| 摘要 | Table of Contents “Corruption is not a scandal, but the result of the functioning of a system.”
—Former senior Honduran government official1
In some five dozen countries worldwide, corruption can no longer be understood as merely the iniquitous doings of individuals. Rather, it is the operating system of sophisticated networks that cross sectoral and national boundaries in their drive to maximize returns for their members. Honduras offers a prime example of such intertwined, or “integrated,” transnational kleptocratic networks. This case thus illustrates core features of the way apparently open or chaotic economies are in reality structured worldwide—and some of the dynamics that are driving climate change, persistent inequality, and spiraling conflict.
The Honduran Kleptocratic OS in Action
- In this example, the three interlocking spheres are roughly co-equal in psychological impact if not in amounts of captured revenue. They retain a degree of autonomy, and are often disrupted by internal rivalry.
- This system’s operations devastate the environment—though Honduras is not a “resource” country. Most threats to biodiversity derive from deliberate “development” policies—whose primary purpose is actually to funnel rents to network members.
- Modern renewable energy, as well as hydropower, is captured by the network. The migrant crisis is also fueled by this brand of corruption.
- Repression is carefully targeted for maximum psychological effect. An example was the March 2016 assassination of environmental and social justice activist Berta Cáceres, which reverberated through like-minded communities.
- The kleptocracy benefits from significant external reinforcement, witting or unwitting, including not just military assistance, but much international development financing.
Sarah Chayes is internationally recognized for her innovative thinking on corruption and its implications. Her work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.
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A Different “Chip”
- The first step to disabling the kleptocratic OS is to acknowledge it, and outsiders’role reinforcing it. Western policymakers should invest in the candid study of these networks and to corruption as an intentional operating system, and evaluate whether their inputs are, on balance, enabling or challenging these structures.
- Environmental protection is part of an awakening indigenous worldview that provides an integrated, positive vision many find worth fighting for. Community groups are establishing their own networks, in which cultural and environmental revival is linked to labor and land rights and autonomous education. But these groups receive proportionately little support from donor governments and institutions.
- Community-supported alternative development models exist. Members of such organizations—who have faced death to combat network-controlled dams—readily identify micro-dams that meet their approval. They have helped design and construct some; others contribute to local well-being. Development implementers should study such projects and apply their principles.
- Lessons from Honduras are applicable worldwide. Engaged Honduran community groups have valuable insights not just into how development assistance can produce better results in Honduras, but into ways the West might retool its economy to reduce inequality while preserving and cultivating natural resources.
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Slideshow
Austra Bertha Flores Lopez in her garden. Mother of Bertha Cáceres, the indigenous leader and environmental activist who was assassinated in 2016. Austra is a strong leader in her own right, having served as her city’s first female mayor. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
In Bertha Cáceres’ hometown, La Esperanza, evidence of the breadth of focus she and her group COPINH espoused is all over the walls. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Potter in front of a wood-fired kiln. The Lenca pottery cooperative uses a fine white clay that is dug up in the forest a day’s walk from the village and carried home in bags on their backs. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
An indigenous community activist in the Honduran highlands shows Sarah Chayes his well-thumbed copy of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
A gathering of elders from several Lenca villages. The Lenca are the most populous indigenous group in Honduras and are actively embarking on a cultural and political revival. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
One of the community leaders with his family. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
The kitchen. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
A small hydroelectric dam in the La Paz Department. The very people who opposed the Agua Zarca dam alongside Bertha Cáceres approve of this one. It was designed and built with input from members of every household in the three villages it serves. The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and the European Union, among other donors, supported it. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Lenca communities cherish this type of biodiversity: a single tree is an ecosystem hosting a forest of plants. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
Sunset in the hills of the La Paz Department. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
One of the many indigenous environmental groups in the region that have been the target of judicial harassment, death threats, arson attacks, assassination attempts, and killings because of their efforts to defend their ancestral lands and a different relationship between humans and the environment. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Patuca III, a 55-meter-high concrete gravity dam, which should provide 105 MW of power when complete. There are currently no plans for it to supply electricity to the communities along the river. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
A farmer whose land was expropriated to make way for the Patuca III reservoir. As of last summer, he had not received any of the promised compensation. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
This beautiful valley will be under water after the dam has been completed. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Some are blissfully unaware. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
The Patuca III worksite. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
The scale of the edifice. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
One of the contracting companies working on the dam reportedly belongs to members of the Rosenthal family. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
The Patuca River basin is a part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. It is the largest protected area in Honduras. The reserve contains a wealth of natural resources and wildlife, including white-tailed deer, scarlet macaws, jaguars, tapirs, and iguanas, as well as thousands of plant species such as orchids and kapok trees. It is home to four indigenous peoples: the Tawahka, Pech, Miskitu, and Garifuna. But land-grabbing and deforestation for cattle ranching and clandestine runways threaten biodiversity and human communities alike. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Canoe in an eddy of the vast Patuca River. Such canoes are the only means of transport to the remote communities downstream. After the dam is completed, it is not clear whether the river will be deep enough for these shallow-bottomed boats to navigate. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Deforestation to make way for cattle ranching stretches for miles of once pristine rainforest. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
A Tawahka home. The Tawahka are one of the four indigenous groups along the river that are threatened by the Patuca III project. There are estimated to be fewer than a thousand members of this ethnic group left. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
A Tawahka elder. This man remembers when the tribe still functioned as a vibrant hunting and gathering community. The forest and river provided all they needed. Resources were shared, and meals were eaten communally. A glimpse of Eden, as he tells it. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Tawahka children dressed in traditional costume—the fabric and string made from tree bark. These clothes are made to show tourists, who never come. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
River transport costs precious cash resources, so villagers ask for rides when they can. This woman was one such hitchhiker. (July 2016)
Photo credit: Sarah Chayes
This photo conveys the feeling of being with the Tawahkas, during the last moments before the extinction of a people. (July 2016) Photo credit: Eve Chayes Lyman
Notes
1 Because of the unwavering threats to those who reveal and oppose the workings of the political economy of Honduras described here, few, if any, names will be used in this report. This decision makes for some awkward phrasing, as descriptive identities are repeated through the text.
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