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A Publicity Gag-Law Is Not In The Interests Of Honduras By: Lorenzo Dee Belveal Many of the same people who will read this posting have already seen the press release announcing the "Gag-Law" legislation, recently enacted by the Honduras Chamber of Deputies. If you haven't seen it, you should get a copy of it and read it carefully. It affects you, and your access to news you need. I have been reliably informed by a politically prominent Honduras official, that my Internet postings and other written materials dealing with the frauds committed against my properties on Roatan, are largely responsible for the enactment of this gag-law legislation. When everything else fails, politicians can be expected to pass a law. In connection with the land frauds against me that involve five (5) of my island properties, I want it known that before "going public" with my problems, I spent more than three years and thousands of dollars in futile attempts to "quietly" resolve these problems in the Roatan Court of Letters, which has legal jurisdiction. The fact is that the then-Judge in the Roatan Court of Letters, Fernando Azcona Schrenzel, wouldn't even grant me a "Diligencia Prejudicial de Exhibicion" hearing, for the purpose of comparing mypublic land documents, tax receipts, etc., with those of the people who were trying to steal my land. To this day, I HAVE NEVER HAD A COURT HEARING OF ANY KIND! In the meantime, five separate pieces of my land have been constructively stolen, with the active and/or passive assistance of the sitting Judge of Letters, Fernando Azcona Schrenzel. While these gross perversions of land laws were taking place, I was in almost constant personal and written contact with the Judge of Letters, seeking a hearing to establish my rightful ownership. He would not grant me this hearing. In the meantime, Judge Azcona allowed the Arnold Morris interests to enter claims on my properties, based on spurious documents that included two forged powers-of-attorney. One of these forgeries was on my behalf, and purported to be my authorization for Modesto Gonzales to function as my attorney-in-fact. The other fraudulent power-of-attorney purported to be conveyed by Teodoro Castro to his widow. Except Castro had been dead more than two years, when he purportedly signed and dated this illicit document, according to his death certificate! In spite of this overwhenming and unarguable evidence of illegal activities in accomplishing the theft of my property, Judge Azcona refused to give me a court hearing to show my legal ownership. Instead, he accepted, validated and then entered the fraudulent documents into the Public Registry, as replacements for mine. Until very recently, the Judge of Letters on Roatan also functioned as the Registrar of "Propiedad Inmuebles." Such dual function, of course, only encourages and facilitates land documentation and registration irregularities. Azcona took full advantage of every available latitude offered to him by shoddy procedures and virtually no judicial supervision. In the meantime, he was obediently carrying out every instruction from the Arnold Morris/Southwind Properties principals, and steadfastly refusing to even give me a Court date for othe purpose of presenting my case. When everything else failed, I wrote a personal letter to El Presidente, Don Carlos Roberto Reina, in which I told him I was not prepared to lose my island properties to an international fugitive from justice, Arnold Morris and Southwind Properties, and a totally corrupt Court of Letters, without a fight. I cited fraudulent documents that had been certified by the suborned Judge of Letters, and then entered into the Public Land Registry. Don Carlos Roberto appeared to take my complaint as seriously as I had hoped he would. The matter was turned over to Doctor Miguel Angel Rivera Portillo, President of the Corte Suprema de Justicia. Doctor Rivera Portillo who appointed Doctor Jesus Martinez Suazo (Assesor Fiscal) to conduct judicial inquiries in whatever Courts of Letters he deemed eligible for such examination. While I was not specifically advised that the Roatan Court was at the top of his list, I knew that the investigation of the Roatan Court had already begun, from information I received from both Roatan and Tegucigalpa. It must be added that such judicial scrutiny was long overdue. In addition to my initial letter to El Presidente, Carlos Roberto Reina, I also provided narrative evidence in support of my complaints to both Doctor Rivera Portillo, and Doctor Martinez Suazo, and I offered to open my files completely to them for whatever kind of examination of my legal entitlements they wanted to make. These letters were never acknowledged, even though Judge Fernando Azcona was fired forthwith. However, even though Azcona has been fired, nothing has transpired since that event with respect to reversing his judicial errors and undoing his rulings in which he was an obviously knowing collaborator in patently fraudulent activies. The Reina administration has about a month left to its incumbency. Certainly it is unrealistic to think that the officials in this administration are going to undertake judicial corrections, or otherwise attempt to straighten out the mess left in the Roatan Court of Letters as the residuals of four years of neglect, judicial incompetence and rampant corruption. At this late date, the most graceful exit is a quick one. Leave it to the next administration. And what about the next administraton, regardless of the color of its campaign posters? If history regularly repeated is to be the criterion, the inheritors of the Reina political heritage will be much too occupied with their own agenda to spend time and effort trying to sort out the problems left in the wake of their departing predecessors. In the meantime, the fired judge has his "illicit enrichment" proceeds - and will keep