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Central American University - UCA  
  Number 464 | Marzo 2020

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    The death of the MACCIH and CC-4’s uncertain future
    2020 Marzo Honduras
    “MACCIH is doomed. It has become part of the problem due to an impunity pact between Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the OAS, and Honduran...

    Is there any way out of this narco-dictatorship?
    2019 Diciembre Honduras
    After a New York jury handed down Tony Hernández’s conviction, all roads seemed to close off for his brother, Juan Orlando (“Tony”) Hernández, now in...

    Ten years of a coup d’état: “I, Juan Orlando Hernández…”
    2019 Agosto Honduras
    Ten years after the 2009 coup d’état that shook Honduras’ institutional life and that of its entire population and reverberated throughout the continent...

    An election fraud with the taste of an imperialist coup
    2018 Febrero Honduras
    The general elections of November 26 add yet another new political tragedy to the long and growing list in Honduras. The promoters of the foreseen fraud...

    Machista violence killed Berta Cáceres
    2017 Octubre Honduras
    At daybreak on March 3, 2016, environmental activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home, an event that shocked Honduras and many people around the...

    Preparing the scene and keeping an eye on those “squealing” in the North
    2017 Mayo Honduras
    President Juan Orlando Hernández made an untimely trip to Washingtonin mid-March. He traveled right after the Honduran parties’ primary elections,...

    One opportunity was lost… but others could open up
    2017 Marzo Honduras
    According to a Chinese proverb, three things can’t be turned back: a spoken word, a launched arrow and a lost opportunity. We can already call 2017...

    Green glimpses of hope against a blood red background
    2016 Noviembre Honduras
    If we had to portray in paint Honduras’ situation this year, the background would surely be blood red, the color of our national reality after the murder...

    Two campaign paths crossing: Clinton-Kaine’s and Hernández’s
    2016 Septiembre Honduras
    The man who for six months in 2015 was massively rejected by thousands of people shouting “JOH, get out!” has everything properly tied up to be reelected...

    A country-laboratory for Washington’s security policies
    2016 Junio Honduras
    Two months after Berta Cáceres’ assassination, which deeply moved Honduras and the rest of the world, the Public Ministry put out warrants for the arrest...

    The United States takes the helm in the Honduran crisis
    2016 Febrero Honduras
    At ten minutes to midnight on January 25, the last day for electing the 15 new Supreme Court justices, National Congress President Mauricio Oliva called...

    Indignant torches against the political mafia
    2015 Julio Honduras
    Has spring finally broken out in Honduras’ devastated, violent and politically arid reality after a long, hard political winter, with its epidemic of...

    Therise and fall of Los Cachiros cartel
    2015 Marzo Honduras
    Honduras has been described as the most violent country in the world, and its criminality is closely linked to drug-trafficking. It’s situation has...

    A perfect crime?
    2014 Junio Honduras
    He left in a hurry, waving goodbye. “I’m off on holiday and I’m not here for anyone!” But he stopped before he closed the door to add: “…except for...

    Will the bipartite system get the opposition back under control?
    2014 Abril Honduras
    In the National Congress’ inaugural session on January 22, Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) Party representatives went so far as to break the microphone...

    A first brief take on the November 24 elections
    2013 Diciembre Honduras
    The November 24 elections were yet another clear sign that the dynamics of the political crisis that came to a head with the coup d’état in Honduras...

    Mining exploitation is as harsh as the dictatorship
    2013 Octubre Honduras
    In western Honduras a hard-fought struggle is going on between those who apply the law of the jungle to impose their will and those looking for an impartial...

    A river, an oak tree, a people, and exemplary resistance
    2013 Septiembre Honduras
    Families from the village of Rio Blanco and 10 other Lenca communities scattered through the rugged mountains in the northern part of the department...

    Our country needs a truce, and not just with gangs
    2013 Julio Honduras
    Four years after the coup that overthrew President Mel Zalaya, Honduras has more red alerts than ever. While the government tries to deny that we are...

