These elections are especially important in context of the 15 Honduran Supreme Court appointments that are coming up. The candidates to the Supreme Court are nominated by the Honduran bar association and vetted by congress. The sitting government politicos were pushing their candidates and the tensions ran high. There was an alliance formed against the national party and it won big.

Now the party of Xiomara Castro will control both Congress and the Supreme Court along with the executive branch of government. The new Attorney General will also be nominated and appointed by this government. While the justices will begin their terms in February 2023, this year is decisive in their nominations.

The nomination and appointment of the Honduran Supreme Court justices will have a trickle-down effect. All lesser courts have judges appointed by the judicial system under the Supreme Court. The courts under the Supreme Court are nine Courts of Appeals, 66 Courts of First Instance and 325 Justices of the Peace. That is a huge legal influence.

Xiomara Castro will control both Congress and the Supreme Court.

The new justices will also examine attorneys for their notary exequatur. The battle to control the Honduran Bar association and ethics board is likely to begin soon.

In Honduras and most Latin American countries, all notaries are attorneys, but not all attorneys are notaries. The notaries in Honduras play a greater role that in the US. Up North the only requirement seems to be not having a criminal record and filling out the application.

To become a notary, you have to submit a formal petition before the Supreme Court requesting an examination, which may be granted or not. The procedure takes about two years to be granted. It is a bit speedier procedure if you know the right people.

If you are lucky enough to get the call and be given a date for the exam, you will present yourself before the Supreme Court Secretary. You are to wear formal black attire and will be questioned orally for around two hours and forty-five minutes on Notarial Law and any subject over which Notaries have jurisdiction in Honduras. If you pass you get to be sworn in by the President of the Supreme Court and you are named a Public Minister of Oaths for the Republic of Honduras.

A Honduran notary can then marry people just like a justice of peace can, and he may authorize uncontested divorces, probate wills and a bunch of other non-litigious procedures.

The most enviable right of a notary public, the Holy Grail if you will, is the exclusive ability to authorize title transfers. Only notaries can transfer titles in Honduras. Thus, all real estate transactions must by law in Honduras be done before the offices of a Notary. To do otherwise is illegal.

The new penal code article 472 is loosely translated as “professional intrusion. Whoever exercises acts of a profession without possessing the corresponding academic title, or the corresponding qualification in accordance with current legislation, must be punished with a prison sentence of one to three years.”

There are maybe six notaries permanently on Roatan. Some others fly in for closings, but don’t live here. Other off-island notaries unethically “lend” their official stamp and legal paper to local attorneys to use while having permanent addresses elsewhere.

So far no-one has been charged criminally for impersonating a notary public, but it’s just a matter of time. The cave to of the matter is: with a criminal charge you can’t apply to become a notary so an attorney charged with such an offense could never be a notary public in Honduras.

I’ve been living on Roatan for 12 years and coming to work here for the past 22 years. I can remember the unpaved roads in Coxen Hole, and an efficient court system on the island. You could have a petition resolved in three days and one judge took care of it all. Seriously, one judge with a lot of experience and knowledge could do all that. Now we have justices who have nicknames based on the amount of bribe money it requires to get their attention. You know who you are Mr. “20 mil.”

I recall sitting at the breakfast bar at H.B. Warrens in Coxen Hole waiting for the courthouse in the tiny offices next to the Coxen Hole’s “Central Park” to open at 7:30 am. One secretary and one judge had their breakfast there before going to work and neither of them tried to sell you any Avon products, a brick for their church fundraiser, a shirt or ask for money for coffee or Bojangles. In those old days of litigation on Roatan, justice mostly prevailed and the judges based their decisions on actual legal precedents. You understood the reasoning and, dare I say, the logic behind his rulings. It wasn’t perfect, but I’ll take it over the five judges, dozens of clerks, and two secretaries we now have. We are bogged down in bureaucratic red tape and nothing really gets resolved. I, for one, have been frustrated beyond belief.

