From the New York Times, April 30, 2020

Ex-Honduran National Police Chief Charged in New York

"“Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Bonilla played a key role in a violent international drug conspiracy, working on behalf of former Honduran congressman Tony Hernández Alvarado and, his brother, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.”

From Labor Notes, April 17, 2020

Corona Capitalism in Honduras

The Honduran government’s response to the pandemic is a textbook example of how the rich and powerful use a crisis to grab and profit as much as they can through undemocratic means. Of course, “disaster capitalism” isn’t new in Honduras, whose people have faced shock after shock since the 2009 coup backed by the Obama administration.

From Common Dreams, April 15, 2020

Trump Accused of 'Actively and Knowingly' Spreading Coronavirus to Central America Through Deportations

Days after the Trump administration threatened Central American countries with visa sanctions if they refuse to accept nationals who are deported from the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, the Guatemalan health minister said an estimated 75% of the people on one deportation flight from the U.S. later tested positive for the virus.

Health Minister Hugo Monroy's claim raised fears that the U.S. is willfully sending sick people back to the countries they left, creating conditions for larger outbreaks in countries including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. 

From VICE, April 13, 2020

The Honduran Drug Boss Who Helped the US Now Faces Deportation—and Death

Digna Valle Valle helped the DEA bring down some of Honduras' most powerful drug traffickers. Now she could be deported back to the country to die.

From the New York Times, April 9, 2020

US Expels Thousands to Mexico After Largely Halting Asylum

President Donald Trump's administration is relying on a seldom-used public health law to set aside decades-old national and international immigration laws. People seeking refuge in the U.S. are whisked to the nearest border crossing and returned to Mexico without a chance to apply for asylum. It may be the most aggressive clampdown on immigration by a president who's made reducing asylum claims a top priority.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday that nearly 10,000 Mexicans and Central Americans have been “expelled” to Mexico since the rules took effect March 21. Mark Morgan, the agency’s acting commissioner, said the changes were “not about immigration.”

From Former U.S. Ambassador James Nealon, April 9, 2020

The Next Immigration Time Bomb - Ambassador Nealon

One such consequence will be on irregular migration to the United States.  While the immediate impact of lockdowns and quarantine will be to freeze people in place, we need to look now at how coronavirus could spur another and perhaps greater surge of migrants heading our way, particularly from the vulnerable countries of the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

From Trocaire, April 10, 2020

Responding to COVID in Honduras Under Strict Lockdown

Honduras has the highest number of cases in Central America so we are preparing for the worst. For a country of 9 million people, there are only 20 ventilators in the country. This is the stark reality for poor and vulnerable communities throughout Honduras facing into the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Reuters, April 2, 2020

Twitter removes accounts linked to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, other countries

The company removed 3,104 fake accounts created from a single IP range in Honduras by a staffer on the government’s behalf to retweet the president’s account.

From the Committee to Protect Journalists, March 18, 2020

Honduran government declares state of emergency, suspends right to free expression

Honduran authorities must immediately lift newly imposed restrictions on free expression and let members of the press cover the news freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On March 16, the office of President Juan Orlando Hernández published a decree instituting a state of emergency for seven days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposes a curfew and revokes several articles of the Honduran constitution, including Article 72, which protects the right to free expression without censorship.

The decree also restricts the right to free mobility and the right to organize social gatherings, among others. Honduras’ law on freedom of expression, which operates under Article 72, protects journalists’ right to work without “any persecution,” even under martial law.

From BBC, February 14, 2020

Honduras violence: Gunmen storm court building to free MS-13 leader

Heavily armed men dressed in military fatigues and police uniforms stormed a court building in north-west Honduras and freed a senior leader of the powerful MS-13 gang, officials say.

Alexander Mendoza, known as "El Porky", had just arrived for a trial hearing in El Progreso, escorted by security forces, when the attack took place.

At least four officers were killed and three others were wounded. MS-13 is one of the most violent criminal groups in Central America. President Juan Orlando Hernández offered a reward of 2 million lempiras (£62,000; $80,000) for information that leads to Mendoza's recapture.

