Roatan Muni is Setting Up a “Smart City” Monitoring Infrastructure

The new surveillance system is designed so that an individual can request a recording through an office at the municipal building. In cases of traffic accidents or robberies, a party involved can request video from the location and time the incident occurred. “It has to follow the legal chain of custody,” said Ing. Castillo.

The CCTV cameras are monitored from Monitoring Center and Municipal Police building located 50 meters behind the Roatan municipal building. The building is named after Joseph Solomon, a longtime Roatan Municipal Police chief. “We don’t know what we are going to see on these cameras,” said Solomon. “The idea is to respond when somebody is in need of help. If a woman has a broken-down car and needs to change a tire, we will come out and assist.”

Solomon doesn’t foresee any unintended consequences besides people trying to destroy the cameras. “People will feel more secure moving around, knowing that ‘Big Daddy’ is watching, you know,” said Solomon. Yet, as in all large surveillance projects, there are always unintended consequences.

One unintended consequence that could likely occur is that people may become more hesitant to assist a driver in distress, preferring for the municipality to take action. Another issue is the loss of a sense of privacy — something that is impossible to assign a monetary value to. “The negative is that the population feels their privacy is being violated,” said Johnny Suazo, project manager for Innova Solutions, which installed the cameras and trained camera operators.

The plan is for the CCTV system to be supervised 24/7 by six operators and two supervisors working in three shifts. Around 25 people will be employed in the monitoring center and likely more municipal police will be hired. Currently, the CCTV video is stored for 30 days, but that duration of storage can be changed. The system has been set up to store information from 400 cameras, with the potential to add up to 350 more.
The Roatan Municipality plans to fund the monitoring system through fines collected from residents. Infractions would include parking cars in the bike lane, littering, leaving trash by the dump outside of allowed hours, and pouring concrete on the road—all punishable by monetary fines. “At some point, we are going to be able to recognize the cars, identify the owners and send the bills online,” said Ing. Castillo.

Population feels their privacy is being violated.

The exact cost to run this operation is not known, but Paya Magazine estimates that with 25 salaried employees, the monthly cost will easily surpass $25,000. In addition, maintenance and technical fees could easily double that number, so it will probably cost over $500,000 a year to maintain this surveillance system.

This monthly municipal cost must come from local taxes or fines. Either way, island residents will have to pay for the project. In a growing economy and with a growing tax base, this type of project is one thing, but once the economy slows down—like it did during the 2008–09 financial crisis, the 2009–10 Honduran presidential coup, and again during the 2020–21 COVID-19 lockdowns—a cost of half a million dollars a year during an economic downturn will be a heavy burden to bear.

For the island it is no small-budget item, as the project was 100% funded by Roatan Municipality taxpayers. The idea is for it to become part of a national security and monitoring system. “If, by mandate, the central government someday wants to implement general 911 systems throughout the country, they could integrate this investment into what they already operate,” said Ing. Castillo.

While on Roatan so far around 90 million Lempiras had already been spent on the surveillance program, the Honduran central government spent 500 million Lempiras on the mainland. San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Santa Rosa, Tela and Choluteca already have such monitoring centers.

Recording video is just the beginning in a process that will turn Roatan municipalities’ public and semi-public spaces into surveillance zones. Of the 400 cameras, 370 are equipped with microphones, which can be activated. “This project will never end, as it is a smart city,” said Ing. Suazo. Several aspects of the surveillance system have not been set up, but can be completed fairly easily. According to Ing. Suazo, the CCTV cameras can also be configured to recognize the face of a person previously identified as a “person of interest” and scan other cameras across the entire surveillance system for that individual.

The high-resolution cameras are equipped with 40x zoom that can capture detail from a couple of hundred meters away. The cameras feature infrared capability for night operation. They can also activate a speaker function to alert someone visible on camera that they are being recorded and alert them that they may be committing an infraction.

Two of the cameras are located in front of Booty Bar, a popular tourist hangout in West End. “We think the cameras are a great idea. We all feel safer,” said Cherry Sorto, who has been the general manager of Booty Bar for 10 years. “Crime is growing on the island. We have our own cameras—many of them—and we have never been robbed.”

The camera system is just the first step in much bigger surveillance plans for the island. “Smart city” is a code term for mass surveillance programs, and its implementation depends on a never-ending stream of data, data storage, and data analysis. The idea of a ‘smart city’ is to collect data from cameras, electric meters, smartphones and smart appliances, and use that data to manage people.

This surveillance beast’s thirst will never be quenched, as there can always be more data to mine and analyze. If we want to be like the Dominican Republic or Cancun, we need to implement these types of systems,” said Ing. Castillo. “We are trying to catch up to them.”

