About

 

Geography


Area: 112,090 sq. km. (43,278 sq. mi.); slightly larger than Virginia.
Cities: Capital–Tegucigalpa (1,150,000); San Pedro Sula (800,000-900,000).
Terrain: Mountainous.
Climate: Tropical to subtropical, depending on elevation.

 

 

People


Nationality: Noun and adjective–Honduran(s).
Population (2010 est.): 8.0 million.
Population growth rate (2010 est.): 1.94%.
Ethnic groups: 90% mestizo (mixed Amer-Indian and European); others of European, Arab, African, or Asian ancestry; and indigenous Indians.
Religions: Roman Catholic; Protestant minority.
Language: Spanish.
Education (2003): Years compulsory–6. Attendance–94% overall, 61% at junior high level. Literacy–83.3%.
Health: Infant mortality rate–26/1,000. Life expectancy–70.5 yrs.
Work force: Services–42.2%; natural resources/agriculture–35.9%; manufacturing–16.3%; construction/housing–5.6%.

 

Government


Type: Democratic constitutional republic.
Independence: September 15, 1821.
Constitution: 1982; with amendments.
Branches: Executive–president, directly elected to 4-year term. Legislative–unicameral National Congress, elected for 4-year term. Judicial–Supreme Court of Justice (appointed for a 7-year term by Congress and confirmed by the president); several lower courts.
Political parties: National Party, Liberal Party, Innovation and National Unity Party, Christian Democratic Party, and the Democratic Unification Party.
Suffrage: Universal and compulsory at age 18.
Administrative subdivisions: 18 departments.

 

Economy

(2009 est.)
GDP: $14.8 billion.
Growth rate (2009): -2.1%.
Per capita GDP: $1,829 (official exchange rate); $3,130 (PPP, IMF).
Natural resources: Arable land, forests, minerals, and fisheries.
Agriculture (14.2% of GDP): Products–coffee, bananas, shrimp and lobster, sugar, fruits, basic grains, and livestock.
Manufacturing (27.9% of GDP): Types–textiles and apparel, cement, wood products, cigars, and foodstuffs.
Services (57.9% of GDP).
Trade: Exports (goods)–$5.2 billion: apparel, auto parts, coffee, shrimp, bananas, palm oil, gold, zinc/lead concentrates, soap/detergents, melons, lobster, pineapple, lumber, sugar, and tobacco/tobacco products. Major market–U.S. (59.5%). Imports (goods)–$7.79 billion: fabrics, yarn, machinery, chemicals, petroleum, vehicles, processed foods, metals, agricultural products, plastic articles, and paper articles. Major source–U.S. (50.1%).

 

PEOPLE

About 90% of the population is mestizo. There also are small minorities of European, African, Asian, Arab, and indigenous Indian descent. A majority of Hondurans are Roman Catholic, but Protestant churches are growing in number. While Spanish is the predominant language, some English is spoken along the northern coast and is prevalent on the Caribbean Bay Islands. Several indigenous Indian languages and Garífuna (a mixture of Afro-indigenous languages) are also spoken. The restored Mayan ruins near the Guatemalan border in Copan reflect the great Mayan culture that flourished there for hundreds of years until the early 9th century. Columbus landed at mainland Honduras (Trujillo) in 1502, and named the area “Honduras” (meaning “depths”) for the deep water off the coast. Spaniard Hernan Cortes arrived in 1524.

 

HISTORY


Honduras was originally inhabited by indigenous tribes, the most powerful of which were the Mayans. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas. These autonomous groups had their conflicts but maintained their commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico.

On July 30, 1502, Christopher Columbus first saw Honduran soil and he claimed the territory in the name of his sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

In 1523, the first expeditionary forces arrived under the command of Gil Gonzales de Avila, who hoped to rule the new territory. In 1524, Cristobal de Olid arrived with the same intent on behalf of Hernan Cortes. Olid founded the colony Triunfo de la Cruz and tried to establish an independent government. When Cortes learned of this, he decided to reestablish his own authority by sending a new expedition, headed by Francisco de las Casas. Olid, who managed to capture his rivals, was betrayed by his men and assassinated. Cortes then traveled to Honduras to firmly establish his government in the city of Trujillo before returning to Mexico in 1526. Honduras formed part of the colonial era Captaincy General of Guatemala. The cities of Comayagua and Tegucigalpa developed as early mining centers.

