A protestor displays a Honduran flag.

things escalated to personal confrontations and burning of tires. Around 3:30pm, after reports of tires being burned in front of RECO traveled across the island, the Municipal Roatan Police came down from Coxen Hole to Los Fuertes.
Even Hendrix in vain tried to prevent burning of tires in front of the RECO plant. With no police to help her, Hendrix received little help from other patronato members or local protester. At that point it became evident that the protest's organizers lost control of the escalating situation. They had no way of communicating with each other, controlling the erection of new barricades, burning of tires, etc.
While the list of patronato demands grew, nothing was put down in writing, a strategy combined with a threat for violence seemed to work perfectly. The government's inability to take decisive action against the taking of public property was another key to the success of the protests. Still, unlike the RECO board, the patronato representatives did bring a legal council to the RECO meetings that begun on Monday afternoon at French Harbour's Gio's restaurant.
After several hours of discussion RECO in writing agreed to five points: 1-lowering fuel adjustment rates from Lps. 1.26 to .Lps. 0.88, 2- forming a commission to discuss consumer issues, 3-discuss any future tariff adjustments with municipal and patronatos, 4- elect a person among patronatos to represent then in RECO board as Mathew Harper and Charles George resigned from the board, 5-willingness of RECO to cooperate with an independent audit commission.
"They never gave to the people," said Danelia about Charles George and Mathew Harper the only two foreign board members who were gave their resignation to appease the protestors. "They didn't represent the people and foreigner or not, if they didn't act according to right and justice they are unnecessary."
"Rosa doesn't know what we have done behind the scenes at board meetings," said Mathew Harper, since 2000 an 'A shareholder director' on RECO board. Harper along with George had set-up engineering school scholarships and free-of-charge energy audits for high consumption claims. "She didn't care about trying to improve things peacefully and wanted the confrontation from the beginning," said about Hendrix Harper. Harper who has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering represents the interests of type-A shareholders, and he is valued at the board for his technical expertise.
RECO board has had several people representing type-A shareholders before: Winston Smith, Rudolph Brooks and Fernando Fernandes, but several RECO board members felt their presence was only in name. "They just didn't come to the meetings, or participate," said about them Bodden.
Hendrix made no qualms about her strategy in the protests. "I didn't want to negotiate. Part of our culture is that we need to do this," said Hendrix about the demonstrators taking over the streets. In September 2005, Danelia lost a campaign for the Liberal Party nomination to congress and recently she was unsuccessful in lobbying for an appointment as Bay Islands governor.
Patronatos never formally accepted the five point RECO proposal and in another set of talks at 5pm formed verbally two demands: resignation of Bodden as RECO manager and forming of government audit commission within 48 hours.
Conspicuously absent from second round of 'negotiations' was Hendrix. "She made a mistake of representing the situation differently than other patronato leaders thought," said Senen Mejia, Municipal liaison to the patronatos. While the absence of Hendrix made the talks less confrontational it became evident that local leaders had no experience in debating, stipulating demands and compromising.
At 6pm, after a brief conference with RECO board Bodden resigned as company's general manager, but kept his position as RECO board president. "Due to the demand of the consumers I will resign.(…) I hope that the personal sacrifice I give will improve the company and you will respect it," said Bodden.
Bodden admits that the timing of the rise of fuel adjustment during the transition to hotter months and higher demand for energy was a mistake. "The adjustment came at a wrong time. We should have done it earlier, but we wanted to eat the cost for consumers."
With world fuel prices at $60 a barrel 75% of RECO's operating expenses go towards purchasing fuel. This makes the running of the company extremely volatile and forced in October of 2004 the introduction of the fuel surcharge that is not dependent on the time consuming government approval process.
While Bodden received $4,000 a month salary, rumors of his $10,000 a month salary circulated widely during the protests. "They are actually paying me less than the previous manager," says Bodden. "I lack appreciation sometimes," said in frustration Bodden who also plans on resigning from the position as RECO board president during the September shareholders meeting. Bodden will remain in managing RECO until his replacement is found.
"I've been waiting for four years to do this," said with a horse voice Hendrix, who admitted of only sleeping one hour in the last three days. "We've been suffering since 1992." The strategy, or its lack, worked to the protesters advantage. The protesters got all they requested, but they were holding out for more: resignation of Bodden.
In a meeting at the Roatan Municipal on June 6, Paula Bonilla, Vice minister of tourism, headed a commission that met with both sides of the protest. After several hours of talks a five point agreement was signed by RECO board members: lowering of the April, May and June rates to the February levels, naming an qualified islander as interim general manager, RECO will in writing accept the audit of its financial statements to a commission, not cutting-off energy to customers in financial problems through July, and removal claims official Lastenia Bodden from her post. Lastenia Bodden, was accused by the patronanato reps of "rudeness in dealing with customers."
Weeks after the agreement was signed, many Roatanians remain skeptical about the results of their protests. "This is only paper. Some people are talking of taking over the streets because their electric bill is still high," Maritza Bustillo, 37, homemaker from Brick Bay.
This is not the first time violent protests have hit RECO. In 1995 stacks of tires were burned in front of the entrance to the company when Cuban born Armando Augillar was the general manager.
"Three percent of our budget, Lps. 1 million in income taxes has been lost," said Mayor Jackson. The affect of the protest went far beyond the loss of tax revenue: the impact of civil unrest and discontent reverberated an echo deep into the business community of the island.
While patronatos showed endurance and determination, RECO shown its ability to compromise. Police shown restraint and local authorities shown patience and impartiality. In a third world country like Honduras patience sometime has to substitute the rule of law.
After the RECO concessions were made public, demonstrators became conscious that their strategy was successful and expressed interest in pursuing other goals. "We were here for days and nothing got done. We took over the highway and we accomplished everything in one day. We will do the same about, Hondutel cable and the ferry," said a protester over a loudspeaker.