Honduras has become a minor participant in the world drama of an orchestrated invasion and migration that originates in South America and terminates at the border of the US.

“This unprecedented surge in illegal immigration isn’t an accident. It is the result of deliberate policy choices by the Biden administration,” said Tucker Carlson. Carlson is wrong. That deliberate policy only escalated during Biden administration. The interests that decide and control the US’s political spectrum have been implementing the replacement of US patronage with Chinese presence and, in some cases, dominance.

For over a century, the US would stress how vital Central America was to its security and that it holds a responsibility of defending the region. Just as the USA kicked out Britain from the Bay Islands in 1859, it is now inviting China to take a dominant role in the region, just like the communist country has in Africa over the last couple decades.

Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador have signed a memorandum of understanding about China’s Belt and Road initiative. Honduras, with Central America’s only deep water port facility, will also sign the document soon. In 2013, Nicaragua granted a 50 year concession to finance and manage the 173 mile transoceanic canal to a Chinese company with CPC ties. Once the canal is operational, the concession could be extended for another 50 years.

Honduras is not without significance to the US. About 70% of all cocaine destined for the US makes its way across Honduras’ waterways, or over ground. The country is important enough that the US stations 1,500 of its troops at Soto Cano military base. There are also dozens of agents from the CIA and other US agencies a operating throughout Honduras.

Conventional warfare is not the only way of creating mass migrations that reshape societies, change their value systems, and damage their economy. There is the economic degradation in Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua, but it is now increasingly China that is creating the most migrants.

Just as the USA kicked out Britain from the Bay Islands in 1859, it is now inviting China.

There are many reasons why the Chinese are leaving China and some going to the US illegally. One such reason is that China is getting rid of those that are not willing to partake in its open prison society controlled by camera, phone, social credit score surveillance and a control system named “skynet.”

The Chinese migrants interviewed along their way to the US tell stories of religious persecution, constant Chinese government surveillance, and imprisonment. They are describing a country that has become an open air prison.

A combination of draconian Covid lockdowns and China’s communist leader Xi Jinping’s increasingly repressive rule has pushed hundreds of thousands to flee China. They term it “runology”, or runxue in Chinese. Chinese Communist government has gotten two for one applying its zero Covid tolerance policy. On the one hand they have created a more obedient population, and on the other they created and strengthen bastions of Chinese presence abroad.

Another likely reason why China benefits from this migration to the US is the destabilization of the US. The flooding of the US with migrants, criminals, and intelligence agents has its precedents.

An example of a similar communist migrant flood effort was during the Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Cuba got rid of 125,000 people who were unwilling to live in the open prison that it created. As an added bonus – and a Trojan horse – the Cuban communist regime transferred 20 thousand hardened criminals to the US.

Since China implemented its one-child policy in 1979, the country has ended up with 35 million extra men. In 2020, there were a reported 111 boys born for every 100 girls. These Chinese men are both expandable and useful. While Cuba is a country of a mere 11 million people, communist China has 1.4 billion people. Instead of 125,000 Cubans, in a decade or so, the US could end up with 35 million Chinese.

The Chinese are organized and motivated. There are Chinese map apps guiding them from Ecuador to Colombia, then by boat around the Darien gap to Panama, then across Honduras to San Salvador and across Guatemala and Mexico to Tijuana, a city with a population of 15,000 Chinese. That is where the Chinese migrants usually cross into the US.

How does Honduras fit into all this? In all practically, Honduras has been bought by China. On March 25, 2023, Honduras severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and signed on to the One China policy. Just two weeks prior to the switch, Honduran president Xiomara Castro has tried to squeeze out of Taiwan $2.5 billion to build a hospital, a dam, and write off of Honduras’ other debts.

“The government has managed to create an image of China as a savior,” said Helui Castillo, who is in charge of commercial policy at the Honduran Private Enterprise Council (COHEP), the country’s main business and trade organization.

This has been going on with the tacit acceptance of Honduran governments of not only Xiomara Castro, but Juan Orlando Hernández. Castro has recognized China and part of the deal, logically, is to turn a blind eye on the hundreds of thousands of Chinese illegals crossing Honduras on their way to the US.

According to Honduras’ National Institute of Migration in 2023, 545,000 “irregular” migrants were allowed into Honduras, on their way to United States. President Xiomara Castro is a bird of a feather like Trump or Biden. Like her predecessors, she has packed her government with relatives and ideological cronies. Her son and her husband, Mel Zelaya — a former president ousted in a 2009 coup supported by some of her current political opponents — are her chief presidential advisers. Her nephew is defense minister. Her daughter, a member of Congress, has figured prominently in the nascent relationship with China.