By October 1537, the Lenca chief, Lempira, a warrior of great renown, had managed to unify more than two hundred native tribes in order to offer an organized resistance against penetration by the Spanish conquerors. After a long battle, Governor Montejo gained the Valley of Comayagua, established Comayagua city in another location, and vanquished the indigenous peoples in Tenampua, Guaxeregui, and Ojuera.

 

Independence


Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821. The country was then briefly annexed to the Mexican Empire. In 1823, Honduras joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America federation, which collapsed in 1838. Gen. Francisco Morazan–a Honduran national hero–led unsuccessful efforts to maintain the federation. Honduras’ agriculture-based economy was dominated in the 1900s by U.S. companies that established vast banana plantations along the north coast. Foreign capital, plantation life, and conservative politics held sway in Honduras from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century.

 

Military Rule

Authoritarian Gen. Tiburcio Carias Andino controlled Honduras during the Great Depression, until 1948. In 1955–after two authoritarian administrations and a strike by banana workers–young military reformists staged a coup that installed a provisional junta and paved the way for constituent assembly elections in 1957. This assembly appointed Ramon Villeda Morales as President and transformed itself into a national legislature with a 6-year term. In 1963, conservative military officers preempted constitutional elections and deposed Villeda in a bloody coup. The armed forces, led by Gen. Lopez Arellano, governed until 1970. Popular discontent continued to rise after a 1969 border war with El Salvador, known as “the Soccer War.” A civilian President–Ramon Cruz of the National Party–took power briefly in 1970 but proved unable to manage the government. In 1972, Gen. Lopez staged another coup. Lopez adopted more progressive policies, including land reform, but his regime was brought down in the mid-1970s by corruption scandals. The regimes of Gen. Melgar Castro (1975-78) and Gen. Paz Garcia (1978-82) largely built the current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras. The country also enjoyed its most rapid economic growth during this period, due to greater international demand for its products and the availability of foreign commercial lending.

 

Seven Consecutive Democratic Elections 


Following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua in 1979 and general instability in El Salvador at the time, Hondurans elected a constituent assembly in 1980 and voted in general elections in 1981. A new constitution was approved in 1982, and the Liberal Party government of President Roberto Suazo Cordoba took office. Suazo relied on U.S. support during a severe economic recession, including ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.

As the 1985 election approached, the Liberal Party interpreted election law as permitting multiple presidential candidates from one party. The Liberal Party claimed victory when its presidential candidates, who received 42% of the vote, collectively outpolled the National Party candidate, Rafael Leonardo Callejas. Jose Azcona Hoyo, the candidate receiving the most votes among the Liberals, assumed the presidency in 1986. With the endorsement of the Honduran military, the Azcona administration ushered in the first peaceful transfer of power between civilian presidents in more than 30 years.

Nationalist Rafael Callejas won the following presidential election, taking office in 1990. The nation’s fiscal deficit ballooned during Callejas’ last year in office. Growing public dissatisfaction with the rising cost of living and with widespread government corruption led voters in 1993 to elect Liberal Party candidate Carlos Roberto Reina with 56% of the vote. President Reina, elected on a platform calling for a “moral revolution,” actively prosecuted corruption and pursued those responsible for human rights abuses in the 1980s. He created a modern attorney general’s office and an investigative police force, increased civilian control over the armed forces, transferred the police from military to civilian authority, and restored national fiscal health.

Liberal Carlos Roberto Flores Facusse took office in 1998. Flores inaugurated programs of reform and modernization of the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on helping Honduras’ poorest citizens while maintaining the country’s fiscal health and improving international competitiveness. In October 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras, leaving more than 5,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced. Damages totaled nearly $3 billion.

Ricardo Maduro Joest of the National Party won the 2001 presidential elections, and was inaugurated in 2002. Maduro’s first act as President was to deploy a joint police-military force to the streets to permit wider neighborhood patrols in the ongoing fight against the country’s massive crime and gang problem. Maduro was a strong supporter of U.S. counterterrorism efforts and joined the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq with an 11-month contribution of 370 troops. Under President Maduro’s guidance, Honduras also negotiated and ratified the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), received debt relief, became the first Latin American country to sign a Millennium Challenge Account compact with the U.S., and actively promoted greater Central American integration. While the Maduro administration implemented a number of successful economic and security policies, reliable polling data revealed widespread popular rejection of Honduran institutions, underscoring the lack of public faith in the political class, the media, and the business community.

Jose Manuel “Mel” Zelaya Rosales of the Liberal Party won the November 27, 2005, presidential elections with less than a 4% margin of victory, the smallest margin ever in Honduran electoral history.

