Why Justice Matters To Me: Omar Hernández

Mario the Bus Driver

ASJ’ Work Building a Safe Home Brave Christians working for justice in Honduras.

In recent issues of Justicia, we have shared about the melodies that inspire us to continue working for justice and why our staff call Honduras home . In this issue, we want to share with you what it means for Hondurans to build a safe home. We often see many people leaving other countries and coming to the US, searching for a better life. Although immigration is a complex topic, we understand there are always push and pull factors that motivate people living anywhere to either leave or stay in their home countries. Extortion in Honduras is one of the most pressing push factors displacing people from their homes. Gangs have been the traditional perpetrators of this crime. It’s so common Hondurans have a colloquial name for it: the “war tax.” Typically, extortionists will force business owners like bus and taxi owners, produce vendors, restaurant owners, and other members of the community to pay them a recurring fee under the threat of committing acts of violence against them or people they love if they fail to pay. Over 200,000 Honduran households are forced to pay extortion fees every year. On my first visit to Honduras as Executive Director in January, I witnessed the tremendous beauty of the country and its people. I also learned about the challenges Hondurans face. These two realities–beauty and challenge–exist side by side. But what we hear most clearly every day at ASJ from our Honduran friends and partners is how much they love their home. Many Honduran immigrants will say they would have stayed if they had felt safe enough to stay–if they knew their businesses could thrive and they could raise their children in peace. Staying true to our mission of being brave Christians, ASJ has been investigating the topic of extortion and developing proposals for how to address it in Honduras. With our work, we aim to build a safer Honduras for people like Mario, whose story you will read in this issue. As Mario will tell you, there is no place like home, and we are honored to participate in this work of building a safe home alongside our Honduran brothers and sisters.

November 2023 through January 2024

Hi Friend,  It’s hard to do justice to the view of the mountains surrounding the town of La Union. Words (and even pictures) don’t quite capture it. I had caught glimpses of its panoramic majesty during the steep uphill drive into the mountain range the evening before, but its full beauty only hit me the next day. The morning had started with some cows in the dark and a handful of men coaxing milk from grateful udders. After the jugs had all been filled, a new task presented itself. A group of cattle had broken out of their enclosure on the other side of town and would need to be driven back. I mounted my horse, looking more at ease in the well-worn saddle than I felt, and joined the procession through the town's streets to the pasture where the cattle belonged. When we rounded the corner, my breath caught in my chest. “Pasture,” it transpired, meant something different here than it did to my Midwest mind. Rather than flat grassland, we found ourselves on a gently sloping hillside with a soaring vista of the surrounding mountains dotted with lavish forests, coffee fields, and other grazing livestock. Thousands of feet of ancient elevation pulsing with beauty and life. I couldn’t stop staring.

English ASJ-US calls for the Honduran government to protect and promote a strong civil society. ASJ-US expresses concern over continuing and escalating intimidation against non-governmental organizations that advocate for effective and transparent governance. In particular, it calls attention to attacks against ASJ-Honduras following the release of Transparency International’s annual report on the perception of corruption, which disclosed the country's stagnation in the fight against corruption, lack of accountability and high impunity. For over twenty five years, ASJ-US has supported ASJ-Honduras’s work on behalf of the most vulnerable Hondurans. Inspired by the commitment of brave Hondurans to advocate for justice, ASJ-US has provided financial support, including the full funding for ASJ-Honduras’s offices that opened in 2020. ASJ-US will continue to stand beside ASJ-Honduras’s work identifying areas needing improved government accountability and solutions to bring about that accountability. The independent and non-partisan monitoring and advocacy provided by ASJ-Honduras and Transparency International are essential to protect the interests of the Honduran people. Attacks and restrictions on civil society organization stifle the robust dialogue and engagement of the Honduran people essential to ensure a transparent government that meets the needs of the electorate. ASJ-US calls on the Honduran government to work with ASJ-Honduras to address the public’s concerns about impunity and corruption identified in the Transparency International report. Español ASJ-US pide al gobierno hondureño que proteja y promueva una sociedad civil fuerte. ASJ-US expresa su preocupación por la continua y creciente intimidación contra las organizaciones no gubernamentales que abogan por una gobernanza eficaz y transparente. En particular, llama la atención sobre los ataques contra ASJ-Honduras tras la publicación del informe anual de Transparencia Internacional sobre la percepción de la corrupción, que reveló el estancamiento del país en la lucha anticorrupción, rendición de cuentas y alta impunidad. Durante más de veinticinco años, ASJ-US ha apoyado el trabajo de ASJ-Honduras a favor de los hondureños más vulnerables. Inspirados por el compromiso de los valientes hondureños quienes abogan por la justicia, ASJ-US ha proporcionado apoyo financiero, incluyendo el financiamiento completo de las oficinas de ASJ-Honduras que se abrieron en 2020. ASJ-US continuará al lado del trabajo de ASJ-Honduras identificando áreas que necesitan una mejor rendición de cuentas del gobierno y soluciones para lograr esa rendición de cuentas. El monitoreo independiente y no partidista y la incidencia que proporcionan ASJ-Honduras y Transparencia Internacional son esenciales para proteger los intereses del pueblo hondureño. Los ataques y las restricciones a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil ahogan el diálogo sólido y la participación del pueblo hondureño necesarios para garantizar un gobierno transparente que satisfaga las necesidades del electorado. ASJ-US hace un llamado al gobierno hondureño para que colabore con ASJ-Honduras a fin de abordar las preocupaciones de la población sobre la impunidad y la corrupción identificadas en el informe de Transparencia Internacional.

