Korea, Honduras have many things in common good for increased cooperation

By Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik with VCs Choe Nam-suk, Song Na-ra, Reporter Ms. Kim Soo-bin

The Republic of Korea and the Republic of Honduras have many things in common and a firm ground for increased relations, cooperation, friendship between the two countries.  This was immediately apparent at a recent interview with Ambassador Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle of Honduras at the Embassy of Honduras in Seoul.

At the time of the interview, it was easily noticed that President Xiomara Castro had many things in common with President Yoon Suk Yeol and former President Park Chung-hee of the Republic of Korea.  She also had many things in common with Korea’s lady Head of Government, President Park Keun-hye, daughter of the legendary President Park Chung-hee.

The prominent things in common between Honduran Head of Government and her counterpart in Korea are the enthusiasm and search for ways to improve the livelihood of their peoples—through economic revitalization, development and growth.

In this respect, it would not be amiss to learn detail the dedication to the promotion of well-being of the people of Honduras, and here are the details:

Who is the Head of Government of the Republic of Honduras? Please introduce the Head of Government of the Republic of Honduras in details. A published resume could be used if there is not much time.

Instead of using a resume I will personalize, it will serve your understanding better, because I have said and reiterate, I am a friend of the President, and her political appointee. And to personalize I will use all the terms apparently forbidden at Foggy Bottom.

President Xiomara Castro is also mestiza and comes from a traditional Honduran family, in her case from the Santa Barbara province, a rich coffee producing heavily forested region of interior Honduras.

She is a teacher by training, is married to Manuel Zelaya, whose mother also by the way, is a teacher. President Xiomara is also proud mother of four children also, all of them now mature ladies and young men, some of which either work with her or are politicians on their own right, as Congresswoman Xiomara, and several of whom also have regaled her with grandchildren, whom she also loves dearly, and takes often with her on tours of duty.

I came to know Xiomara, that is I came close to her while in service, when I was coordinating social cabinet policy and services of her husband’s government: 2006 2009. She was First Lady then and led a special social protection network Program called Red Solidaria (Solidarity Network).

I was very impressed by her commitment to service, she travelled with me and the other ministers to the remotest mountainous regions where our poorest indigenous compatriots lived, and wearing appropriate simple garments, walked in the villages to greet and console people.

She showed them love and they returned it with sincerity. After the 2009 coup and forceful exile of her husband, Xiomara became a political leader of Resistance, stayed in the country, refused proffered protection, and was extremely courageous in facing the violent military in the streets and the dictator, in media.

So, when the time came to choose a new presidential candidate for our Party, I insisted on her, argued she had earned that post, was her adamant supporter, even more so than her husband, which was new ground for friendship.

Now, I think friends ought to be sincere, so I sometimes take issue with decisions and I express my dissent, privately and of course in a respectful form. (She is not infallible, you know, even the pope is not, except in matters of dogma which I don’t understand)

stens to and has accommodated that criticism and she has kept me in her service.

Whereas I am comfortable that she is our well intentioned moral and political leader and am confident that she is advancing over very difficult terrain and recent ruin, in reconstructing the Honduran state and society from the devastation of a narcostate.

Without condescension, although most Hondurans think of her as a mother figure, sometimes I think of her as a more successful older daughter. She is much younger.

Instead of using a resume I will personalize, it will serve your understanding better, because I have said and reiterate, I am a friend of the President, and her political appointee. And to personalize I will use all the terms apparently forbidden at Foggy Bottom.

President Xiomara Castro is also mestiza and comes from a traditional Honduran family, in her case from the Santa Barbara province, a rich coffee producing heavily forested region of interior Honduras.

She is a teacher by training. Is married to Manuel Zelaya, whose mother also by the way, is a teacher. Xiomara is also proud mother of four children also, all of them now mature ladies and young men, some of which either work with her or are politicians on their own right, as Congresswoman Xiomara, and several of whom also have regaled her with grandchildren, whom she also loves dearly, and takes often with her on tours of duty.

I came to know Xiomara, that is I came close to her while in service, when I was coordinating social cabinet policy and services of her husband’s government: 2006 2009. She was First Lady then and led a special social protection network Program called Red Solidaria (Solidarity Network). I was very impressed by her commitment to service, she travelled with me and the other ministers to the remotest mountainous regions where our poorest indigenous compatriots lived, and wearing appropriate simple garments, walked in the villages to greet and console people.

She showed them love and they returned it with sincerity. After the 2009 coup and forceful exile of her husband, Xiomara became a political leader of Resistance, stayed in the country, refused proffered protection, and was extremely courageous in facing the violent military in the streets and the dictator, in media.

So, when the time came to choose a new presidential candidate for our Party, I insisted on her, argued she had earned that post, was her adamant supporter, even more so than her husband, which was new ground for friendship.

