tv Honduras BBC News August 26, 2018 9:30pm-10:00pm BST
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this is bbc world news. the headlines: police in florida say several people have been killed in a mass shooting during a video game tournament in jacksonville. the sheriff's office says the suspect was shot dead at the scene. pope francis is returning to rome after his visit to ireland. earlier, at a mass for 300,000 people in dublin, he vowed to pursue justice for the victims who suffered abuse at the hands of the clergy. tributes have been paid to senatorjohn mccain, who's died aged 81. he will lie in state in arizona's capitol building, an honour only given to a few notable americans, including john f kennedy and ronald reagan. the british—iranian charity worker nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe has returned to prison in iran following a three—day release. herfamily had hoped she would be granted an extension. at 10pm, clive myrie will be here with a full round—up of the day's news.
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first on bbc news, it's time for more from the money and power season, which looks at how money and its power shapes and reshape our lives. this week's programme looks at an ambitious and controversial plan to build private or gated cities in honduras. honduras, centralamerica. until recently, this tiny country had the world's highest murder rate. like other nations in the region, it faces daunting challenges of poverty and inequality. rampant corruption is part of life here and political instability is the norm. last year's elections were overshadowed by allegations of fraud, followed by violent clashes with protesters. despite being rich with natural resources, honduras can't seem to escape a cycle of poverty and violence.
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i grew up in latin america, i'm used to inequality, but it never stops to strike you. i mean, parts of san pedro, you can see there's real money here. it wouldn't be — perhaps some buildings wouldn't be out of place in miami. butjust across the river and the street, you have a really nasty slum. it's tough here. now, the country is proposing a bold plan to lure investment and try to put the brakes on its downward spiral. but not everyone is on board. critics, from politicians to human rights activists, say it is a dangerous experiment from an illegitimate government. it's past midnight at the bus station in san pedro sula.
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it's here that you get a true sense of how desperate the situation has become for most hondurans. tens of thousands of people risk their lives every year on a long and a gruelling journey to the united states. many will endanger their lives riding freight trains across mexico. others will be exploited, kidnapped, or even killed by criminal gangs. around a third will be caught and deported back to honduras. 24—year—old juan francisco knows all of this but, for him, this is the only option left. a university graduate, he lost his job with a car company soon after the election crisis last december. juan francisco is hoping to make it
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to houston, texas, to work with a friend in construction. two thirds of hondurans live in poverty but, for people of all social classes here, even the possibility of scraping by in the us is worth risking everything for. what can honduras do to turn things around? american economists have proposed a radical experiment and the honduran government has jumped on board. the idea is to create special zones, new cities, with foreign laws and foreign judges. but how would that work,
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and what are the implications for the country? isn't that giving up a little bit of your sovereignty? the plan is inspired by the financial success of places like hong kong and macau, who tailored their financial rule books to foreign business interests. but what would that look like here? the honduran government would invite foreign investors in, giving them the leading role in managing these areas. schools, hospitals, malls — everything would likely be built from scratch. mark klugmann is an american who has lived in honduras for more than a decade. a former speech writer for ronald reagan, he is a key advocate of the proposal and has been an adviser to the government on how to bring it to life. he invited me to the unconventional little school he runs with his wife in the capital, tegucigalpa. there's a contract.
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all the students here have all signed this contract. there's a concept of self—governance. uh-huh. 15 points on the contract. that's right, that's right. the students actually wrote this. it wasn't imposed on them. they had a — they had their own constitutional convention, as it — as it were. it all feels like a microcosm of how he sees the world, where the right rules can be the key to progress. mark has been developing his version of the private cities idea for years. he says, using the anglo—saxon legal system, favoured and understood by investors, would reassure them and provide a key incentive that would also work for hondurans. it's to create a place for hondurans, it's to give hondurans a place that provides hondurans with what they want by creating also a place where foreign investors and foreign capital are able to combine in an environment that they understand.
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imagine in miami, you have a street, and there are ten chinese restaurants in a row, and every single one of those ten restaurants, they have no forks, only chopsticks. they all serve exactly the same menu at the same prices. food is equally good. and then, one day, one of the restaurants says, "waita minute, we're in miami. there are lots of people who don't feel comfortable with chopsticks. we're going to offer a fork." instantly, the competitive advantage of that one restaurant compared with the other nine is overwhelming. he insists it wouldn't be incompatible with national sovereignty because the honduran constitution would underpin the plan every step of the way. but would bringing in a set of anglo—saxon laws really be enough to pull more foreign companies to a country this troubled? the legal system definitely isn't working as it is.