In all practically, Honduras has been bought by China.

Central America has gotten little visible payoff for the diplomatic switches, with the exception of Panama, where China now operates ports on both ends of the Panama Canal. While Honduras is a minor participant along the way, Panama is a much bigger participant.

A bridge is being built across the river Chucunaque river at the Panamanian town of Yaviza, the site of a new bridge construction that will make it easier to make the journey. At the beginning of civilization in Panama there is Bajo Chiquito that in 2023 was receiving 800-1000 migrants every day. When the Darien Gap ceases to exist and connects Panama and Colombia via road, the trickle of migrants will very likely become a flood.

Absent from the Darien are any reporters from mainstream news organizations. It might seem odd that a photojournalist in search of a Pulitzer Prize would not make it down to the Darien to cover this story, unless a decision was made to blackball it by the publishers of news organizations. There are no US Congressmen making their way to the Darien to investigate either.

Also, fascinatingly, there is no presence of US agencies such as CIA, DEA, or the military whatsoever in Panama’s Darien. Only 20 years ago, Panama was considered the US’s back yard and an important outpost. What can only be concluded is that there is an enormous migration leading to a planned event and that migration involves collusion in international players, to the silence of controlled media.

Distributism envisions an ideal society where property ownership is widespread and protected, and where means of production are owned by families not corporations. Distributism envisions a state that supports and maximizes family ownership of businesses and land.

Thomas Storck, a Catholic writer and philosopher, argues that “distributism seeks to subordinate economic activity to human life as a whole, to our spiritual life, our intellectual life, our family life.” That is a reality we should all aspire to.

While the Honduran state, nor our local government are far from supportive of empowering families in that manner, nevertheless a majority of Roatan’s business are family owned. Hybur, Serrano’s, Galaxy and Island Shipping are shining examples that families can sustain and grow business over generations empowering their employees and keeping wealth on the island. BIP, MaxCom and Eldon’s are examples how driven single individuals can out compete foreign corporations.

The island cooperatives and small family businesses have thrived on Roatan since 1800s. In fact, Roatan’s many industries are still decentralized, family owned and based on distributism system. The seafood packing industry is held by several island families since 1960s. The construction industry is managed by families and individuals or sometime partners.

Living on Roatan we interact with individuals, not corporations which is ever increasingly the case in US. For example, I know my Roatan doctor personally. I don’t choose her because I pay in some huge insurance scheme that limits my choices. I also know my carpenter, plasterer and my electrician, neither of whom work for a corporation. All these professionals stand behind the quality of their work. Interacting with them and knowing who they are enriches my life.

Biggest land holder on Roatan is another corporation with unclear owners.

The base of independent spirit of a community often lies in ability for that community to educate its own children with their own means and according to their own values. That is also the case with Roatan. The island’s educational roots from 1840s rest in private, family educational system. Even today the island has a healthy private education system that is not beyond the reach of the people with stable employment.

Distributism follows the principle that the means of production should not be held by the state stratocracy as it is in China, Cuba or Saudi Arabia. The economic power should not rest in the hands of a few individuals (plutocracy) as in today’s Mexico, United States, or Switzerland. Distributism also sees a major problem where the means of productions are held by corporations (corporatocracy) as it is in today’s Germany, Sweden and France.

By early XXI century most countries have become hybrid economic models where multiple types of economic players monopolize power. US, China, France have now become examples of places where monopoly of power is held not by families, but with the state, corporations and oligarchs.

Some smaller countries, like Honduras, have resisted this globalization trend. Living here we still have relative freedom to pursue family life, individual spiritual life and personal autonomy. These opportunities attracted people to Honduras and Roatan for the last 200 years. While our island is still very much an attractive, know your neighbor, grocer and shoemaker type of place, these values are gradually being eroded.

In fact, capitalism has been making inroads on the island for decades. Capitalism has arrived with international corporations: Banco Atlántida, Royal Caribbean and Diamonds International and 10 years ago RECO from a coop model became a corporation. Próspera is one of the newest arrivals to the island and its vague ownership and control structure combined with international capital will likely cause further disruption

Things have gradually become less personal here, more like in the US or the Honduran mainland. Roatan is gradually entering the de facto glorification of usury disguised as interest-rate loan contracts. There are several thousand corporations incorporated on Roatan. Most of them are land holding entities created so foreigners could hold a land in Honduras.

