Help for Hondurans at Las Manos on Nicaragua's northern border

On Saturday July 25th thousands of Hondurans began to arrive at the Las Manos frontier crossing between Nicaragua and Honduras. Originally they had intended to accompany President Manuel Zelaya in his attempt to return to Honduras. But heavy militarization of the border area on the Honduran side of the frontier trapped large numbers of Zelaya's supporters leaving them with the choice of uncertain treatment by the notoriously brutal Honduran security forces or the chance of some respite on the Nicaraguan side of the frontier. Between Saturday July 25th and the night of Tuesday July 28th between 4000 and 5000 people were reported to have crossed into Honduras through rugged hill country, avoiding the Honduran security forces and the normal frontier crossing.

Many subsequently made their way to the nearby town of Ocotal but all needed immediate attention on their arrival at Las Manos. All the people arriving were exhausted, hungry and dehydrated. Most had problems with their feet, many arrived with their footwear dropping off them. Many people had problems from conditions like high blood pressure and other chronic conditions. And many people had injuries received either from the brutality of the Honduran security forces or from falls and accidents during their cross-country trek seeking to avoid the military. A great many people had stomach upsets from drinking contaminated water along the way.

Local people organised a reception centre with some help from the local Ministry of Health. But at Las Manos itself, it fell to small local initiatives to provide food, hygiene items, cleaning materials, medicine, materials to make temporary shelters. Superemos provided about US$3800 in medicine, food, soap, bleach and plastic sheeting as well as other items like toothbrushes and toothpaste. We also paid approximately US$300 in transport.

During the rest of the week, from Tuesday onwards, as the harshness of the militarization on the Honduran side of the border eased, many of the people who arrived decided to return home. So by the weekend of August 1st and 2nd fewer than 1000 people remained and by August 3rd - 4th probably fewer than 200 Hondurans remained, all of them in Ocotal. Over that week, thanks to the commitment of our supporters in the United States and Europe, Superemos was able to contribute to helping the large numbers of distressed people arriving at Las Manos receive the humanitarian care they needed.

The overall humanitarian effort by local people at Las Manos and the authorities in Ocotal definitely contributed to calm down a dreadfully tense situation during those few days and eventually made it possible for almost all the Hondurans who travelled to Nicaragua at that time to rest and recover, prior to returning home safely once the tension abated.