US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1384

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001384 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT. FOR WHA/PD; IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; AND IIP/T/ES 
DEPT. FOR PM AND EB/TRA 
DEPT. FOR WHA/EPSC, WHA/PPC AND WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, PGOV, MASS, EAID, HO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON DEBT FORGIVENESS, JUNE 29, 2005 
 
 
1. The Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" 
published an op-ed by Rene Duron Escoto entitled "Debt 
Forgiveness or Condemnation."  "When the agricultural 
workers and farmers talked about the government's debt 
forgiveness I warned many of them that DEBT FORGIVENESS is a 
CONDEMNATION and it is natural for it to be that way because 
if a normal or a business person is forgiven a debt it is 
because he couldn't pay his creditors and it means that he 
is a `bad customer.'" 
 
"No credit, no harvest." 
 
"Have you ever asked yourselves why didn't El Salvador 
accept the debt forgiveness? They prefer to pay their debt 
slowly and maintain their credit with the international 
organizations. Will these organizations lend us money after 
our debt forgiveness? What will happen with the forgiven 
money now that the government has to use it to attack the 
terrible poverty that our country has? We are really facing 
a delicate situation especially if we take notice that in 
our country being corrupt is the NORM and being honest is 
the EXCEPTION." 
 
"Debt forgiveness or Condemnation, what do you think?" 
 
2. "La Tribuna" published an op-ed by Juan Ramon Martinez 
entitled "Real Strategy for Enrichment."  "We are skeptical 
of any poverty reduction strategy that has been created 
bureaucratically without taking into account internal 
dynamics of any country in the world.  It doesn't matter 
that the initiative is admirably incorporated into the `The 
UN Objectives for Millennium Development' or that some 
philanthropic organizations are convinced of the probability 
of reducing world poverty by 50 percent by 2015.  Granted, 
our skepticism does not in any way invalidate these unique 
ideas.  There is a need for a reframing oriented towards the 
formulation and execution of a strategy that is better 
designed to solve the underlying problems of Honduran 
society. Knowing that no technocratic measures will be able 
to solve anything if we ourselves or the people of fourth 
world countries do not do it." 
 
"I praise the real possibility that the meeting between the 
richest countries of the world, `G-8', to be held in 
Gleneagles Scotland, will confirm the pardon of a 
considerable portion of Honduras' foreign debt. However, we 
must consider the pros and cons of the debt forgiveness. The 
only viable option is that the amounts budgeted for the 
payment of annual debt interest to be assigned to the timely 
execution of some state investments. Otherwise the money 
will be diluted into various line items in the budget used 
for mounting political campaigns of the aforementioned 
`poverty reduction.'" 
 
"One of the many reasons why we must reactivate an economic 
planning institution for the consolidation of state and 
private initiatives is that Honduran investors have 
demonstrated ten thousand times that they are only 
interested in reactivating economic north-south corridors 
and promoting small family businesses, without regard to the 
tremendous strategic needs of micro industries and the whole 
population. I am 90% certain that the rich in Honduras will 
never be able to create a market economy, much less a real 
strategy that will lift the rest of the population from 
abject poverty.  At least they will never achieve this in 
the next fifty years.  The rich topic of the necessity of a 
moderate intervention by the State in the process of 
economic takeoff (in other words the third way capitalism) 
versus the egoism of some our investors, we will discuss 
another time." 
 
Palmer