2006 ShrimpFest becomes the largest two-day cultural event in Honduras since the visit of the Pope

The 2006 Roatan International Shrimp Festival was what the 2005 CaribFest should have, but never was: a two day international event promoting the Bay Islands and Honduran music and culture to thousands of visitors. All that for an entry price Roatanians could actually afford.
Suyapa Edwards, the organizer of the event, has almost single-handedly accomplished what the entire Honduras ministry of tourism failed to do: fill Roatan's hotel rooms in the low season. The artists and visitors to the festival could feel proud to be a part of an archipelago rich in culture, that may be sidelined, but key in its boom as a tourist and retirement destination.
While San Pedro might have the crowds and Tegucigalpa might have the government attention it is Roatan that has the organizational capability and the support of its diverse international, business community and is fast becoming a dependable venue for setting up mass cultural events. ShrimpFest, outside of Honduras' several city carnivals and Gracias' Lempira Day celebrations, has become one of the country's biggest culture events.

As workers finish construction of the main stage a girl looks on at a beauty contest.

In a two hour meeting around 50 real estate professionals from the 24 Roatan licensed and number of unlicensed real-estate companies gathered at the municipal to discuss the audit of all real estate transactions done from January 1, 2005. Mayor Dale Jackson and second council member Julio Galindo spoke in unison as they raised their concerns that many real estate transactions sale prices are being reported low, or avoid paying municipal 1% 'fee' altogether. "There is a lot of money that didn't get to the municipality," said about the $350,000 2005 real estate tax revenue Mayor Jackson.
"The municipality is being laughed at," said Galindo. "I can barely pave one kilometer of road with that. We expect more from you," added Mayor Jackson.
Municipal members and real estate brokers disagreed on which transactions the 'fee' should be applied to and the means of collecting and verifying the payment. "Why should we pay tax [on corporation transfers] to the Municipal if we don't pay it to the central government [1.5%]," asked Alejandro Tugliani, a local lawyer, arguing that when an administrator of a corporation changes, the sale is considered a "merchant transfer" and no municipal fees has to be paid. Several realtors raised the issue of the lack of coordination between the municipal where the 'fee' is paid, and land

For three years, two Honduran Internet and telecommuncations companies have competed for the Bay Islands market. Tropico Telephone & Internet and GlobalNet are now both working on upgrading their services and filling in gaps in telecommunications service.