it, while he goes looking for another government position. The thieves have my land - and will keep it. At least for the time being. After all, Arnold Morris bought his Honduras passport from Rafael Callejas! Does anybody think a "Blue" administration is ging to cancel that piece of business? Not likely! This is how the Honduras judicial system works. This is why Honduras, especially, among all of the nations of the western hemisphere, needs the bright lights of professional journalism shining on it. Stamping out the kind of pervasive, established corruption that characterizes Honduras judicial processes in particular, will require all of the public awareness that can be generated A gag-law amounts to a public blindfold. Honduras doesn't need it. I bought my first piece of Roatan land in 1968, and paid cash for it. I have followed this same procedure in every land transaction since then. Whatever land I bought, I paid for immediately - in cash. All of my land documents were, and are, public documents; and they were all properly inscribed in the Public Registry. My taxes have been paid each year when due, and I have the tax receipts to prove it. The only reason I "went public" with these problems is because I could find no remedies in Honduras law, nor in the Court system itself. The famous old publisher, William Randolph Hearst, once said, "When courts and judges refuse to act, and the law-givers choose to ignore great inequities, publicity becomes the tool of last resort for a desperate man." This is where I find myself. To repeat something I said earlier, after more than three (3) years of trying to work in legal channels, and after the wasting of thousands of dollars on lawyers and fruitless legal posturing, I decided to change rules of the game. Having spent a lifetime as a writer and journalist, I understand publicity processes. I also know that publicity alone is not going to bring about recovery of my stolen properties. But publicity may spur otherwise uncaring officials to action, if for no other reason than that of avoiding unwelcome publicity. What El Presidente Don Carlos Roberto called his "moral revolution" certainly hasn't been able to do the job. Whether I get my land back or not isn't crucially important, except as a matter of principle. Not even to me. But I hate being robbed - especially by flag-draped public officials who hide behind a phony facade of elastic laws and contrived legal procedures intended to hoodwink the gullible and immobilize the less-than-affluent victims of the corrupt practices involved. The most important consideration in all of this is what is happening to the national image of Honduras in the eyes of the world. Honduras needs foreign investment desperately. The only basis for investment in Honduras, or anywhere else, is investor confidence. This means confidence in the country's laws and commercial code; confidence in the Courts that administer those laws; and confidence in the men and women who sit in the legislative halls and wield the power to enact new laws. At this point in time, Honduras is generally conceded to be one of the most corrupt - if not THE most corrupt - sovereign nation in the entire western hemisphere. Anyone who doubts this can check it out with the international media. Until this image changes, the notion that Honduras is going to attract substantial foreign (private) investment is simply ridiculous. A foreign investor who would place a big money investment in Honduras under the presently existing circumstances has be an idiot. Let me come now to the "Gag-Law" that was recently enacted in a vain attempt to hide corruption - and corrupt public officials - from the bright light of international publicity. Having spent most of my life directly involved in the "information industry," I have a professional understanding and appreciation of a journalist's legal and functional responsibilities. The first obligation of responsible journalism is to speak the truth. While several individuals have complained about my publicizing these unsavory events for all the world to see, NOBODY has raised a question concerning the truthfulness of the articles I have written. This is not accidental. Before I wrote the first posting I hired one of the world's most distinguished private investigation firms to assemble a body of information for me that would be above question with respect to its veracity. I might add that I have a good deal of additional information that is tangentially pertinent to these matters, and that I have not publicized at all. But insofar as the things I have stated publicly, they are firmly supported by unquestionable sources -and all in writing. The bedrock principle of professional journalism is disarmingly simple: SPEAK THE TRUTH. As long as a reporter does this, he should have nothing to worry about from either "peasants in their fields, or princes in their palaces," as Simone Beauvoir wrote. But among a favored socio/political elite, "truth" is the last thing theywant to confront in their news organs. Nothing is more threatening to an errant politician than the truth about what he is doing in gross violation of his public trust. It was the search for protection against private "whistle-blowers" and pesky professional journalists that the first "gag-rules" were imposed to protect public malefactors. In due course, the informal "gag-rules" were formalized and enacted into law. With such a statute on the books, a corrupt official is safely out of the reach of those against whose legitimate interests he encroaches. The companion-piece for publicity gag-laws, is the law conferring "impunity" on designated elective or appointed officials. With a publicity gag-law and an "impunity" statute written into the law of the land, the depredations of the political elite are circumscribed only by the audacity of the individuals enjoying the such protection. For them, it is not too much to say, there is no