    A walk in repudiation of the Mining Law
    2013 Abril Honduras
    The year already has an election smell, and this time, not just among the same parties as always. The LIBRE party candidate is muscling his way onto...

    A sad Christmas ballad
    2013 Enero Honduras
    We were about to go Christmas shopping the morning of December 23, 2012, when I got a call from my daughter’s sixth grade teacher, Kevin, with whom...

    The primary elections were just one more shortcut
    2012 Diciembre Honduras
    Since the June 28, 2009, coup d’état that violently wrenched President Manuel Zelaya Rosales from government, several paths have opened up to resolve...

    Notes for a debate about cooperation and the “logframe”
    2012 Octubre Honduras
    While recognizing international cooperation’s enormous service in channeling funds from donor agencies in various—especially European—countries for development,...

    The country that gave birth to the new LIBRE Party
    2012 Agosto Honduras
    Four elements are influencing Honduras’ current dynamic: the very unstable economy; the age-old, unending and ever more acute agrarian conflict; the...

    A ship of State in flame and sinking
    2012 Marzo Honduras
    It’s not an easy task in Honduras to get people to give their opinion, express themselves, especially if they’re on foot, don’t go to university, earn...

    Radio Progreso’s present for defending freedom of expresión
    2011 Noviembre Honduras
    Karla Rivas, news editor for Honduras’ Jesuit-founded Radio Progreso and communications coordinator for the Jesuits’ Reflection, Investigation and Comunication...

    “Normalized” politics in a failing society
    2011 Octubre Honduras
    Who can possibly figure out all the twists and turns of Honduran reality? September ended with President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa signing Honduras’...

    What the “gold fever” has left us
    2011 Septiembre Honduras
    They cut the tree / they killed it five gentlemen took it awayleaving the soil bare my green country is a desert... This song by Honduras’...

    Zelaya’s back with agreements under his hat
    2011 Junio Honduras
    Waving in one hand the national flag, his party’s Liberal flag and the flag of the Honduran resistance movement of which he is the general coordinator,...

    A Model City for a Society in Tatters
    2011 Abril Honduras
    A committee led by President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, made up of some 50 members of his administration visited Southeast Asia between February 18 and March...

    Authoritarian, Messianic Solutions: Real Dangers for a Depressed Society
    2011 Enero Honduras
    On January 28, General Carlos Antonio Cuéllar, Joint Chief of Staff for the Honduran Armed Forces and successor to General Romeo Vásquez—both of whom...

    Dialogue to Change Things So Everything Remains the Same
    2010 Noviembre Honduras
    First thing in the morning of October 1, President Lobo Sosa issued an invitation to various sectors of Honduran society to discuss the idea of a Constituent...

    General strike? Constituent Assembly?
    2010 Septiembre Honduras
    A general Strike! Let’s have a General Strike! That’s the slogan the resistance is using in these turbulent times. Whose initiative was it? Who’s...

    What the Coup Left Us
    2010 Julio Honduras
    President Porfirio Lobo Sosa’s government platform contains all the same destabilizing dynamics present in the June 28, 2009, coup d’état. Despite the...

    A Wolf with No Direction, A Government with No Compass
    2010 Abril Honduras
    The specter of the coup hovers over every sphere of Honduran politics. Congressman Wenceslao Lara, member of the Liberal Party that led the coup, shamelessly...

    A “Sweeping” Electoral Triumph but The Nation Got Trounced
    2009 Diciembre Honduras
    Let’s go vote, let’s go vote, let’s go vote…” It was five-thirty in the morning on Sunday, November 29, and this was the jingle repeated over and over...

    Agreements, Traps and Resistance beyond Zelaya
    2009 Noviembre Honduras
    Ireiterate my deepest gratitude to the government of the United States for the firm support it is giving us to put the agreements into effect, and regret...

    Resistance with the Scent of a Woman
    2009 Septiembre Honduras
    The protests against the coup in our country have been characterized from the outset by sizable women’s participation. We were the first to say with...