From KALW Public Radio, February 12, 2020

Sacred Steps: A Jesuit Priest Risks His Life To Challenge Honduras’ Repressive Government

In this story from The Spiritual Edge, we meet a Honduran Catholic priest who speaks up on behalf of his country’s most vulnerable people. His activism over the airwaves, in his writings and speeches places him in the crosshairs of a government that has killed its opponents, including this priest’s friends and colleagues.

From In These Times, February 11, 2020

We Talk About One U.S.-Backed Coup. Hondurans Talk About Three.

In the last three weeks, two groups totaling over 4,000 people attempted to flee Honduras. At the same time, Indigenous groups back in Honduras are engaged in fighting a new law they say will increase their displacement and the violence that is aimed against them. It is clear the crisis in Honduras that has pushed caravan after caravan to seek refuge in the United States is nowhere near an end.

From The Real News, January 2, 2020

Exclusive Interview: Ex-President Manuel Zelaya – The Crisis in Honduras

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup d’état in 2009, talks to Laura Carlsen about the origins and consequences of the crisis in his country.

From Prensa Rebelde, January 1, 2020

Does Trump support democracy in Latin America? Critics say it depends who’s in power

The contrast between its handling of election fallout in Honduras and the nearly identical scenario in Bolivia offers a stark lesson in how the Trump administration approaches the region. Even as votes were still being counted in Honduras in December 2017, the U.S. congratulated Juan Orlando Hernandez on victory. The endorsement, which came despite OAS recommendations for new balloting because of rampant election fraud, shocked numerous Latin American leaders as well as Democratic lawmakers in the United States.

From The Intercept, December 21, 2019

Inside the Plot to Murder Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres

“In preparation for the trial of the assassins, the Honduras Public Prosecutor’s Office extracted thousands of private call logs, SMS, and WhatsApp messages from their phones. The call log evidence was examined by an independent expert, and it showed that the assassins had communicated through a compartmentalized chain that reached the highest ranks of leadership of the company whose dam she had been protesting. Those messages, analyzed below, provide a striking window into the plot to kill Cáceres.”

From TRT World, December 19, 2019

Honduras is not a country for people seeking safety

The extreme violence and institutional weakness in Honduras has caused to be designated as an expelling country. 

Thousands of people have been internally displaced in Honduras or have left the country.  According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of people displaced by violence between 2014 and 2017 rose sevenfold. It increased from 29,000 to 190,000. 

From TeleSUR English, December 17, 2019

Honduras: More Than 100 Children Died of Dengue During 2019

Around 105,513 people have suffered dengue fever in Honduras over the last year. Honduras' Health Ministry Tuesday published an epidemiological report revealing that 177 people have died from dengue during 2019, a figure which includes 101 cases of children.

The Arbovirosis Surveillance coordinator Gustavo Urbina explained that no more deaths have been confirmed; however, children are still the most affected by the virus. "Fifty-seven percent of the certified deaths are under-15-years cases, 55 percent of which were between the ages of five and nine".

From the Associated Press, December 17, 2019

Honduras Declares State of Emergency in Prison System

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras declared a state of emergency in its prison system Tuesday, suspending its civilian leaders and replacing them with a special commission led by military officers.

The surprise move came four days after the slaying of Pedro Ildefonso Armas, the director of Honduras' maximum security prison. In October, Armas was chatting with accused drug trafficker Nery López Sanabria inside the prison when several inmates killed the inmate.

From the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District Court of New York, December 17, 2019

Four International Drug Traffickers Charged With Conspiring To Import Cocaine Into The United States And Related Firearms Offenses

The Defendants Allegedly Conspired With Former Honduran Congressman Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado, a/k/a “Tony Hernandez,” Sinaloa Cartel Leadership, and Others, to Import Large Quantities of Cocaine into the United States

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Wendy Woolcock, Special Agent in Charge of the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced that AMADO BELTRAN BELTRAN, a/k/a “Don Amado,” OTTO RENE SALGUERO MORALES, a/k/a “Otto Salguero,” RONALD ENRIQUE SALGUERO PORTILLO, a/k/a “Ronald Salguero,” and FERNANDO FELIX RODRIGUEZ, a/k/a “Don Fernando,” were charged in a Superseding Indictment in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machineguns and destructive devices.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel.

