Another missed translation, day 8, originally posted Sunday, 05 July 2009 at 22:45

Shit I am sad. It's hard for me to not start to cry as I write this. We really thought that we would be able to recover our democracy without blood, with the song and dance that up until now has made up the resistance. But that's not how it was. The army shot at us and killed, injured, and profoundly wounded this nation. As the cardinal said, there will be bloodshed, and despite his threat we continue ahead. Having courage does not mean having no fear; it means having fear and going forth anyway.

Another back-translation, originally posted Wednesday, 01 July 2009 at 23:34

It's still raining. At times it seems like the sky is breaking into pieces and it cries alongside us upon seeing how this fragile nation has been torn apart. Today the actions were better. They started in the morning when people joined up from early on, becoming by around one in the afternoon a beautiful and enormous sea of people. It's hard to make exact estimates, but what I do know is I have never seen so many people together in this city.

Another back-translation, originally posted Wednesday, 01 July 2009 at 01:02 (Teguc time)

What I saw today was the lack of organization or apparent head of the resistance movement. Some of my friends say I'm swimming like a fish in water, since there's anarchy all around. What is certain is that, lacking organization, many times someone would step up and put forth any preposterous idea that would end up creating even greater chaos in the group. That's the problem.

I'm compiling all of Oscar's posts together to have as a static link on this site, and as part of that I'm catching up on the first few that I missed. Here's the first of them, posted Tuesday, 30 June 2009 at 11:07:

Last Monday the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arrived in the country to observe first-hand the state of human rights in the country following the coup. The government and its spokespeople have made themselves hoarse insisting that they be "impartial" and understand the "special" conditions in which we are living.

Last Saturday the city of San Pedro Sula awoke to the thunder of military helicopters in their airspace, and afterwards it filtered down through the press that the hubbub was due to the presence of Roberto Micheletti in the 105th infantry brigade. What made Mr. Micheletti leave his presidential bunker to meet with the military leaders in the northern city? Official statements informed us later that it was to plan the arrival of the de facto president to his home town, El Progreso. They were meeting all day long, planning his 15 kilometer journey only to cancel it in the end.

"They fear us because we are not afraid." This has been one of the slogans that has resounded from the dirty walls of the principal cities of Honduras over the past 47 days. And it's true, the people are not afraid of the army or of the police. They have beaten us, they have tortured us, they have threatened us and they have even killed our friends and yet we go on marching, we go on resisting. But we cannot deny that the blows have affected our spirit, and in this sense the strategy of repression is having an effect.

Tonight 26 of our brothers and sister await the decision of the judge who will evaluate the evidence presented by the D.A. and will determine if they can go home or will be convicted of the crimes of Terrorism, Sedition, Rebellion, Illicit Association, Robbery, Arson and who knows what other crimes. It is likely that they will send them to the National Penitentiary for the period of legal inquiry which is six days, before initiating their respective trials.

In contrast to what we might have expected, given the circumstances in which many of us Hondurans have lived for the past 45 days, the national team won against Costa Rica, 4-0. At any other time this would be good news- what could be better than the feeling of getting closer to the World Cup, celebrating in bars and stadiums, or as in my case, smile at the demonstration of Honduran patriotic euphoria.

The marches that came from the different parts of the country finally reached the two principal cities: Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. And as they said at one point, they're done walking. We cannot deny the beauty of the large columns of men and women entering through the principal arteries of the city, with a shout, an order, a firm conviction to fight for democracy and against the coup d'etat that wears on us more each day.