    Another Month Living with the Coup: “I Hear Something Rumbling...”
    2009 Septiembre Honduras
    This month we continue the ongoing reflections on Honduras’ unfolding current events, contributed by an activist intellectual in Honduras and first published...

    There are No Ideal Solutions To This Coup D’état
    2009 Agosto Honduras
    All of us in El Progreso were expecting something odd to happen on Sunday 28. Coup or no coup, the day was full of omens. The “consultation” or “citizens’...

    Blow by Blow, Step by Step, Day by Day
    2009 Agosto Honduras
    Monday, June 29: Only a few days? My first impression on arriving in Honduras this morning was one of calm. Later on, the day has taken care...

    A Return to the Caverns
    2009 Julio Honduras
    For Latin America, the military coup consummated against the constitutional President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, has represented a return to...

    The Protagonists of a Coup Foretold
    2009 Julio Honduras
    On Sunday June 28, a contingent of soldiers surrounded the residency of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, elected in 2006 to serve until 2010....

    What’s Behind the Fourth Ballot Box?
    2009 Mayo Honduras
    According to veteran union leader Carlos Humberto Reyes, “Mel Zelaya knows how to kick a soccer ball with either foot. Sometimes he uses his left to...

    Zelaya’s Final Year Is Off to a Bad Start
    2009 Marzo Honduras
    The year got off to a troubled start. The lurching of the economies of the rich world’s power centers is now bringing consequences to countries as poor...

    Now in ALBA, Always in Impunity
    2008 Septiembre Honduras
    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez came to Honduras to shake things up, bringing his brainchild, the Latin American Bolivarian Alternative (ALBA), in...

    What I Saw, Felt and Discovered in a Three-Week Hunger Strike
    2008 Julio Honduras
    The Honduran Prosecutor General’s Office, or Public Ministry, is an institution created in 1993. Its head is appointed by the National Congress. Both...

    The Social Movement and the Formal/Real Government Contradiction
    2008 Mayo Honduras
    Formal government, real government: it sounds like a play on words. But in Honduras, it’s a concrete problem. The government, with its three branches...

    Omoa Beach Smells of Gas, Impunity and Corruption
    2007 Noviembre Honduras
    Omoa is a port in the department of Cortés that looks out on the Honduran Caribbean. To the west, the imposing Merendón mountain range separating Honduras...

    The President in His Thicket
    2007 Agosto Honduras
    Only two of Central America’s Presidents accepted the invitation to go to Managua to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship,...

    After 25 Years: Formal Democracy But More Social Tragedy
    2007 Abril Honduras
    The first several weeks of 2007 were saturated with public displays of politicians and government officials celebrating the 25th anniversary of Honduras’...

    A New Government from Which Nothing Is Expected
    2006 Junio Honduras
    The sarcastic comment one hears frequently on the streets of Tegucigalpa is that “the only thing the government has changed in four months has been the...

    Honduras’ Prison Massacres Reflect a Social and Political Crisis
    2006 Enero Honduras
    Yet more prison violence broke out on the afternoon of January 5, 2006, this time at the Támara National Penitentiary, where thirteen prisoners were...

    A Pact of Impunity Around the Elections
    2005 Septiembre Honduras
    Each day brings further confirmation that Honduran society is being taught to use violence to resolve its conflicts. From 1998 through mid-2005, over...

    Miguel Facussé: Fencing off Paradise
    2005 Mayo Honduras
    A news story tucked away in the corner of page 42 of a national newspaper on April 15 told of the arrest of ten community leaders from the southern Honduran...

    A Year Full of Disappointments
    2005 Enero Honduras
    This year ended with frustration as Honduras’ national soccer team was eliminated from the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup. What at first glance may...

    The Teachers’ Conflict: Long but Inconclusive
    2004 Septiembre Honduras
    What do a former Honduran President, an obscure leader of one of the country’s tiny parties and one of the ruling party’s pre-candidates for mayor of...