TTI has become the first internet and telecommunications provider to provide a backbone, independent of Hondutels' infrastructure, to Honduran subscribers in La Ceiba and Bay Islands. The company's internet traffic passes through international fiber optic connection points, Mayan-1 and Arcos-1 before it is picked up by long distance microwave and fiber optics communications link connecting La Ceiba and Bay Islands with the rest of the world. Now the internet signal arrives in the Bay Islands after three 'hops' instead of the previous 6-7.
Globalnet is not far behind, but has decided on a different approach connecting Puerto Cortez and with La Ceiba not with a set of wireless stations, but by a fiber optic cable. This is a greater investment of $1.4 million versus the $500,000 the company expected to pay for a similar wireless backbone. Globalnet's 240 kilometer long project is 50 percent complete in laying down its 240 kilometer long fiber optic cable, has just passed Tela and is expected to be ready in August. "We want to replicate the experience of internet that mainland subscribers already enjoy," said Velasquez.
TTI has also made inroads in alleviating Honduras' telephone communications problems. Until recently Hondutel had a monopoly as the country's sole telephone provider. A year ago 18 licenses were granted to companies to provide telephone service through the country. TTI has become a sub operator of Hondutel issuing 470 extension phone numbers throughout its region of operations: from Tela to La Ceiba and in the Bay Islands.
Globalnet also provides telephone numbers, but mostly to large corporate clients on mainland Honduras. In August on Roatan the company will offer an alternative, or a back-up credit card service, to around 200 businesses accepting credit cards where until now Hondutel had a monopoly.
The La Ceiba based TTI has currently around 500 customers: 200 on Roatan, 150 on Utila and 8 on Cayos Cochinos. With 900 Utila Power Company (UPCO) costumers, Utila has the highest market 17% market density. TTI expects continued growth in subscribers of 50% to 60% a year.
Under the leadership Jeremy Crane, a 30-year-old CEO, in August 2004 Tropico, restructured itself into TTI (Tropico Telephone and Internet) with Lps. 20 million capitalization. "Everyone has suffered through poor reliability and limited bandwidth for years. The timing of this connection is critical to the booming tourism and manufacturing industries in this area," said Charles Powers, president of TTI with 25 years IBM managerial experience, who recently took over as the company's head man.
Globalnet is a bigger San Pedro Sula based national internet company that focuses on larger, mostly corporate clients with several offices throughout the country. Globalnet has currently 2,000 subscribers with 130 of them on Roatan.

"We respect our competition and we think it helps us to bring a better service," said Mario Velasquez, administrative director of Globalnet, a 1996 formed company and one of Honduras' original telecommunications carriers.
On Roatan, a geographically remote market with many foreign businesses, Globalnet has partnered with locally known and well established Paradise Computers. The partnership has allowed the company to steadily grow its customer base and, especially in the first two years, rely on Paradise Computer's staff for technical assistance.
The time when affordable internet will be available to wide Bay Islands public is fast approaching. It is most likely that the local cable companies, with already existing cable networks and customers will offer the cheapest, most economical way for small customers to find affordable and fast internet connection.
TTI is seeing a continuing large growth in its Utila and especially Roatan markets. To ease connections and lessen cost to consumers a fiber optic line was laid by the company in Utila and La Ceiba. A DSL local link is already operational in Coxen Hole, French Harbour, West End and West Bay. Globalnet on the other hand is working with China based UT Starcam, to set-up a copper cable network first in Jonesville, then in West End in July.
TTI is also looking at expanding its services to include Trujillo and Tela, but on Guanaja things have been more complicated. While Globalnet has established a base of 20 subscribers on the island, TTI found Guanaja, with small size of the internet market and lack of regular transport to the island, a difficult place to provide wireless service.
Ten months ago on Roatan an alternative to TTI and Globalnet networks came on the market. In more remote locations customers can now choose from two direct satellite connections: VSat and DirecWay, installed by Paradise Computers. This dish technology that connects customers directly to the satellite has already attracted two dozen subscribers. While 20 chose the more expensive VSat option that allows for stable Voice/IP connection at an initial cost of around $3,500, a handful of others opted for the more economical, $1,600 DirecWay package. This internet option is typically considered an alternative for individual customers, not large business requiring wide bandwidth and short delays in signal.
Both companies stay conscious of its public image and try to give back to the community they work in. TTI has sponsored a La Ceiba bike race "Conquesta de Cangrejal" and provided free internet services at the 2005 Roatan Shrimp Festival, while Globalnet is providing a free internet service at Nurse Peggy's Clinica Esperanza and is looking for another two-three non-profit and community oriented projects to sponsor. "We are not just about making profit. We are a socially conscious company," said Velasquez.