US embassy cable - 04TEGUCIGALPA502

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000502 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/PDA (OHILTON); WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, PREL, KPAO, PGOV, HO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON CORRUPTION AND TRANSPARENCY, 
MARCH 1, 2004 
 
1. Editorial in San Pedro Sula-based liberal daily "Tiempo" 
on 2/27 entitled "Transparency against corruption."  "The 
visit of a delegation of Transparency International (TI) to 
Honduras, headed by its Vice-president, Ines Ospina, is an 
encouraging step in our fight against this threat, one of 
the main causes of our impoverishment." 
 
"According to the latest evaluation on corruption of TI, 
Honduras occupies the last place in terms of corruption in 
Central America.  This fact negatively affects our country, 
because it closes our doors to external financing and 
foreign investment, which are mainly driven by the 
confidence in a country, its authorities and institutions." 
 
"Anticorruption efforts in Honduras are still weak, because, 
as the Vice-president of TI said, the fight against 
corruption is a challenge not only for national governments, 
but also for the legislatures, the justice system, the 
media, the private sector, and society as a whole." 
 
"It was interesting to see that the main focus of Ospina's 
speech in a meeting with the media was the belief that some 
governmental authorities have that the publication of 
corruption indicators in Honduras harms our international 
reputation.  It was reassuring to hear somebody actually 
saying that it's necessary to strengthen freedom of press 
and expression in Honduras, a human right that's been under 
serious attack recently." 
 
2. Editorial in Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El 
Heraldo" on 2/29 entitled "Transparency".  "Recently, we 
have been visited by representatives of TI, who spoke to the 
top governmental authorities, among them the Supreme Court 
President and several Ministers.  This was a smart and 
positive attitude, which is clearly different from what has 
happened in the past, when these visits were seen as very 
unpleasant." 
 
"TI could see that there's been some progress, and they 
acknowledged that there's been some work to regain the 
confidence of the Honduran citizenship.  However, there's 
still much to be done.  This fight must be continuous and 
determined, we should never back off from this difficult 
undertaking, because corruption has undoubtedly grown, and 
it's found new ways to spread out." 
 
"The negative impact of corruption isn't just related to the 
loss of material resources, it also affects public trust, 
which debilitates the democratic system.  The ethical and 
moral grounds in which any society must be built upon are 
collapsing when justice is seen as selective and 
discriminatory." 
 
"Evidently, there's a long way ahead: we have to bring to 
justice all those who have committed crimes against 
humanity, drug traffickers, money launderers, those who have 
caused the collapse of many private banks, and many other 
criminals." 
 
"Without real civic participation, any efforts of this kind 
would just be futile." 
 
Palmer