On January 30th, 2024, ASJ unexpectedly became the target of a ferocious attack by the Honduran government—an attack that is escalating and has put ASJ and our staff at risk. I am writing to ask you to raise your voice in prayer, support, and advocacy as we determine how to best respond to this situation while continuing to work for justice in Honduras. The Situation: ASJ has the honor of being the Honduran chapter of Transparency International (TI), which produces the most influential corruption index in the world. On Tuesday, January 30, ASJ held a press conference to share Honduras’ ranking in the index published by TI early that morning (Honduras' rank had stayed the same as the previous year--154th out of 180 countries). Government officials, furious that Honduras’ ranking had not improved, immediately began to threaten ASJ and our staff in the media. First, the president of Congress, in his opening session of the year, said that “there would be consequences” for ASJ’s report. An hour later, another high-level official warned that “ASJ’s days are numbered.” On Wednesday, the minister of transparency announced that government authorities “would definitely be taking legal action against ASJ.” This is certainly not the first time that ASJ has been attacked and threatened for speaking up and telling the truth. We know from long experience that doing justice makes those who abuse their power angry. But this is the first time these attacks are coming directly from the Honduran government, which has the power to use legal and physical force to intimidate and silence its critics and seems increasingly willing to do so. The government’s threats are a stark example of the threats to democracy that are increasing around the world. We are taking these threats seriously and doing everything we can to ensure that our justice work continues uninterrupted. My friend and co-director, Carlos Hernandez, reminds us often that “Truth has power.” At ASJ we are committed to telling the truth —through our investigations and our press conferences. It is how we carry out God’s call to do justice for those most vulnerable, and it is not negotiable. But we know we cannot do this alone, especially in these moments. Our staff is always encouraged and sustained by the knowledge that thousands of people around the world care about what happens in Honduras and walk alongside them as they do this difficult work. Here are three ways you can stand with us today: Pray for wisdom as we respond to this threat, for the safety of our staff, and for a path forward as we continue our work. Sign up for prayer alerts here . Support us financially as we increase security measures in Honduras to make sure our staff stays safe during this volatile time. Call your congressional representative to tell them what is happening and urge them to speak out against the attacks against ASJ and against the Honduran government's increasing disregard for democratic rule. You can enter your zip code here to find your representative's office phone number. Feel free to use this script as a guide: My name is [NAME], and I am a constituent from [CITY]. I’m calling to tell you about very concerning attacks on a civil society organization that I support in Honduras called the Association for a More Just Society. Simply for publishing an independent report on corruption in the country, they are now being threatened and attacked by the Honduran government. Please do all you can to speak out against this abuse of power and to support civil society—in Honduras and around the world. Thank you for standing with us!

“At its simplest, justice is the way God intended for things to be.” -Kyle Meyaard-Schaap