date: October 30, 2009
Subject: Warden Message: Re-Opening of Non- Immigrant Visa
Services


The U.S. Embassy is pleased to announce that in support of the recent
agreement reached in the political crisis in Honduras, the Non-Immigrant
Visa (NIV) section will re-open beginning Monday, November 2, 2009.
Initial interviews will go to emergency cases and those applicants who
had confirmed scheduled interviews when the NIV section closed August
26, 2009. All other applicants will receive appointments beginning
November 16, 2009.

For the latest security information, Americans traveling abroad should
regularly monitor the Department's Internet website
(http://travel.state.gov), where the current Travel Warnings and Public
Announcements, including the Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, can
be found.

Up-to-date information on safety and security can also be obtained by
calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or for callers outside the
U.S. and Canada, a regular toll-line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers
are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through
Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).

Americans living or traveling in Honduras are encouraged to register
with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate through the State
Department's travel registration website
(https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs), and to obtain updated
information on travel and security within Honduras. Americans without
Internet access may register directly with the nearest U.S. Embassy or
Consulate. By registering, American citizens make it easier for the
Embassy or Consulate to contact them in case of emergency.

The U.S. Embassy is located on Avenida La Paz in Tegucigalpa; telephone
(504) 238-5114, after hours telephone (504) 236-8497; Consular Section
fax (504) 238-4357; E-mail: usahonduras@state.gov; Webpage:
http://honduras.usembassy.gov






Yahoo! We were scheduled two days after they stopped giving visas so I imagine we will get a call this week. Praise God!

Car wreck!

Hello!
I realize that I just wrote you but I have a new prayer request. This morning I was in a car wreck. I was turning a corner on my way to work and I thought I was clear. Unfortunately I wasn't. I hit a motorcyclist and a car. The motorcycle hit the second car as well. The motorcyclist flew through the air. In the middle of the air he turned. The other car described it like he was a cat turning in mid air. He landed on his back and we think just fractured his leg. His helmet had flown off and it was a miracle that he didn't hurt any more. It was as if the hand of God reached down and turned him just right. Also praise God that everyone involved were Christians: the car owner, the motorcyclist, the motorcyclist's brother in law who came to take care of the situation. This could have been way worse. I once scratched a taxi and it was half his fault and the man was irate and tried to take advantage of the circumstance for more money. However, these men were incredibly nice. After the ambulance took the motorcyclist to the hospital for his fracture, his brother-in-law prayed with me and prayed that God would give me a great day despite the accident. They also all decided that we would handle it ourselves and not get transit involved. If the motorcyclist had been injured more seriously, I think I could be in jail now. And I don't even want to think about what could have happened if he had landed on his head. Praise God He worked the way He did and that everyone is ok. Please keep praying for the motorcyclist in the hospital though. I can't remember his name but I will ask his brother-in-law when he calls me. I already paid for the car that I hit ($100). I still need to pay for the motorcycle, the motorcyclist's hospital bill, and for my own car. These bills are tough for me on my salary here along with paying for a wedding and (I hope) a honeymoon. As you remember there is extra money from your support from my internship last year but I dedicated that money to future missions and I don't know if it would be right to use it. Please, I need all your prayers. Thank you.
In Christ,
Mateo

Still need a visa

Hello friends and family!
I hope this letter finds you well. I am sorry that I leave you all on cliff hangers between updates. When I last wrote you I was stuck in my house due to nation wide curfews after the ousted president Manuel Zelaya came back. The curfews fortunately ended after the first week. At first there were a lot of protests. During the curfews, a mass of Zelaya supporters broke into a supermarket and an electronics store near where Katia lives and looted it clean. Then the new government made it illegal to protest (as well as took certain opposition media off the air). They eventually allowed it again but the streets have been calm since. Zelaya is still seeking refuge in the Brazilian Embassy (about 4 or 5 blocks from my house) and his people have been in talks with the new government's people since he came back. They have still reached no agreement. We have just been in stale mate for a while. I think the new government is just trying to make it to the election at the end of November. Recently it's been very calm and no news one way or another.
Also, many of you have asked me about the prayer request I sent you about my fiance's visa. We want to come to the US for our honeymoon as well as have a reception in the US so that you could all come. However, as I wrote before, the US embassy stopped giving visas. Well, they haven't changed their minds. The embassy is still not giving visas. We decided that in order to plan for everything, we need to know two months before. So if I hear nothing by November 1st, we will make other plans. That means, we have one week for a miracle. Please pray! I would especially like to have this reception so that you could all be there. Please be praying for that as well as our whole political situations. Thanks!
God bless!
Mateo

