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Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.
Today, a gripping story of courage, faith, and friendship in one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. Ross Halperin joins us to talk about his extraordinary book Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land. It’s the true story of two men — an American missionary and a Honduran teacher — who took on the gangs, corruption, and impunity that plague Honduras, one of the most violent nations in the world. Together, they built a radical experiment in justice that dared to succeed where governments failed.
“They didn’t want to be hypocrites. They didn’t want to be like these other gringos that come down here and live behind gates and have drivers and security guards. They wanted to live with and like the people they wanted to help.” — Ross Halperin
Then, we air a clip from our 2023 interview with Jeff Sharlet about his book The Undertow, which examines the spread of rightwing ideology among the masses and the new fascist movement it’s spurred.
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Key Words: Ross Halperin, Bear Witness, Kurt Ver Beek, Carlos Hernández, Association for a More Just Society, ASJ, Honduras violence, gang violence, U.S. drug policy, narco-trafficking, Jeff Sharlet, Christian nationalism, rightwing extremism
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Segment One: Ross Halperin
In Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land, journalist Ross Halperin tells the astonishing true story of Kurt Ver Beek and Carlos Hernández, two men who risked everything to confront gang violence and systemic corruption in Honduras.
From the slums of Tegucigalpa to the halls of power, they waged an improbable crusade for justice, building a grassroots model for solving murders and restoring faith in law where impunity once reigned.
In this interview, Halperin shares how he stumbled upon this story, the moral dilemmas his subjects faced, and what their work reveals about courage, compassion, and the fragile hope for justice in a violent world.
Key Topics
- Gang violence and impunity in Honduras
- U.S. policies fueling Central American violence
- Grassroots justice and community policing
- Vigilantism and moral dilemmas in law enforcement
- Faith-based activism and moral courage
- The Association for a More Just Society (ASJ)
- Prison reform and human rights in Latin America
- Cross-cultural friendship and collaboration