When I first visited Roatan the judge was the only notary because there was no permanent notary living on the island. Then Mr. Lorenzo became a notary and title transfers took two days to complete. I know of a title transfer taking two years for cadastral certification which was then not registered. As a sign of progress Roatan now has a chapter of the Honduran Bar Association with 85 attorneys and roughly 8 notaries – professionals entitled to do closings and notarize documents. I would be interested in knowing how many cases are presented annually and how many are actually resolved. My non grata persona won’t be allowed to go over and ask. I have requested data from the Supreme Court regarding the Bay Islands courthouse track record, but I’m not holding my breath I’ll actually get it.

We are bogged down in bureaucratic red tape and nothing really gets resolved

Is it really progress when we take longer to get something as simple as a transfer done and tax it to death? All the land in the Bay Islands has already been measured and is in a computer system at the municipal cadastral offices. The name change on a parcel should be straightforward, quick and inexpensive. In practice the title transfers now takes three to six months if you’re lucky. It requires payment of three separate taxes (state and federal transfer tax, and a capital gains tax) plus an additional registry fees: buyers, sellers, attorneys and brokers pay. The amount of red tape and hoops is increasing by the week.

Here’s how I think things could be improved. Arbitration process should be allowed as it is on the mainland with Chamber of Commerce involved in conciliation. Honduran law should also separate the criminal court from the civil, family and labor courts. A courthouse would then house four judges: one or two for criminal cases, one for civil cases, one for labor issues, one for family law. I am just tired of finding excuses to give clients as to why the legal system is broken.

The roads in the Roatan Municipality have more potholes than asphalt. Traffic is getting worse and I’ve even seen drivers attempt to navigate around giant in a failed effort not to leave their bumpers behind. It is embarrassing to drive around with visiting friends while explaining to them why, with so many quality attractions for the tourist they have to break their back getting to them.

I say we are at total collapse of infrastructure. Roatan, the biggest tourist attraction in Honduras, has the second worse roads in the entire country. The dubious first place title goes to Copan, the country’s second largest tourist attraction. Ironically, the rarely visited department of Lempira, birthplace of our commander-in-chief has a brand spanking new highway that no one is transiting and an airport where no planes are landing. That doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.

To top it off, we also have a small-understaffed hospital that is over 20 years old and no serious plan to deal with the trash situation on a long-term basis. But I digress. Opposition Alliance (Alianza de Oposición) have been calling for peaceful marches or protests on Roatan. But what would they be protesting?

Should we be protesting elections fraud, the roads, the garbage situation, corruption or should we be doing more than just that?

But, why haven’t “they” fixed the roads? Last year prior to elections (AKA political promises) I was present at a meeting with the President of our country Mr. Juan Orlando himself, where he announced the creation of a trust fund to finance the new Roatan road. Not repairing one mind you, but a brand new road from West Bay all the way to Diamond Rock and Camp Bay.

They want the golden egg and goose soup

Now we have 30 million Lempiras arriving on Roatan from central government via INSEP with additional funding coming from tourism budget and local funds from ZOLITUR. Another 20 million Lempiras was added to this fund from the INSEP to address the lack of infrastructure on Roatan’s sister island of Guanaja. There I suggested we follow a plan I first read about years ago in an editorial on the pages of Bay Islands Voice where a railway and train system was suggested for public transport. Haha.

Here we are in 2018 with the same re-elected president and still no roads. How much patience should we the people have? How long before the cruise ship industry pulls out? And just for myself: how much longer can the suspension system on my car hold out?

I am tired of reading the online reviews about the poor conditions of the road. I made a comment to a friend recently; we cannot continue to be the goose laying the golden egg for Honduras if they are going to starve the goose. His response was classic: “They want the golden egg and goose soup.”

I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but surely we should ask more of our authorities, and I don’t mean a hand out or some political favors. I am optimistic for the Municipality of Roatan as, at last, we are getting a change in the local government and I, for one, am happy for that change.