    Monsignor Virgilio: A Bishop Who Walked with the People
    2004 Julio Honduras
    In an event packed with humble people who had come from the surrounding hills and valleys, Monsignor Virgilio López Irías, of the Franciscan order, was...

    Fifty Years Later: Between Resistance and Servility
    2004 Mayo Honduras
    Glorious May. This May, Honduran society, especially the poor and working class, commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the strike waged in 1954 by...

    The Next Two Years in a Country that No Longer Exists
    2004 Marzo Honduras
    It look just two years for President Ricardo Maduro’s National Party government to erase any doubts about its basic leanings: easygoing and obliging...

    The March on Tegucigalpa: “It’s Our Water!”
    2003 Septiembre Honduras
    August 26 marked a turning point for Honduran society. On that day, 25,000 people from all corners of the country converged on the capital to protest...

    For the Forests, For Water, For Life
    2003 Julio Honduras
    Father Tamayo, the diocesan priest in Juticalpa, the capital of the eastern department of Olancho, organized and led the March for Life in defense of...

    Has ‘Social Cleansing’ of Gang Members Spread to Honduran Jails?
    2003 Mayo Honduras
    On the morning of April 5, El Porvenir prison in the northern city of La Ceiba was turned into a slaughterhouse. In less than an hour, 108 bloodied...

    Weakness, Inequality and Complicity
    2003 Marzo Honduras
    Twenty years after civilian rule replaced military dictatorship, Honduras’ governability is still very fragile. Honduran society has extreme inequalities...

    President Maduro’s First Year: The Worst is Yet to Come
    2002 Diciembre Honduras
    Will Honduras’ President Ricardo Maduro, his ministers, the parliamentary representatives and judicial branch officials enjoy their Christmas holidays...

    500 Years after the First Mass: A Demobilizing Celebration
    2002 Septiembre Honduras
    On August 14, Honduras commemorated the 500th anniversary of the first mass celebrated by Spanish conquistadors on the mainland of the Americas, at a...

    Journalist, Legislator, Lawyer… And Sexual Abuser
    2002 Junio Honduras
    "Successful men" stand out in the circles of power in Honduras just as they do in all other Latin American societies. These are the men of politics,...

    Election of the Ombudsperson: Whys, Wherefores and Challenges
    2002 Abril Honduras
    On March 7, recognized Honduran human rights activist Ramón Custodio López was elected National Human Rights Ombudsperson, or People’s Defender, by the...

    A New President and Cracks in The Two-Party Structure
    2002 Enero Honduras
    If by some miracle an ordinary citizen were to gain immediate and personal access to Honduras’ new President and the President could grant him three...

    A Portrait in Pastels of Honduras’ New Cardinal
    2001 Enero Honduras
    The news, previously only an unbelievable rumored possibility, reached Honduras on Sunday, January 21: at noon, the hour of the Angelus, the Pope had...

    Land Occupation Opens the Way For Agrarian Reform
    2000 Septiembre Honduras
    A round mid night on May 14, 700 landless peasants of Aguán, on Honduras’ northern coast, occupied lands that belonged to the now dismantled Regional...

    After Hurricane Mitch: An Untold Story
    2000 Mayo Honduras
    What has happened to the reconstruction funds allocated to Honduras, the Central American country most devastated by the passage of Hurricane Mitch...

    A Year after Mitch: Organization and Hope
    1999 Noviembre Honduras
    Throughout this post-Mitch year, national life has been dominated by reconstruction, a process that has gone through four basic stages. Each stage has...

    Raining Questions
    1999 Octubre Honduras
    Of all the threats to Honduras that could be gleaned from the almost unintelligible weather forecasts that followed the Independence Day celebrations...

    Maquila Workers: A New Breed of Women?
    1999 Septiembre Honduras
    The Honduran Maquiladoras Association has 200 official maquiladoras—cross-border assembly plants for re-export—on its rolls. It also acknowledges...