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95% of crimes go unpunished, and at the country's supreme court in tegucigalpa, there's a clear backlog. if you run a business here, it typically takes 920 days to resolve a contractual dispute. the result is endemic violence and little investment. everywhere we go, it's clear that anyone who can is already finding ways to shut themselves off from this reality. maybe it is inevitable that multinational companies would end up doing the same in private cities. there's nowhere this division is more tangible than in the business capital of the country, san pedro sula. i grew up in latin america, i'm used to inequality, but it never stops to strike you. i mean, parts of san pedro, you can see there's real money
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here, it wouldn't be — perhaps some buildings wouldn't be out of place in miami. butjust across the river and the street, you have a really nasty slum. it's tough here. i'm heading to see what the future here might look like. altia smart city, a massive business park catering to multinationals and their employees. it's the closest thing to a private city in honduras right now. there are 6,000 people working here. you can shop, dine, even go to the doctor on campus. it's like you don't need to step outside. the park has been operating for around eight years now. so we started construction about ten years ago. it was designed originally to attract the outsourcing industry. it's huge, yeah? it's big, yes. we have — this is our corporate offices right here, and then currently, we have three towers. what you see here is our
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recreational centre. a lot of this works kind of like a private city — the corporation taking over functions that would normally be done by the city government. do you think business in honduras needs this kind of system to work efficiently? definitely. i think this has been a very unique project and that's why it has been very successful, because we have integrated different parts into one same, secure community, so we definitely hope that altia is a model for the region and for honduras to do different and more of these projects, so we can keep on growing and continuing to have more development in honduras. and it's notjust the stability and convenience that appeals to companies setting up here, there are generous tax breaks forforeign clients.
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most of the office space is filled with call centres for us companies. they are staffed by english—speaking hondurans. next door is a private university, unitec. it's a part of the same campus. these four international relations students tell me they are torn over whether private cities should be the way of the future. the government says that in a few years, a part of honduras will look like hong kong because of these cities. the cities can be very, very good for the country if they are applied in the right way. this is like a bubble, you could say. we like to use that term here. and we need to know that we're living in that bubble. what do we need to do to expand that bubble so more people can fit inside that bubble of well—being? it is a threat for our national sovereignty. i think it is also a threat for our social cohesion. i don't think we need any more sort of distortions
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in our cohesion inside the country. isabel knows plenty about these "distortions", as she calls them. like many of the country's elite, she lives her life in a protective bubble. her neighbourhood, like many others, is firmly gated. herschool, home, even her gym, have armed guards. in fact, her dad roberto developed one of the city's most upscale gated communities. isabel and her friend paola are part of a generation
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living more and more of their lives this way. but the vast majority of hondurans don't have the luxury of living or working in safe spaces like these. extortion, corruption and impossible bureaucracy are a daily challenge for most people. the scheme is very ambitious and promises a lot but honduras is a country with a long history of inequality and i wonder sometimes who would benefit and who would be excluded from this. the plan for model cities seems
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designed with large multinationals in mind but there's no clear guarantee the wealth would stay in honduras or trickle down. mirian lives and works in what used to be one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods on the planet. things have calmed down since then, but keeping her sewing business alive is still a constant struggle for her, her husband, and their three children. she'd love to turn her workshop into something bigger but it seems
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an impossible challenge. mirian and her husband see no good future here. they dream of heading north to the us or canada. critics say inviting foreign investors into honduras smacks of neocolonialism, exploiting honduras forforeign gain. despite the lack of clarity on exactly how this proposal would work, legislation was passed in 2013 to allow it to go ahead. though, with so much political instability,
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that might be subject to change. honduras is a very polarised society. lots of grievances and lots of protests. and i wonder if this initiative isn't going to make things worse. having your own laws and your ownjudges is a big part of having a country, it's a big part of nationhood, and i'm not surprised at all that it doesn't become a politically sensitive issue, a politically hot issue. the loudest opposition voice is salvador nasralla, the tv star turned presidential candidate. he's clearly got a lot of support and represents a big part of the country who question the viability of these model cities. according to the world bank,
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honduras is already the most unequal country in latin america. many people here just see politicians as corrupt businessmen. i want the government to talk to me and have the opportunity to address these concerns. but days go by and interview after interview is cancelled. i really don't understand. i mean, this is a very big dealfor honduras. they're saying it's a big deal, it's supposed to be one of the big initiatives that's going to help honduras develop and still, people are really nervous to talk about it. finally, on our last night, the minister for economic development agrees to meet with me. he promises it will be up to local communities to decide if they want to set up these special zones in their territory. so i head to the far south of the country to speak with someone wrestling with this very question.