Many stores on Roatan have become in fact usurious loan institution offering quick access of products such as motorcycles, furniture, appliances or construction in exchange for years of high interest debt guaranteed by personal assets. Electra, MotoMundo and Banco Atlántida for example have been making quick loans that have pushed many into losing their property and land.

Thus, the island’s biggest landholder is not an individual or an island family like it has been since 1850s. The biggest land holder on Roatan is another corporation with unclear owners – Banco Atlántida. Honduras’ oldest bank has managed to acquire land holdings through predatory lending for developers and individual homeowners. Sometime around 2010 Roatan’s biggest landowner became a corporation whom we do not know who controls it and who owns it.

There are alternatives to usurious encroachment of international “banksters” to the island. Some island run family businesses offer low interest loans for employees so they could purchase their land and build their home in an affordable fashion. The exceptions are the banking coops like Cooperativa Isleña, Cooperativa Santos Guardiola and Cooperativa Ceibeña.

Roatan remains a thriving garden attracting people from around the world.

The breaking down of distributism system that has existed on Roatan for 200 years is not pleasant to see. One of the results of spreading of the Socialist or Capitalist systems is the breakdown of social contract. The workers don’t really care about the welfare of the business they work for, and the employers see their employees as a source that can be exploited and replaced when needed.

To give communism an acknowledgment, there are and have been for centuries enclaves of communism on Roatan. These “communist” enclaves here were and still are called families and family business. In fact, “communism” has been functioning on family scale on the island well before Carl Marx wrote down his famous 1875 slogan: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” had been already practiced on Roatan. There are family members working harder and sacrificing for family members that cannot pull their own load for one reason or another.

For now, at least Roatan remains a thriving garden attracting people from around the world and from all over Honduras. They sometime come here sometimes without full understanding why they like it so much. They know however what they left behind in US and Canada, failing social systems, overpowering government and neighborhoods dominated by impersonal and ever expanding corporations. For them Roatan offers a glimpse of hope.

By Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

The Media Narrative

It should not surprise us that pluralism and freedom of speech, so praised in countries that claim to be democratic, are daily disavowed by censorship and intolerance towards opinions not aligned with the official narrative. Manipulations of this kind have become the norm during the so-called pandemic.

The Biden’s’ conflict of interest in Ukraine

Another issue that we tend not to analyze in depth is that related to Burisma, an oil and gas company operating on the Ukrainian market since 2002. Recall that “during the American presidency of Barack Obama (from 2009 to 2017) his right hand man with a “delegation” to handle international politics was Joe Biden, and it is since then that the “protection’ offered by the Democrat US leader was given to Ukrainian nationalists, a line that created the irreconcilable disagreement between Kiev and Moscow.

The Ukrainian war in the plans of the NWO

The censorship being imposed against Russian broadcasters is clearly aimed at preventing the official narrative from being disproven by the facts. It is evident that the Ukrainian people, beyond the issues that diplomacy can resolve, are victims of the same global coup d’état being carried out by supranational powers that intend, not peace between nations, but rather the establishment of the tyranny of the New World Order. Just a few days ago, Ukrainian parliamentarian Kira Rudik told Fox News, while holding a kalashnikov: “We know that we are not only fighting for Ukraine, but also for the New World Order.”

Ukraine is the latest victim of accomplished executioners

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis did not suddenly erupt a month ago. It has been prepared and fomented for a long time, certainly beginning with the 2014 white coup that was desired by the American deep state in an anti-Russian key. This is demonstrated, among other incontestable facts, by the training of the Azov Battalion by the CIA “to kill Russians”, with the CIA forcing the revocation of the amendment banning aid to the battalion made by Congress in 2015.

An appeal to the Third Rome

For Russia too, this conflict is a trap. This is because it would fulfill the dream of the American deep state to definitively oust Russia from the European context in its commercial and cultural relations, pushing it into the arms of China, perhaps with the hope that the dictatorship in Beijing can persuade the Russians to accept the system of social credit and other aspects of the Great Reset that thus far Russia has been able to avoid, at least in part.

The world crisis with which the dissolution of traditional society is being prepared has also involved the Catholic Church, whose Hierarchy is held hostage by apostates who are courtiers of power. There was a time in which Popes and Prelates confronted Kings without concern for human respect, because they knew they spoke with the voice of Jesus Christ, the King of kings. The Rome of the Caesars and Popes is now deserted and silent, just as for centuries the Second Rome of Constantinople has also been silent.

Final Considerations

May Holy Lent lead all Christians to ask pardon from the Divine Majesty for the sins of those who trample His Holy Law. May penance and fasting move the Lord God to mercy.