Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Cardinal Maradiaga sends out a ‘Mayday’

Cardinal Maradiaga“One of the Ten Commandments says ‘thou shalt not kill’” pointed out cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa. 

The Episcopal Conference of one of the most violent South American countries sprang into action immediately to help secure the release of kidnapped journalist Alfredo Villatoro Rivera and there were demonstrations against the intensification of violence in every parish. 

It was a generous move but it did not yield the desired results.
 
The forty seven year old journalist who had been working for radio HRN in Honduras (one of the country’s most important broadcasters) was recently found dead. He used coordinate the morning news program but was kidnapped a week ago as he was heading to work in Tegucigalpa. 

The body was found dressed in police uniform with a red handkerchief on his head. It was dumped near a row of empty lots in a subdivision southeast of the capital. 

The authorities reported that the journalist appeared to have been killed by two gunshots to the head. The media in Honduras believe that the red handkerchief and the police uniform represent a message of protest sent by criminal organizations opposed to the country’s institutions, which have begun a clean-up operation in the police force after several agents and officials were implicated in drug-smuggling, robberies and car theft.
 
Villatoro was kidnapped on 9 May, 48 hours after the murder of reporter Erick Alejandro Martinez Avila, press agent of the Kukulcan group, an anti-discrimination organization. According to the Honduras Journalists’ Union between 2007 and the first five months of this year 23 journalists have been killed in the country. 

Honduran cardinal, Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa and the media association of this central American country strongly condemned the abduction of journalist Alfredo Villatoro and appealed to the kidnappers to spare his life.
 
Honduras, which is home to 8.2 million inhabitants, is experiencing a wave of violence that, according to human rights organizations and the local press, is causing an average of 20 deaths per day. According to data from the Monitoring of violence of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, in 2011 the country had 81.5 murders per 100,000 residents. 

According to data provided by the United Nations, this is well above the world average of 8.8. The government is carrying out a clean-up operation within the National Police, stretching to prosecutors and even the judiciary.

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga stated that the Catholic Church has announced a citizen campaign to promote a culture of peace and respect for life, the campaign organized together with Caritas Honduras and the Episcopal Conference is aimed at supporting the development of a society that places at its centre respect, welfare and safety of the human person.

Villatoro, 47 years old, was kidnapped by strangers in the morning of Wednesday 9 May, on the way to the offices of HRN radio station where he had been working for twenty years. Police stated they had no leads. 

"We condemn the violence and ask God to touch the hearts of the kidnappers to get them back on the path of the Lord, the path of justice, and to respect Villatoro’s life," said Cardinal Rodriguez speaking to Radio HRN

 He added that all the parishes in Honduras "are united in prayer to God for the life of this operator of communication, and so that his kidnappers do not stain our country with more blood."
 
The Archbishop of Tegucigalpa had already said before the highest authorities of Honduras that the country is bleeding, mortally wounded by violence, increasing poverty, lack of respect for life and corruption among the police. 

The violence in Honduras is also the product of "the impact of narco-business subculture, unstoppable migration and of religious confusion, a result of the invasion of the sects," the cardinal said during the celebration of the Eucharist on February 3 for the 265th anniversary of discovery of the Virgin of Suyapa, patroness of the Central American country. 

The celebration was attended by Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, his ministers, the heads of the legislative and judicial powers, other local authorities, diplomats, and thousands of Honduran Catholics from different regions of the country.
 
The cardinal said that the living conditions in Honduras suggest that only faith and hope can bring peace, tranquillity, security and mutual trust. In his opinion the cleaning of the National Police, which has been implicated in various crimes and misdemeanours, is an "urgent imperative" and a "hard job" to be executed. 

In an appeal to government, the cardinal said: "We cannot let ourselves be overcome by evil, but we must overcome evil with good; we cannot live in fear, insomnia, nightmares and grief." The Archbishop of Tegucigalpa also reminded that we must teach children that there is "a commandment of God's law which says: Thou shalt not kill."