Zelaya’s campaign theme was “citizen power,” and he vowed to increase transparency and combat narcotrafficking, while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The Liberal Party won 62 of the 128 congressional seats, just short of an absolute majority. Zelaya’s presidency was marked by a series of controversies as his policies and rhetoric moved closer in line with that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Zelaya signed on to Chavez’ Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in August 2008, and the treaty was ratified by the National Congress in October 2008. In the final year of Zelaya’s term, he began advocating that a referendum be added to the November 2009 elections regarding reform of the constitution. Zelaya proposed that an informal poll be held on June 28 to gauge public support for his proposal. However, Honduran courts ruled that Zelaya’s plans were unconstitutional and directed that government agencies desist from providing support to carry out the poll. Zelaya ignored the rulings.

 

Coup d’état

Army soldiers entered Zelaya’s residence in the early hours of June 28, 2009, the day of the poll, forcibly seized Zelaya and expelled him to Costa Rica. The National Congress met in an emergency session that same day, declared Zelaya was no longer president, and swore in President of Congress Roberto Micheletti as the new President of the Republic. Micheletti replaced all the cabinet members who did not accept Zelaya’s ouster. As reflected in resolutions by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations General Assembly, the events of June 28 constituted a coup d’état against a democratically elected government.

Zelaya’s forced removal was universally condemned by the international community, and the OAS issued an immediate and unanimous call for Zelaya’s unconditional return to office. With support from the United States, the OAS designated Nobel Peace Prize laureate and then-Costa Rican President Oscar Arias as mediator to reach a peaceful, diplomatic resolution of the crisis. Through the Arias-led negotiations, the San Jose Accord, a 12-point plan for restoration of constitutional order, was drafted. The plan called for restoration of Zelaya as president, but with a consensus-based “unity government;” establishment of a truth commission and a verification commission under the auspices of the OAS; amnesty for political crimes committed by all sides related to the coup; and early elections to establish a successor as rapidly as possible.

In early October 2009, negotiations were moved to Tegucigalpa and renamed the Guaymuras process. On October 30, 2009, President Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti signed the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. However, President Zelaya broke off his participation in the process of implementing the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord after Micheletti announced on November 6, 2009, that he would form a new cabinet without Zelaya.

On November 29, 2009, Hondurans elected Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo as President in a previously scheduled free and fair election that attracted broad voter participation. Lobo received the largest number of votes for a presidential candidate in Honduran history. President Lobo was sworn in on January 27, 2010. After assuming office, Lobo formed a government of national unity and convened a truth commission, as set forth in the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. However, as of August 2010, several countries in Latin America had not recognized the Lobo government, and Honduras’ participation remained suspended from the OAS.

 

GOVERNMENT

The 1982 constitution provides for a strong executive, a unicameral National Congress, and a judiciary appointed by the National Congress. The president is directly elected to a 4-year term by popular vote. The Congress also serves a 4-year term; congressional seats are assigned to the parties’ candidates in proportion to the number of votes each party receives in the various departments. The judiciary includes a Supreme Court of Justice (one president and 14 magistrates chosen by Congress for a 7-year term), courts of appeal, and several courts of original jurisdiction–such as labor, tax, and criminal courts. For administrative purposes, Honduras is divided into 18 departments, with 298 mayors and municipal councils selected for 4-year terms.

 

POLITICAL CONDITIONS


Reinforced by the media and several political watchdog organizations, concerted efforts to protect human rights and civil liberties continued up to the June 28, 2009, coup. In the immediate aftermath of Zelaya’s expulsion from Honduras, the de facto Micheletti regime used troops to shut down dissenting media outlets and imposed curfews to prevent anti-coup protestors from forming large groups to voice their opposition. The de facto regime issued a decree on September 27, 2009, suspending most civil liberties and invoking a state of emergency. The de facto regime also issued an executive order giving the executive the right to close any media service it deemed a threat to national security or public order, without a court order. On October 19, 2009, the de facto regime published a decree abrogating its earlier suspension of civil liberties. The human rights situation significantly deteriorated during the de facto regime’s control with widespread reports of beatings by security forces and other abuses. In addition, the regime’s movement of security forces into the large cities, in order to maintain its rule, resulted in a significant increase in crime and drug trafficking as traditional security force activities were curtailed. Since his inauguration, President Lobo has taken important steps indicating his government’s commitment to human rights, including the appointment of a special advisor for human rights issues. However, since March 2010, the killings of 8 journalists have raised concerns.

Organized labor is relatively strong in Honduras, representing approximately 8% of the overall work force and 13% of the apparel workforce.

