Honduran Presidential Inauguration 2010

We had the day off from school today as the 27th was Inauguration Day for the new president, Porofino Wolf. After watching the news coverage early this morning we thought we should go down to the stadium and see if we could get in to watch the ceremony.

As we got within about 6 blocks of the National Stadium the road was blocked by soldiers and police. They stopped us and an officer asked us if we had tickets to get inside the stadium - when we told him we did not but we wanted to enter the section for the public, he looked at me, a knowing smirk smirk and told us we could pass. We kind of sensed this might be a sign to be concerned as I seemed to get a kick out of a big, bald gringo wanting to sit in the public section at the stadium. But we drove on and found a parking spot three blocks away.

The area around the stadium is not particulary nice and we would not take a stroll typiclly (especially somewhat dressed up for the occasion) through this part of town but there seemed to be a huge military and police presence so we felt unusually safe. We entered the stadium through the public entrance and found a very crowded grandstand filled with typical Hondurans but everyone seemed to be in a festive mood - I took off my tie and unbuttoned my dress shirt to look a little less conspicuous, though I'm not sure it did much good.

The ceremony was about to begin and we lucked out by finding a perfect spot * along the fence directly across the field from the podium where everything important would take place. Elsa took a spot a few rows up on the concrete seating and I stood at the fence next to a soldier, as an extra security precaution. A few minutes later a slightly older man, who was very friendly, stood to the other side of me so I could feel a little less Concerned about protecting my camera and my pockets from the pickpockets who are often about. (* Apparently some large animal had passed through before the crowd arrived as there were two massive piles of shit about 6 feet on either side of the three of us. - This may have been the reason that my spot was vacant in the first place but I was too excited by the event to worry about the stench ... which seemed to grow as more people accidentally stepped in and slowly tracked the massive piles into slippery trails!)

The ceremony was exciting as it began with deafening fly-overs by four jets, getting the crowd energized before the new president would take the podium and give his 30 minute speech. The infield of the soccer stadium was filled with soldiers from every branch of the Honduran military and standing at attention in full gear. Following the speech, President Lobo got into a Hum-Vee outfitted as a parade vehicle and stood in the rear with his generals as they conducted a review of the troops in formation - it definitely gave the ceremony more of a third-world feeling when coupled with the huge military presence in the grandstand.
We hung out in the stadium to take in the 30-minute music and dance ensemble that ended the ceremony and then waited until most of the crowd had worked their way out into the streets.
When we left the stadium there were soldiers everywhere as they had to exit the stadium and began Congregating at differnet points around the busy streets. People dressed in Honduran-blue and vendors selling food and souvenirs walked about everywhere you looked. We noticed some obvious VIPs taking pictures with some of the locals outside another entrance - they noticed us as we were walking by and Mistook us for VIPs. The woman, who is apparently a senator in the Honduran Congress, made a bee-line for Elsa and latched on to her arm asking her who we were with. Elsa told her we were not with anyone, just Americans living in the city who came down because we knew this was an historic event. The senator posed for a couple of pictures with Elsa and then Thanked us for being there.
We wandered around the area taking in the whole scene and then headed back home. An hour later, the deposed president, who had been hiding out in the nearby Brazilian embassey for the past four months, left the country on a private jet bound for the Dominican Republic.