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this is amapala, a tiny island that was once a bustling port and the country's capital. but its glory days are long gone. its 14,000 residents scrape by eking a wage from fishing. the plan is to turn all of this into a cutting—edge city and megaport. mayor alberto cruz has been courted by the honduran government and south korean investors. he was flown out to south korea to be dazzled with what could be. he would be happy tojump on board with the plan if he knew locals would truly benefit, but the uncertainty worries him.
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amapala may not be rich but it is amazingly peaceful compared to the rest of the country. i wonder much of that would be lost if the plans were to go ahead here. would the people living here benefit, or be pushed out? so, is this going to be the next hong kong? it's hard to believe it, but parts of the world have experienced dramatic transformations, so who knows? it is clear it will take a lot more than honduran leaders have shown so far to convince people that allowing foreign investors to build and run these new cities is the key to saving their nation,
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or that it is a safer bet than taking a bus to the us in search of a better life. hello. you could be forgiven for thinking autumn had come early on sunday. some very wet and, in places, windy weather. parts of south wales saw around a0 millimetres of rain, close to two inches. whilst there is a little bit of rain in the forecast in the week ahead, the emphasis is on a lot of dry weather, and a little warmer for many, with some sunshine, too. as we go into monday — which, away from scotland, is a bank holiday — our front which brought all the wet and windy weather on sunday is now well to the east. we've still got a north—westerly wind following on behind, not as gusty as we saw on sunday, but still likely to feed a few showers across during the day. most will stay largely dry. whilst there will be quite a lot of cloud around, there will also be some bright and sunny spells, with temperatures up to between 16 and 20. the cloud will tend to fade away through the evening. the showers will ease.
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clearer skies but, overnight, that could just encourage some patchy mist and fog to develop. on tuesday, it looks like northern ireland, northern and western parts of scotland will always be closest to this front, which is going to generate more cloud, strengthen the breeze, and bring some outbreaks of rain, particularly the further north and west you are. for most on tuesday, it should be a dry day, light winds, some good spells of sunshine once that early morning mist and fog clears, and actually feeling quite a bit warmer on tuesday. temperatures widely between 19 and 23 celsius — and, even for eastern parts of scotland, 18 or 19 celsius in the sunshine, much warmer than the weekend. there are some complications for the forecast on wednesday, mainly down to this development across the continent, which could provide some heavy and maybe thundery showers for parts of east anglia and south—east england on wednesday. some uncertainty with the detail on that. a slice of something drier behind it. meanwhile, ourfront which was across northern ireland and scotland has slipped its way into parts of northern england, wales and south—west england,
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perhaps bringing a few showers here. behind it, a fresherfeel and a good deal of sunshine across much of northern england, northern ireland and scotland through wednesday. thursday looks likely to be a very quiet day across the uk. barely a breath of wind. there will be some good spells of sunshine. once again, some cloud coming and going but, with light winds and in the sunshine, highs between 17 and 22 celsius should feel pleasantly warm. it looks like we should hang on to those settled conditions towards the end of the week, as this area of high pressure dominates. however, areas of low pressure are not too far away and, at this stage, the detail could change. however, for now, it looks like friday should be another mainly dry day. again, some spells of sunshine, light winds, and temperatures a little bit below average in places, but it should feel pleasant enough given the light winds and some sunshine. saturday is the 1st of september, and that marks the start of meteorological autumn. for next weekend, it looks like we'll see some rain at times for northern parts of the uk.
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further south, a bit more settled and slowly starting to warm up. let's look at the bigger picture. 0urjet stream is nowjust to the north of the uk but notice how, out in the atlantic, we see this dip, and what that may do is just start to draw in very warm and moist air from the south—west. underneath that area of high pressure across central and southern parts of the uk, as we look further ahead, it could turn very warm with some good spells of sunshine. a bit of a contrast further north, across parts of northern ireland and northern scotland, closest to that jet stream, it will feel cooler and perhaps there will be some showery rain at times, but for some of us the potential for something warmer towards the beginning of september. a. tonight at ten, pope francis apologises and promises firm action
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