From the Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2019

U.S. to send asylum seekers to Honduras, bypassing American asylum

The U.S. is preparing to send asylum seekers to Honduras, even if they are not from the Central American country, and effectively end their chances of seeking asylum in the United States, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Under an agreement signed in New York on Sept. 25 by Kevin McAleenan, at the time the secretary of Homeland Security, and Honduras’ foreign minister, María Dolores Agüero, adults and families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border could be sent to Honduras without the chance to seek asylum in the U.S.

From the Boston Review, July 24, 2017

Central America: Open for Business, Not Human Rights

At last month’s Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, held in Miami, the United States and Mexico met with Central American government and business leaders to discuss enhancing their countries’ security and stability. The goal was to promote prosperity through security, defined as cracking down on transnational criminal networks, combatting drug trafficking, and fostering conditions for economic growth. The conference organizers claim that, taken together, these strategies will stem the flow of desperate migrants seeking to escape poverty and violence by fleeing across the U.S. southern border.

From Truthout, July 22, 2017

How the US Imposes the Worst of Its Prison Paradigm Abroad

The new federal penitentiary in Santa Barbara, Honduras, occupies a strip of land between a highway and cloudy, forested hills. "El Pozo," or The Pit, as it's known, is surrounded by barbed wire and has two additional checkpoints beyond the first gate. It's a maximum-security facility, one of three that have popped up since 2009. Before these were built, Honduras had no maximum-security prisons. El Pozo is one of the products of a United States international prison management program that infuses Latin American penitentiary cultures with some of the most inhumane aspects of US prison systems, and provides no benefit in terms of real security. 

From TeleSUR English, July 20, 2017

Honduran Students March to Protest Education Budget Crisis

University students were attacked by a group of private security guards during a protest Wednesday.

Hundreds of students from the National Autonomous University of Honduras marched to the country's congress in Tegucigalpa to deliver a law project to protect public education and resolve the internal budget crisis. Three students from the University Student Movement delivered the request to legislative members demanding an end to budget cuts affecting education.

From many academics, July 19, 2017

132 Academics and Researchers Call for a Dialogue Between Authorities at the Autonomous University of Honduras-UNAH Campuses and Protesting Students

WASHINGTON - 132 academics and researchers, specialists in Latin American Studies and Latino/a Studies, signed on to a letter in support of the 27 students who are currently facing charges for student activism at the Autonomous University of Honduras-UNAH campuses. Three of those students have been convicted and await sentencing for non-violent protest.  Academics are asking for University to drop charges against all students, especially 3 of the students already convicted: Moisés David Cáceres Velásquez, Sergio Luis Ulloa Rivera, and Cesario Alejandro Félix Padilla.

From the Globe and Mail, July 10, 2017

Honduran video journalist fatally shot in Mexico

Authorities in the Mexican state of Veracruz said Monday that they were investigating the killing of a Honduran video journalist who had sought refugee status in Mexico.

In a statement, the state prosecutor’s office said Edwin Rivera Paz was shot to death Sunday in the town of Acayucan. It said the body was identified by a relative.

From ABC News, July 7, 2017

Two European development banks financing construction of a controversial dam project in Honduras have pulled out following the murders of local activists including Berta Caceres, a 2015 winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

The Netherlands Development Finance Institution and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation said in a joint statement Thursday that the decision to halt their involvement in the Agua Zarca dam was reached after extensive local and international consultations.

From Democracy Now, July 6, 2017

Berta Cáceres's Daughter on Surviving Attempted Attack in Honduras

In Honduras, 26-year-old Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres, the daughter of the murdered Honduran indigenous and environmental leader Berta Cáceres, has survived an attempted attack by a group of unknown assailants wielding machetes. The attack comes just weeks after Cáceres was named the new leader of COPINH, the group formerly led by her mother. Cáceres is also campaigning in support of pending U.S. legislation to suspend all U.S. military aid to Honduras. We speak with Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres about the attempt on her life. We also speak with Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, longtime friend of Cáceres and her mother. He is a member of La Voz de los de Abajo, one of the founding groups of the Honduras Solidarity Network.

From TeleSUR English, July 6, 2017

Central American Refugees Opt for Mexico Instead of US

Mexican authorities granted refugee status to about one in every three applicants from the Northern Triangle in 2016

Immigrants from Central American countries are increasingly choosing to resettle in Mexico instead of the United States, as President Donald Trump’s administration tightens its Immigration policies. 