    The Old Man and the Tigers
    1999 Agosto Honduras
    The official response to the reports was that “there has been no attempted coup. The President has been in control of the situation at all times. Changes...

    Questioning the Unions And Monitoring Corruption
    1999 Mayo Honduras
    The heat in northern Honduras is insufferable. The weather forecasts foreboding an early and extensive rainy season have everyone worried. Even if the...

    An Exodus in Search of Housing
    1999 Abril Honduras
    Five months have passed since the waters of the Pelo River suddenly and furiously rose, breaking their banks and sweeping away hundreds of houses in...

    Budding Organization And a Hurricane of Contradictions
    1999 Enero Honduras
    What is being done? How are the refugees faring? Is the aid reaching them? How are Hondurans using the aid they are being sent? These are some of the...

    A Traumatic Odyssey in Urraco
    1998 Diciembre Honduras
    North Urraco has an urban population of nearly 7,000 inhabitants and serves as a communications center for 42 communities, with a total population of...

    First Reflections On the Wounds Mitch Inflicted
    1998 Diciembre Honduras
    Alert: grade 5 hurricaneWe learned through the media that this dangerous hurricane was forming on October 23, just days before Mitch hit Honduras....

    Patuca II Project: A Global Alert
    1998 Julio Honduras
    Honduras' Mosquito Coast, or Mosquitia, in the extreme northeast corner of the country, gets more coverage in the national media for having become a...

    Democratic Transition: The Interminable History
    1998 Febrero Honduras
    Hondurans held general elections for the sixth consecutive time in 17 years on November 30, 1997, electing Liberal Carlos Flores Facussé as their new...

    Maquila*: The Swallow That Lays Golden Eggs
    1997 Septiembre Honduras
    Maquila*: refers to the type of foreign-owned assembly plants set up in low-wage third world countries that put together products, mostly clothing,...

    Popular Pressure In a Sea of Violence
    1997 Julio Honduras
    From the first day of April to the last, Honduras experienced constant mobilizations in various zones which, though not coordinated, all expressed a...

    A Small but Real Hope
    1997 Mayo Honduras
    Political campaigns in Honduras are a traditional bipartisan system, divided into three periods during the four years of government. The first period...

    A Model for Poverty
    1997 Febrero Honduras
    The government of Carlos Roberto Reina completed three years in office in January 1997 with the great majority of Hondurans still asking themselves what...

    The Culture of Mistrust
    1996 Septiembre Honduras
    Guapinol, a remote community in the department of Colón, 400 km. northeast of Tegucigalpa, burst out of anonymity the afternoon of June 25 when a group...

    The Middle Classes: Violent and Organized
    1996 Julio Honduras
    In other countries the stereotypical view that Honduras, just like the aircraft carriers used for US intervention in Central America, is insignificant...

    The Honeymoon's Over; The Dispute's Begin
    1996 Mayo Honduras
    Honduras' Liberal government marked its two year point in office in January, against a backdrop of ongoing difficulties due to the country's economic...

    Will Justice Finally Be Done?
    1995 Noviembre Honduras
    The Office of the Attorney General, also known as the Public Ministry, began its functions in July 1994 under the competent direction of lawyer Edmundo...

    The Tacamiche Conflict: A Good Test
    1995 Septiembre Honduras
    On July 19, 1994, the Tela Railroad Company, a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands Fruit Company, informed the Tela Workers' Union (SITRATERCO) leadership...

    Telecommunications: Privatize or Demilitarize?
    1995 Julio Honduras
    The economic crisis that is keeping the majority of Honduras in a state of desperation continues to worsen. President Carlos Reina's economic Cabinet...

    The Generals in Their Labyrinths
    1995 Mayo Honduras
    On May 3 of last year, to the delight of civil society, Honduras' National Assembly unanimously voted to approve the establishment of a voluntary and...

    Now There is Light but Blackouts Continue
    1995 Febrero Honduras
    Promises were fulfilled on December 14 when once again "there was light" in Honduras. President Carlos Reina pushed the button that restored electrical...