Now, I think friends ought to be sincere, so I sometimes take issue with decisions and I express my dissent, privately and of course in a respectful form. (She is not infallible, you know, even the pope is not, except in matters of dogma which I don’t understand) She sometimes listens to and has accommodated that criticism and she has kept me in her service.

Whereas I am comfortable that she is our well intentioned moral and political leader and am confident that she is advancing over very difficult terrain and recent ruin, in reconstructing the Honduran state and society from the devastation of a narcostate.

Without condescension, although most Hondurans think of her as a mother figure, sometimes I think of her as a more successful older daughter. She is much younger.

All the wonderful details of Your Excellency have not yet been very widely introduced in Korea.  Please introduce yourself in detail.

A: You force me to speak of myself. I am a senior. It’s a long story. My name is Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, and I come from a traditional Honduran family of mixed ancestry, professionals, mainly medical doctors, farmers, businessmen and women, all of them committed citizens of San Pedro Sula, a coastal industrial city.

I was best friend with my grandfather. My father was a committed scientist and a valiant citizen. My mother was a merchant, an activist of just causes and a philanthropist. I am widowed of a Lady of noble Mexican origin; father of two daughters and two sons, who all make me proud, and am grandfather of nine children, with some of whom I have a most wonderful relationship, the happiest of my existence.

Through most of my life, I was a farmer and an academic historian; as such, I raised cattle, cultivated fruits, wrote history books and taught history classes in several universities in Honduras, but mostly in Mexico and, for several years, in the United States.

As of 1992, a couple of years after my father’s death, I went into politics. (My father had done so before, had been President of the Liberal Party.) I lost my bid for the presidential nomination but was later called by the winner, President Carlos Reina to serve as culture Minister in 1994.

After completion of that period, I retired again to my private and academic world, but came back to political life in 2005. Was appointed Culture Minister again, and Social Cabinet Coordinator by President Manuel Zelaya R. I went returned to academia in exile after the 2009 military coup and came back to Honduras and to politics in 2012, cofounded our new LIBRE Party, and after Xiomara was elected President, I was called to come to Korea to fill a void and solve a problem.

I love Nature and science which gives me an understanding of it, and I love art, the sentiment, and the conscience it inspires and the people who practice them, I love scholarship and thought, men and their cultures, graceful women even more, fine food (your sweet potato noodles) and wines, the few real friends we can make.

And I have been blessed by health and long life already. Am thankful for it and am enjoying Korea. There are a few things I don’t understand but I will not talk about them, as I am payed to be a diplomat, patient and discreet.

What is your view of President Yoon Suk Yeol and his government who are considered to be doing well by many people in Korea?

Well diplomats, you know, are not allowed to express ourselves freely on our hosts, the Chiefs of State, or the governments that are our counterparts, their performance and their popularity, and any opinion will be suspect.  We must not forget that rule, because any deviation can be interpreted as interference.

And interfering foreigners should all be hateful. Popularity on the other hand can only be measured in free elections, and I am a democrat not because I ignore the perils and defects of democracy, but because all other systems seem so much more dangerous.

But personally, I deem both elections and popularity as overrated and dangerous. (Many of the worst enemies of mankind have been very popular at some moment and have won many elections.)

By temperament and with the excuse of my old age I can only partially escape that formal constraint. So let me, because I think I can safely say that I personally like President Yoon, very much so and several of the few ministers I have met, and somewhat the governors, and most of your diplomats.

Though I have not personally been able to greet many ministers, because they say they are too busy, though I believe they are too shy. And I can tell you why I like your President. First because he was courageous in the pursuit of accountability in his career and because he is a cultured man, of impeccable manners and versed in the value of history and wisdom, which are worth more than magic and false piety.

I find that extraordinary. Secondly because, more than insightful, he is unfazed by pretense and imperturbable in his demeanor. I have loved to see him apologize for supposed mistakes and I have learned from his dignified but humble conduct. (Of course, in private it could be otherwise, but -you see- that is how it must be. In private sometimes it’s necessary to be hateful, to get things done.)

I hate the pettiness with which he has been attacked for absurd insignificances, which are not personal failings. I appreciate that he has a clear mostly practical foreign policy of rapprochement with Japan and with China, which is as should be in the long-range interests of his people and of international Peace.

And Chiefs of State cannot be perfect but need to be steadfast in pursuit of the common good, even if they must expend political capital when confronting special interests, whether they be corporate or popular or populist nationalism.

In the long-term vision, the general interests must prevail over immediate political expediency or complacency, that is a condition of statehood, is it not?

At last, I must say that, as your President does, I love dogs, have always had two or more of them in my farm at home, like horses, and elephants as they are, it has been said, more loyal and trustworthy than most politicians. And I expect the magic Blue dragon to be better than all.

Who among the Korean people are considered to be most prominently contributing to the promotion of political and social relations, cooperation and friendship between the two countries?

Our respective people know very little of each other or don’t know anything at all. There is little tourism because there are no direct flights, so travel is very expensive to Central America.