law! I can tell you that there was a time when laws like this worked. Covered by a blanket of official secrecy, and "Gag-Laws" that prohibited the dissemination of publicity stories dealing with high-crimes in high places, politicians could get away with just about anything they had guts enough to pull off. They could get away with it, because the exploited public - that always has to pay for political corruption, institutionalized thievery, and administrative ineptitude - had no way of finding out what their "public servants" were doing. When newspapers, radio, television, and outdoor billboards constituted the full panoply of devices through which to inform the public, it was relatively easy for politicians to hide official corruption - of whatever kind. A well-enforced "Gag-Law" that applied to all of the public media, rendered the politicians virtually untouchable by legal processes, regardless of their public and private sins. And, if the "Gag-Law" itself was not enough to silence the critics, an arranged murder is usually well within the scope of "un-official" retribution. But this has changed. In the "good old days," as a correspondent, I used to investigate a story, type it up, and then take it to a telegraph office or a "wire room" and have it transmitted to my editors - in New York, London, Chicago, or Bangkok. Depending on where I was living at the time, I might see my story "in print" the next day, the next week - or never! This old, inefficient system no longer applies. Now I can sit down at my computer, write an article, insert the electronic addresses of the publications, broadcasters and individuals to whom I want the manuscript delivered, hit the "SEND" button and ZIP! It's gone. That story will be on the desks of the people in my address list before I can pour myself a cup of coffee. Whether a particular editor or publication will "pick up" my release and print or broadcast it will depend on how each editor feels the story will "play" in his market, how well the story is written, and - most importantly - my reputation for reliability as a news reporter. What it all comes down to is that any reporter can "go Global" with anything he thinks deserves that kind of international distribution. Media managers in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, will probably be MORE inclined to run a "sensitive" story coming out of a country with a publicity gag-law, than they would otherwise. The reason being that most people - especially people in the news business -support the idea of freedom of the press. The world's news establishment especially doesn't like the idea of a bunch of politicians deciding what - and what not - we can tell the folks who want, need - and deserve - to know, what's going on! Publishers, editors and journalists instinctively rise up in unison against publicity controls or news suppression. As individuals and as an industry we are sworn to do everything possible to make sure that,even when the politicians are stupid enough t pass them, the gag-laws don't work. This means: PRINT IT! Even when gag-laws do work, they only work locally. In Honduras, for example, I provided news "leaders" to both El Dia and LaPrensa newspapers, concerning the fraudulent sale of a Honduras citizenship to Arnold Morris, and the operational and judicial problems in the Roatan Court of Letters. Neither newspaper saw fit to "pick up" the stories and do something with them. This fact in itself doesn't mean a thing. I have sat in the Editor's chair, myself. A blizzard of stories, "leads" and related information lands on the Editor's desk every hour of every day. It is an editor's job to look at all of this stuff and decide what is important and what isn't. What his subscribers want to read, and what they don't care about. What he will print, and what he will throw in the wastebasket. It is the editor's responsibility to make these decisions, often all by himself. If he is able to make these decisions freely and in full, unfettered professional honesty, he doesn't need to explain his reasons for having done so to anyone. But if his decision-making is colored - or controlled - by a gag-law of the kind recently enacted in Honduras, then both his own professional integrity and the integrity of his publication is destroyed: He has been turned into a tool for political manipulation of public confidence. When this happens, neither the editor nor his publication can be trusted. With credibility gone, a newspaper - or a news reporter - has nothing left. The days of "gag-law" protection of political/criminal activity are goneforever. Newspapers, radio stations and television outlets used to constitute the only means of getting this kind of information to the public. So as long as the politicians could control these outlets they could control what their own citizens and the world at large got to hear or read about them. No more! Worldwide electronic communications is here - and it's here to stay. Now everybody knows everything! The Honduras Gag-Law is a mistake. Not just because it won't work, but because it makes the people who enacted it look ridiculous. It makes Honduras look ridiculous in the eyes of its neighbors and the world. The first day the Internet went into operation, was the last day news could be managed by politicians. Smart politicians realize this. Less-than-smart politicians better begin finding it out. At this point in time, one person with a computer and an Internet connection can disseminate a news story around our planet in milliseconds. Today's news travels at the speed of light. Everybody is going to have to learn to live - or die - with this reality. Especially politicians. A publicity gag-law, however well crafted, is not going to change this technological fact of political life at the near-dawning of the 21st century.
---------------- Copyright © 1997 Lorenzo Dee Belveal
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