    The New Look of the "Red Package"
    1995 Enero Honduras
    In the wee hours of October 12, the National Congress approved the controversial neoliberal economic measures popularly known as the "red package" named...

    The Impact of the "Red Package"
    1994 Noviembre Honduras
    On September 8, Minister of the Treasury Juan Ferrera sent the National Congress a series of fiscal measures the local press promptly dubbed the "red...

    The Indigenous Speak Out
    1994 Septiembre Honduras
    Six of Honduras' seven original ethnic groups participated in the indigenous pilgrimage that shook Tegucigalpa in July. The pilgrimage began in different...

    Lights of Change in a Blacked out Country
    1994 Septiembre Honduras
    The majority of Hondurans have been led to desperation by the devaluation of the national currency and never ending inflation. The situation is now...

    GoodBye to the Military Draft
    1994 Julio Honduras
    For decades, the President of the Republic and all bodies of civilian power in Honduras have done what the military tells them to do. They dared not...

    The Frist Hundred Dayds
    1994 Mayo Honduras
    President Carlos Roberto Reina and his governing team are locked in a critical push pull situation with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank...

    President Reina: No Seller of Dreams
    1994 Febrero Honduras
    An extended catcall by more than 40,000 people was the goodbye given to President Callejas on January 27, when Carlos Roberto Reina was inaugurated as...

    Indisputable Vote Against Neoliberalism
    1994 Enero Honduras
    Sixty seven year old Carlos Roberto Reina, from the opposition Liberal Party, is the new President of Honduras. His electoral triumph was one that none...

    Callejas on his Way Out
    1993 Diciembre Honduras
    With the November 28 presidential elections drawing near, the government of Rafael Leonard Callejas has entered its twilight. As a sendoff, the Honduran...

    Beans on the Front Burner
    1993 Octubre Honduras
    The Callejas government recently devalued the lempira, Honduras' local currency, by just under 9% through the official mechanism known as the Customs...

    Neoliberal Measures Cause New Problems
    1993 Julio Honduras
    On April 29, the Central Bank of Honduras decided to raise its local currency reserve rate by two points: one in May and the other in June, a jump from...

    Honduras: Early Moves in the Electoral Game
    1992 Diciembre Honduras
    Honduras' current electoral law obliges all legally registered political parties to select their own officers and candidates for government office by...

    Five Facets of Honduras
    1992 Septiembre Honduras
    * Economic. The Callejas government continues to dutifully apply the adjustments dictated by the multinational lending agencies, but a capitalist...

    Undermining Opposition to Structural Adjustment
    1992 Julio Honduras
    Since the March 1990 issuance of Decree 18-90, comprising the neoliberal measures now a part of all Latin America's economic reality, Honduran President...

    Demilitarization and Other Challenges
    1992 Mayo Honduras
    The Honduran military, considered the main US regional ally in the last decade, has now become, as US Ambassador to Honduras Crescencio Arcos said recently,...

    Honduras: A Grassroots Party Emerging from Grassroots Organization
    1991 Abril Centroamérica
    Honduras always stands out as the most backward country of Central America, perhaps with the exception of Panama. The new neoliberal economic plan has...

    Neoliberalism Unopposed
    1990 Mayo Honduras
    After a year laced with costly and festive electoral campaigning, Hondurans elected Rafael Leonardo Callejas as their new President in November. Callejas,...

    Dependence and the Military
    1988 Marzo Centroamérica
    To no one's surprise, the focal point of Honduras in 1987 again had a more geopolitical than national character; the position of the Honduran government...

    New Government Faces Old Dilema
    1986 Abril Honduras
    While the short period of time since the January 27, 1986 inauguration of José Azcona de Hoyo as Honduras' President makes it difficult to assess the...

    Honduras: From Banana Republic to U.S. Military garrison a Visit to Puerto Castilla's military center
    1983 Agosto Honduras
    If ever a Central American country merited the classification of "banana republic," that country is Honduras. The banana plantations on its Atlantic...

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