From TeleSUR English, July 5, 2017

'Red Alert' Issued Over Femicides in Honduras After 140 Women Killed So Far in 2017

Statistics show that every 14 hours a woman is killed in the Central American nation.

Social organizations in Honduras working to protect women have declared a "red alert" due to femicides in the country, a situation the United Nations described as worrying.

Fifty women from 20 non-governmental organizations in Honduras organized a protest outside the Public Ministry in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to denounce gender violence and impunity.

From The Guardian, July 4, 2017

 Daughter of murdered Honduran activist survives armed attack

The daughter of the murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres has survived an armed attack, just weeks after being named leader of the indigenous rights organisation formerly led by her mother.

Bertha Zuñiga, 25, was attacked along with two other members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Copinh) as they drove back from a community visit in central Honduras on Friday.

From New York Times Opinion Pages, July 2, 2017

The Deadly Results of a D.E.A.-Backed Raid in Honduras

WASHINGTON — It was a dark, moonless night. A small passenger boat had nearly reached the end of its six-hour journey upriver when helicopters appeared overhead and another boat came into view. Shots were fired, hitting several passengers. As terrified men, women and children leapt into the water, they were fired on again by a machine-gunner perched in a helicopter. Four people were killed, two of them women, another a 14-year-old boy. Several more were injured.

From the Daily Beast, July 1, 2017

Inside Trump’s Disastrous ‘Secret’ Drug War Plans for Central America

Nothing really puts you in your place quite like getting shot at in another country. All gringo arrogance vaporized in an instant. Choking from teargas. Lungs aflame. Reeling blind through unknown streets just ahead of the death squads. Abandoned by your fellow correspondents, who were all shrewd enough to have put on their gas masks and taken cover before the soldiers launched shock grenades and opened fire on the crowd.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights, June 28, 2017

Eight Years After the Coup in Honduras, The Struggle Continues

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the coup d’etat in Honduras. On June 28, 2009, former President Manuel Zelaya, who was democratically elected and later embarked on a platform of progressive reform, was kidnapped by the Honduran army and flown out of the country in the middle of the night from an air field controlled by the U.S. military.  Given the shrinking 21st century attention span and selective political memory loss plaguing these times, it bears repeating that long before the coup, which the U.S. government helped to solidify, Honduras served as a base from which U.S. Cold War-era operations were conducted in the region. 

From TeleSUR English, June 28, 2017

Honduran Resistance, LGBT Liberation Are One Struggle: Activist

Honduran LGBT activist Erick Vidal Martinez Salgado is one of many social leaders organizing protests commemorating the 2009 military coup.

Honduras’ LGBT community is participating in nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday commemorating the eighth anniversary of the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup that ousted former leftist President Manuel Zelaya.

From TeleSUR, June 27, 2017

Exiled Daughter of Slain Honduran Activist Exposes Coup Legacy

By the time she saw her mother lying dead on the ground, Margarita Montserrat Salinas Murillo knew she had to take action.

She was 27, staring down at the body of the 54-year-old woman whom she also considered to be one of her best friends. Montserrat, as everyone calls her, saw her mother, renowned leftist Honduran activist Margarita Murillo, riddled with bullets on August 27, 2014.

From World Politics Review, June 27, 2017

Development Takes a Back Seat in Trump’s Central America Policy

Over two days in Miami earlier this month, the leaders of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador met with officials from the United States and Mexico to discuss the longstanding challenges of combating transnational crime, narcotrafficking and corruption in Central America. Any discussion of migration policy, however, was explicitly off the table at the Conference on Prosperity and Security, which included U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Despite brutal conditions in the region that have driven a spike in migration north in recent years, the Trump administration’s narrow priorities in Central America became clear in Miami, if they weren’t already.

From The Guardian, June 4, 2017

Backers of Honduran dam opposed by murdered activist withdraw funding

The international funders behind the hydroelectric dam opposed by murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres are withdrawing from the project, the Guardian can reveal.

Three financial institutions had pledged loans worth $44m for the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river, which is considered sacred by the Lenca people and which Caceres campaigned against before her death.