 

Political Parties

The two major parties are the slightly left-of-center Liberal Party and the slightly-right-of-center National Party. The three much smaller registered parties–the Christian Democratic Party, the Innovation and National Unity Party, and the Democratic Unification Party–hold a few seats each in the Congress, but have never come close to winning the presidency.

 

Principal Government Officials

President–Porfirio LOBO Sosa
First designate-Vice President–Maria Antonieta Guillen de BOGRAN
Minister of Foreign Relations–Mario Miguel CANAHUATI
President of Congress–Juan Orlando HERNÁNDEZ
Ambassador to the United States–Jorge Ramon Hernández-Alcerro
Ambassador to the United Nations–Mary Elizabeth FLORES Flake

Honduras maintains an embassy in the United States at 3007 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-966-7702). For more information concerning entry and exit requirements, travelers may contact the Consular office at 1014 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20001; telephone (202) 682-5948; e-mail: consulado.washington@hondurasemb.org. Honduras also has consulates in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco and an Honorary Consul in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For tourist information or suggestions, please contact the Honduras Institute of Tourism at 1-800-410-9608 (in the United States) or at 1-800-222-TOUR (8687) (within Honduras only) or visit the web site at http://www.hondurastips.honduras.com/.

 

ECONOMY


Honduras, with an estimated per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $1,829 in 2009, is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, with about 65% of the population living in poverty. In 2009, Honduras’ GDP fell by 2.1%. Reasons for this contraction included the worldwide economic downturn and the political crisis surrounding the forced removal of President Zelaya from power. Previously, the economy grew by more than 6% per year from 2004 to 2007, and by 4% in 2008. The Honduran Central Bank projects that GDP growth for 2010 will be between 2.2% and 3%.

Historically dependent on exports of agricultural goods, the Honduran economy has diversified in recent decades and now has a strong export-processing (maquila) industry, primarily focused on assembling textile and apparel goods for re-export to the United States, as well as automobile wiring harnesses and similar products. Despite the recent economic diversification, there continues to be a large subsistence farming population with few economic opportunities. Honduras also has extensive forest, marine, and mineral resources, although widespread slash-and-burn agricultural methods and illegal logging continue to destroy Honduran forests.

Because of a strong commercial relationship with the United States, Honduras was hit hard by the international economic downturn, especially in the maquila industry, where orders were estimated to decline about 40%, and where about 30,000 workers lost their jobs in 2008 and 2009 out of a pre-crisis workforce of 145,000. The maquila sector began to see an upswing toward the end of 2009 as the U.S. economy stabilized, and it has begun re-expanding its employment base. About one-third of the Honduran workforce was considered either unemployed or underemployed in 2009.

Roughly 1 million Hondurans have migrated to the United States. Remittance inflows from Hondurans living abroad, mostly in the United States, are the largest source of foreign income and a major contributor to domestic demand. Remittances totaled $2.8 billion in 2009, down 11.8% from 2008 levels; that is equivalent to about one-fifth of Honduras’ GDP.

 

NATIONAL SECURITY

With the cessation of the 1980s civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, the Honduran armed forces refocused their orientation toward combating transnational threats such as narcoterrorism and organized crime. Honduras supports efforts at regional integration and deployed troops to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 1999, the constitution was amended to abolish the position of military commander in chief of the armed forces, thus codifying civilian authority over the military.

 

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Honduras is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization of American States (OAS–membership suspended July 2009 as a result of the June 28, 2009, coup), the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Conference of Central American Armed Forces (CFAC), and the Central American Security Commission (CASC). Honduras is also a signatory to the Rio Pact, and a member of the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA). During 1995-96, Honduras–a founding member of the United Nations–served as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council for the first time.

Honduras is a party to all UN and OAS counterterrorism conventions and protocols.

Honduras is a strong proponent of Central American cooperation and integration, and before the June 2009 coup was working toward the implementation of a regional customs union and Central American passport, which would ease border controls and tariffs among Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

In 1969, El Salvador and Honduras fought the brief “Soccer War” over disputed border areas. The two countries formally signed a peace treaty in 1980, which put the border dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In 1992, the IJC awarded most of the disputed territory to Honduras, and in January 1998, Honduras and El Salvador signed a border demarcation treaty to implement the terms of the ICJ decree, although delays continue due to technical difficulties. However, Honduras and El Salvador maintain normal diplomatic and trade relations. Honduras also has unresolved maritime border disputes with El Salvador, Jamaica, and Cuba.

 

U.S. Department of State