Many of these problems go way back, for decades and decades, in Honduran history, and many of them have been made dramatically worse by the illegal coup, which opened the door to spectacular corruption and the near complete decline...[Technical difficulty--Editor]. Some of these questions go way back to the control of the Honduran economy by...[Technical difficulty--Editor] families, the so-called oligarchs that control the Honduran economy and the political system.
There had never been a viable alternative party in Honduran history until this year, and the long history of United Fruit and the United States' control over the Honduran economy and political system has supported this model, including long-time support for the Honduran military. Honduras has always historically been used as a base for U.S. military intervention in Central America.
So there's a long history of these problems and there's a long history of these families controlling the vast majority of Honduran wealth and not wanting to redistribute it, and there's a long history of a very terrifying military control of the country, and the police have been corrupt for generations.
I think it has all worsened dramatically since the coup, where you have the full collusion of the government with this throwing out the window of the rule of law. So if you look at the number of homicides, for example, and how that's shot up, including the targeting of the opposition, and although there were very serious death squad activities from the 1980s, the level now is just as high. This massive repression of civil society has increased dramatically since the coup.