the governments in power. The human rights situation has been mishandled and misrepresented in reports sent to the U.S. Congress. Insecurity is very high. Without this LD. card I can be stopped by any authority in the country. Sometimes they arrest 2-400 people at a time. “We are accused of being subversives. The Embassy says we care only about the extreme le f t. . . . That’s not true. But I do feel offended by the U.S. presence here in Honduras. I felt offended when the U.S. told us to devalue our currency. I’ ll tell you this much. Our country club people are happy the U.S. is here.” To change the situation, Dr. Custodio feels Honduras would need the following: “ 1) An independent judicial branch; 2) the hegemony of civil power over the military; and 3) an executive branch that gives more guarantees to the have-nots. ” A Ticking Time Bomb Since the Kennedy Alliance for Progress and perhaps before, programs have been shipped in from the north claiming to address the “ have-nots.” Yet the disparity between rich and poor has grown during this period. Gautama Fonseca, who works with campesino groups around Honduras, talked about the key program. “ Land reform hasn’t gone anywhere serious here. There have been times when there was a desire to push it, others when this desire was absent. The effort hasn’t been consistent.” He described project after project which had failed because the agricultural commodity produced was in oversupply worldwide, or because peasant-owned production threatened U.S. or wealthy Honduran interests. Victor Meza, author and director of the H ondu ran D ocum en ta t ion C en te r (CEDOH), a research institute sponsored by the University of Honduras, explained the problem in greater depth. “ There are some 150,000 rural families, an average of 6 members each, with no land. That’s ■‘Then in arms. T U united States. ^ h X u S e crazy.” thought they Honduran campesi one quarter of our national population. And our studies indicate that rural unemployment reaches nearly 50 percent and under-employment 60-65 percent.” It’s the country’s gravest problem. But power still rests with the landed oligarchy and their armed confederates. And thus a military solution, which preserves the status quo, is at the heart of the Reagan gameplan. Victor Meza claims that the aim of joint U.S.-Honduran military development is twofold. “ First, of course, is the development of a substantial front toward Nicaragua. But second, and equally important, is the development of an internal presence in Honduras, especially in the Department (state) of Yoro.” Yoro is currently home to an extensive group of engineers from the Missouri National Guard, constructing a road through a mountain pass to make the area more accessible. “ It’s considered the ideal location for a possible guerrilla uprising,” Meza pointed out. “ It’s very central and the campesinos there are the best organized, and most militant, in Honduras.” Yoro borders much of the nation's agricultural wealth, the Carribean, and is adjacent to Honduras’s two largest and most prosperous cities, San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. Because the rural population is considered a ticking time bomb, much of the U.S. effort has focussed on reaching, if not improving the lives of, the peasantry. The Agency for International Devefop- ment (AID) publishes a magazine called El Agricultor, in a run of 200,000 copies, far more than any national publication. Some 320 Peace Corps Volunteers, the second largest contingent in the world, are stationed throughout the country. The U.S. military stresses outreach programs to the campesinos—medical and veterinary clinics, distribution of used clothing, and entertainment—designed to augment the “ big brother” image of the (North) Americans. It’s all an investment, to make our growing presence in Honduras seem as normal and valuable as possible. They're Coming Our Way Central Honduras reminds me of parts of Eastern Oregon, with its rolling hills, spindly pines-arid vistas ranging off into infinity. 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