Honduras is one of the five original states of the independent united Republic of Central America (1821 1840) and forms part of the SICA, the Central American Integration System and we will be working together with the Ambassador of those countries since we share problems and potentialities.

We have a small program of Korean Cooperation in Honduras, channeled through KOICA and KIAT and our Foreign Ministry: mostly to better the electric grid in the South of the country and electricity generation in Guanaja, with the National Electric Company, help for primary school support with UNICEF and the Honduran Ministry of Education which also has requested training for teachers for technical education, a small forestry program has begun recently between our forestry authorities, a program to help us with E-government has been mentioned briefly again, because the idea repeatedly gets lost in the labyrinth and other less significant things are being considered.

Your Ambassador in Honduras, H.E. Sung Moon, has been not only friendly but also forthcoming and -when need be- forceful in our communication, and that is very useful. Ambassador Yung Joon-JO was extremely helpful in overcoming old clumsiness and relaunching our relations after an impasse.

Lately I have felt a keen interest in our countries on the part of MOFA Director of Latin America Affairs, Ambassador Han, who has planned an important visit and the Fourth Round Table of Korea Central America has been proposed to take place in Honduras next May. Trade and commerce are also important avenues of communication of course.

At the Embassy we understand promoting trade and investment s crucial part of our mission and have proposed nominating Professor Yoo Yeong-Sik of Dancook University, a published researcher and vice president of several institutions concerned with trade as Honorary Consul. Anyway, there are too few friends.

We need more friends of Honduras in Korea, to defend our people, and more friends of Korea in Honduras. So that our peoples will understand each other better, we need cultural exchanges and scholarships.

We need to connect our better universities with yours. We are already working on this and have an ongoing project to take important Korean art to Honduras.

And get Korean authorities and organizations to help bring at least a little Honduran art, a troupe of three musicians perhaps, later, a small dancing company, a plastic art exhibit as of next year. (Honduran artists will need travel and accommodation expenses.)

We plan to train our people in total immersion technology to produce at least durable exchanges with digital representations of antique and colonial art from both countries….

We will charge our consuls to establish here a Circle of Friends of Honduras, and reward notable contributors as cultural ambassadors. But mostly we need scholarships, educational, professional training opportunities, by gosh, enlightenment our forefathers used to say.

What are the areas where the two countries could further increase their cooperation for increased mutual win-win benefits?

Our coffee is the best of the world, and you would do well to drink more of it, because it makes you more intelligent immediately and boosts your immune system and our cacao beans are even better, naturally sweet, so you do not need to add more unhealthy sugar.

But if you have a sweet tooth and feel compelled to do so, we are exporting sugar for the first time this year availing ourselves of the FTA signed three years ago, to overcome the high cost of transport.

You import very little cacao. Maybe you don’t like chocolate because it is also a potent aphrodisiac? But if we want trade to grow substantially, we need to diversify and organize producers in Honduras.

Ours is a country of small producers, farmers cooperatives are helpful, perhaps we need to establish agro-parks. There are so many other things and possibilities. Increased trade will benefit us both.

We can help diversify the origins of your food imports significantly in Central America and in Honduras we still have a large population with a culture for that, that could be taught the technology to produce edible roots, nuts, mushrooms, and fruits which you consume avidly. (We are trying to export shrimp and melons now) And importing advanced technology and proficiency in its utilization will benefit us greatly.

Central America is also a privileged location for Korean production of its exports, not only because we will have the willing labor force, but also because we are strategically located for transport and relaying that merchandise to other larger markets.

While your investment will take advantage of our new infrastructure and promote and expand your exports it will also help us fight unemployment and migration, genuinely develop our countries.

Knowledge sharing is fundamental and investment, of common interest and benefit. Honduras also has precious metals and stones (opals and marbles) which if mined intelligently could be of use to both, today only some American and Canadian enterprises mine.

And if you help us reforest the country, harvested wood could be o mutual benefit. (I plant teakwood and cedar for example) While reforestation would help us also mitigate global warming dangers to all, help to conserve water and prevent erosion.

You have great experiences but for whatever reason the ongoing programs, lack scale, fallow up. Much is a problem on our part. We are conservatives in our mentality, share still a rural culture. Farms are small, businesses are small, officials conceive small programs… Honduras is a small country.As Koreans prefer small dogs and cakes, we like things small, small women, small cows, short interviews.

Our deep appreciation for the wonderful answers to our interview questionnaire, Excellency!  Do you have any additional details to add to the interview?

The only thing I should add is that Korea has spent time and money in feasibility studies for bettering ports in Honduras and has been mentioned as forming part of a consortium of the United States and several medium powers: Japan, Italy, Spain interested in developing an Interoceanic Logistic Corridor in Honduras, but which would benefit Central America in general.

If that project advances, it will change our relationship, strategically. And we need to be ready for that.