Hugo Llorens's Letter

Many of the US has been adamantly vocal against the new government in Honduras. This could allow one to think that the US is also siding with the radical groups in Honduras that support the ousted president. One of the most adament US supporters of the booted president, Manuel Zelaya, is US ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens. That's why I found this letter that he wrote to Zelaya supporting radio station, Radio Globo, when they went on an antisemitic outburst very interesting:

(This comes from the US embassy website )

Letter from Ambassador Hugo Llorens to Radio Globo

October 5, 2009

Mr. Alejandro Villatoro
Owner, Radio Globo
Boulevard Morazan
Tegucigalpa, M.D.C

Mr. Villatoro:

It is with astonishment and incomprehension that I write to you. I refer to a broadcast commentary by your journalist and news director David Romero which was aired on September 25, in which Mr. Romero denounced Jews and Israelis as “people that do damage in this country.” Particularly disgusting was the admiration he implied for Adolf Hitler: “After what I have learned, I ask myself why, why didn’t we let Hitler carry out his historic mission?”

Mr. Villatorio, Hitler’s concentration camps and Holocaust constitute one of the most shameful acts of human history. How can it be that your station employs as its news director a man who does not understand this? Torture and murder were committed against millions of innocent people. Mr. Romero’s commentary makes a mockery of any pretense he may have of solidarity with people who struggle against injustice.

I cannot help but note the irony that you and Mr. Romero came to visit me last week to seek support after your station was closed by the de facto authorities. I have spoken out clearly and will continue to do so that the decree under which your station was closed is wrong. Radio Globo deserves to be on the air. The right of free speech must not be abridged, but with it goes the responsibility to speak truthfully and soberly. Does Radio Globo accept its moral responsibility? Will you join me in denouncing this appalling act that was committed on your airwaves?

Sincerely,

Hugo Llorens

The Biased Media

I know that for many of you there is nothing more biased than CNN or Fox (depending on which political party you personally align yourself with). However, at least those news agencies have a little bit of overlap. Here in Honduras, we do not have that luxury. The government sponsored TV stations like Televicentro tell one extreme. Then the Zelaya supporting news networks such as radio station Radio Globo tell a completely other extreme. There is virtually no overlap. The only thing that you can be certain of is that everybody is lying. Both sides are constantly contradicting each other and when one is proved wrong they continue as if they had never said it. So, when an international news network quotes a Honduran news source, be very careful. There are lots of rumors and lies floating around on every side. I normally don't like what the New York Times has been reporting on Honduras--they have been heavily biased in many of their articles--but the following article is the best I have seen on how both sides have been lying and stretching the truth:

Battle for Honduras Echoes Loudly in Media by Elisabeth Malkin and Marc Lacey

Keep praying for this country!

Still going...

Hello friends and family!
Just a quick update. I am still on curfew. But the good news is that they lifted it from 10am to 5 pm today. And they have said that it should end tomorrow at 6am. So that will be 55 hours in all with a 5 hour break in the middle. I was able to get food and get my clothes from the laundromat. Pray that there will be peace. Tomorrow there are supposed to be demonstrations for both sides. And near my apartment! Blessings!
In Christ,
Mateo

My Most Recent Update

Here is my most recent email update followed by a you tube link from a friend of a demonstration happening while we are in curfew (the police afterwards started raiding homes and my friend heard shots fired).


Hello friends and family!
I hope you are all well. There is a lot going on in the world right now and whether you be in a flooded neighborhood or New York traffic, my prayers are with you. I am writing to inform you of our latest bit of news here in Honduras. Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, has come back. This took everyone by surprise (the acting president, Roberto Micheletti, even denied it at first.) He is now holed up in the Brazilian embassy (international territory) with the police waiting outside to arrest him. The Resistance (Zelaya's supporters who are known for vandalism from spray painting to blowing up cars and restaurants with molotov cocktails) have been rallying outside of the embassy. Because of this, the government has declared a national curfew since 4 pm on Monday. We are still under curefew and not allowed to leave the house. Supposedly it will end tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6 am but they have already extended the curfew twice. This is very difficult for the many people in this nation below the poverty level that live day by day for money and food. Please be praying for them. Personally I have limited food supplies in my house (though I can afford to skip a couple of meals, unlike my poorer friends here) and all my clean clothes are at a laundromat I can't get to. The Resistence are still holding huge demonstrations in spite of the curfew and the police are fighting back with tear gas and in a few neighborhoods friends have heard shots fired. That includes my fiance's neighborhood. Please be praying. If you can get prayer groups together I would appreciate it. For more info, see my blog:

thethingsthatarenot.blogspot.com

or my twitter:

www.twitter.com/ThingsThatArent

Thank you!
Mateo






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDyO-ElWbC8