Hondurans in South Florida join protests (in support of military coup)

[Billy Burnett]

Hondurans in South Florida join protests
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1120390.html

The political unrest in Honduras has given South Florida's Honduran community a cause to rally around.

BY LAURA FIGUEROA
[e-mail]

In years past, low-key rallies calling for immigration reform and relief drives usually marked the extent of local Hondurans gathering for a cause.

But Sunday's military sanctioned removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya truly galvanized local Hondurans.

''We're a strong group here in South Florida and our voice needs to drown out all the negativity being spread right now,'' said Francisco Portillo, president of the group Francisco Morazan, which helps Honduran immigrants with everything from filling out immigration paperwork to voter registration.

South Florida has one of the largest Honduran populations in the United States -- roughly 49,200 Hondurans live in Miami-Dade, according to 2007 Census estimates, with another 4,000 in Broward County.

The bulk of the community immigrated during the 1980s, fleeing the poverty and overall political turmoil that plagued neighboring Central American countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Another wave of immigrants followed in 1998 following Hurricane Mitch -- a 180 mph storm that tore through the country's infrastructure and whose lingering effects are still visible. Because of Mitch, many Hondurans were able to stay in the United States with the aid of a temporary immigration status offered by U.S Immigration officials.

Most make their homes in working class communities like Little Havana, Allapattah and Hialeah. Their influences are seen especially on segments of Calle Ocho and Flagler Street where Honduran specialty shops and restaurants bear signs with the blue and white Honduran flag.

It was at restaurants like Los Paisanos at 824 W. Flagler St. where local Hondurans stood watching the latest updates on CNN en Español playing on a flat screen TV during Monday's lunchtime rush.

''We're all energized,'' said Mauricio Andino, who moved from the country's capital, Tegucigalpa, 15 years ago.

``We're a little country showing the world that we will not stand for communism, and we will not be bullied by what any of those other communists have to say about us.''

During his presidency, as Zelaya made friends with other Latin American leftist leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, many in the South Florida Honduran community started drawing parallels to South Florida's largest exile communities -- Cubans and Venezuelans.

`SAME PATH'

''Once I saw how close he was getting with Chavez and Castro, I worried that he would lead us down the same path of misery,'' Rosmery Alonzo Roques, said as she lunched at Los Paisanos. ``There's too much poverty in the country for him to be traveling all the time to be photographed with Chavez and Fidel Castro. He should have worried about his own people.''

Even at a Monday evening rally on Coral Way, Cuban flags waved alongside Honduras' flag, as several Cuban exiles in the crowd expressed their support for the way Honduras' military handled Zelaya's ouster.

SHOW OF SUPPORT

''I'm here in support of my Honduran brothers because they did what the Cubans should have done to Fidel Castro a long time ago,'' said Cuban exile Sergio Rios as he hoisted a Cuban flag over his shoulder. ``They made sure they broke any link to the chain of communism. Hopefully others will follow.''

Others, like Gladys Melendez Castro, who was lunching at the Sabor Hondureño Cafeteria on Flagler Street, hoped the situation in Honduras would resolve itself peacefully.

''Once you get the military involved it opens the door to bloodshed,'' Castro said.

``I only hope the future can be resolved with diplomacy, because the rest of the world is looking closely at us.''

As world leaders decried the coup and vowed not to recognize Roberto Micheletti, the man tapped by Honduras' congress to serve as interim president until elections are finalized, sisters Graciela Gonzalez and Maritza Alvarez stood in front of the Honduran Consulate on Coral Way, among a group of 50, waving and shouting.

``Que Zelaya se vaya!'' both petite housewives called out in Spanish. The term loosely translated means ``Leave Zelaya.''

''This is something that has united our community,'' Gonzalez said. ``We want our brothers in Honduras to know that we are with them, and we want the world to hear us from this street corner that the Honduran people are proud they removed that man.''