From Amnesty International, April 25, 2017

Honduras: Historic opportunity to decriminalize abortion

Ahead of a debate in the Honduran congress today over the country’s criminalization of abortion, Amnesty International’s Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas said:

“By criminalizing abortion, the Honduran Penal Code is incompatible with human rights standards and must be modified without delay.” “Preventing women from exercising their human rights by stopping them from being able to make decisions over their own bodies only puts their health and lives in danger.”

From TeleSUR English, April 21, 2017

Honduras Must Do More to Protect Indigenous Rights: UN

Amid systematic violence against Indigenous and environmental activists in Honduras, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz met with affected communities and urged the Honduran government to increase dialogue with Indigenous peoples and to respect their land and cultural rights.

Honduras was named the most dangerous country in the world for land and environmental defenders this year by NGO Global Witness. Tauli-Corpuz noted that the government has taken some steps in improving its consultation with local communities and in particular noted the importance of a newly submitted bill which would require the government to first consult with affected communities before projects such as mining and infrastructure projects are given approval.

From Solidarity Center, April 19, 2017

Honduran Worker Rights Activists Face Rising Violence 

A brutal attack against a union leader and his brother in Honduras is the latest in escalating violence directed at worker rights activists there, according to the Honduran National Network for Violence Against Trade Unionists and other Solidarity Center partners in the country.

Moisés Sánchez, secretary general of the melon export branch of the Honduran agricultural workers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), and his brother, union member Misael Sánchez, say they were attacked late last week by six men wielding machetes as they left the union office in the southern town of Choluteca, an area where agricultural workers harvest melons and other export produce

From Common Dreams, April 19, 2017

Sowing the Seeds of Berta Cáceres

Two Honduran cultural workers, feminists, and close friends of Berta Cáceres will tour 20 US cities between April 20 and May 23, 2017 to “sow the seeds of Berta.” Singer-songwriter Karla Lara and writer Melissa Cardoza will use music, writing, story, and discussion to grow the international movement for justice and grassroots feminism. Their tour’s goal is not to impart answers, but to spark collective ideas and engagement through creativity and dialogue.

The tour will also promote Cardoza’s book, 13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance, recently published in English with translation by Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle. Black Lives Matter Network co-creator Alicia Garza says the book “is rooted in a love of freedom that will grip your heart. Cardoza… ensures that, in memory of our sister Berta Cáceres, feminisms are three-dimensional and span multiple experiences.”

From the National Catholic Reporter, March 30, 2017

One year after Caceres murder, US ties to Honduras endure, killings continue

It's been a year this March since a death squad broke into the home of Honduras' most prominent environmental activist and shot her to death in the middle of the night.

Berta Cáceres had worked to stop the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam from being built on the Gualcarque River, a revered water source for indigenous Lenca people in western Honduras.

She fully knew the danger of her work, having learned she was on a hit list of U.S.-trained Honduran special forces and having received more than three dozen death threats, none of which were investigated by any government authorities.

From Alternet, March 28, 2017

How Trump Is Riding On The Shoulders Of Obama’s Interventions In Central America

As the Trump administration continues to criminalize immigrants and refugees, using executive orders to ramp up deportations, conducting large-scale raids that terrorize immigrant communities, and ordering the completion of the wall on the US-Mexico border, it simultaneously builds on the repressive US foreign policy that creates immigrants and refugees in the first place.

From The Guardian, March 21, 2017

Protesters in DC confront Honduran president over Berta Cáceres murder

Supporters and family members of Berta Cáceres, the Honduran environmental and indigenous rights activist who was assassinated last year, have confronted the country’s president in Washington to demand an independent investigation of her murder.

President Juan Orlando Hernández traveled to Washington to meet with lawmakers on Tuesday and was greeted by protesters carrying signs with photographs of murdered activists and chants of “asesino” – Spanish for murderer.

From AFP, March 21, 2017

Honduras probes cartel links to public contracts

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Honduras on Monday launched a probe into allegations a drug cartel took on public contracts to launder money, made by one of the gang's ex-leaders in testimony to a New York court.

The country's public ministry said it has tasked four anti-corruption prosecution teams to examine documents relating to government tenders awarded between 2010 and 2014, to see what ties there were to the Cachiros cartel.

From the AP, March 16, 2017

Trafficker Says He Met With the Honduran President's Brother

NEW YORK (AP) — A convicted drug trafficker testified in a New York courtroom on Thursday that he met with the brother of current Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to get the Central American country's government to pay its debts with a company that the trafficker's cartel used to launder money.

Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, ex-leader of the cartel known the Cachiros, testified about Antonio "Tony" Hernandez in a pre-sentencing hearing for the son of retired Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa

From the Kansas City Star, March 16, 2017

Activists call on Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas to support bill to improve human rights in Honduras

A protest outside of U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder’s Overland Park office on Thursday was aimed at helping the case of an Honduran woman and her children as they seek asylum.

Cross Border Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for working people around the world, organized the protest. The group focuses on human rights in Honduras.

Judy Ancel, Cross Border president, said Honduran Mercedes Zelaya Mendoza and her four children fled the country in August because the Honduran government couldn’t provide protection from death threats.

From The Washington Blade, March 16, 2017

Activist loses bid to become first LGBT member of Honduras congress

A prominent Honduran activist has lost his bid to become the first openly LGBT person elected to the country’s congress.

Diversity Movement in Resistance’s Human Rights Committee Coordinator Erick Martínez finished 71st out of the 207 candidates from the Francisco Morazán Department in primary elections that took place on March 12.

From TeleSUR English, March 11, 2017

Honduran President Seeks Contentious 2nd Term in Primaries

Honduras is set to go to the polls for its primary elections on Sunday, where current President Juan Orlando Hernandez will controversially seek to become the candidate for his party to run for a second term as president, a move previously banned and used to justify the 2009 U.S.-backed coup.

In Sunday's vote, Hondurans will select their candidates for president, three vice presidents, 298 mayors and 128 members of Congress. The presidential vote is then set to take place in November.

From The Guardian, March 8, 2017

Farmers sue World Bank lending arm over alleged violence in Honduras

Peasants in Honduras have sued a branch of the World Bank over its financing of the corporation Dinant, which has vast palm oil plantations in Bajo Aguán valley in the country’s north. Lawyers for the farmers say they are seeking compensation for alleged attacks and killings, including actions by the company’s private security forces.

Attorneys for the NGO EarthRights International (ERI) filed the suit on the farmers’ behalf on Tuesday, at a US federal court in Washington DC, where the World Bank is headquartered

From the Huffington Post, March 8, 2017

Honduran Farmers to the World Bank Group: “See You in Court”

I’ll never forget the day over 20 years ago that a refugee from Myanmar (Burma) explained law to me better than any of my professors or the experts ever did. The young woman, a survivor of rape and other unspeakable human rights abuses, was talking about an American oil company’s decision to contract with and finance the notorious Burmese military to secure its investment there. Her statement was simple: “When you shake hands with someone whose hands are covered with blood, then your hands are going to get blood on them too.”

Today, when EarthRights International (ERI) and residents of the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras filed a lawsuit against the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), those words rang loud and clear in my ears. In their case, our brave clients who are being terrorized by the recipient of the IFC’s loan, the Dinant Corporation, basically said this: “When you pass money to a company that has blood on its hands in one of the most violent places on earth, then your hands will have blood on them too.”

From News Wire, March 7, 2017

Honduran Drug Cartel Kingpin Head of the “Cachiros” Testifies in NY Court that he Bribed Ex-President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and his Son

One of the leaders of Honduran drug trafficking network the Cachiros has testified in court that he repeatedly bribed former President Porfirio Lobo, adding to the evidence suggesting drug traffickers corrupted Honduras’ state institutions at the highest levels.

Testifying in the drug trafficking case of Lobo’s son Fabio, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga told a New York court that he made his first payment of between $250,000 and $300,000 to Lobo when the politician was running for president in 2009, reported La Prensa. This was followed by at least two more bribes delivered directly to the president, Rivera said.

From Irish Independent, March 6, 2017

Natives pay price for defence of environment against industry

In Honduras, those who oppose the state and companies intent on exploiting the country's natural resources face arrest and death. The Tolupan indigenous community, who live high in the mountains above the city of El Progreso, knows this better than most.

Over the past 20 years, more than 100 members have been killed. It's not surprising Honduras has been described by the Global Witness charity as among the deadliest country in the world in which to be a defender of environmental rights with conflict over mining, logging and hydropower.

From Upside Down World, March 4, 2017

Honduras: To Honor Berta Cáceres’ Memory, Carry on Her Struggle

Today was her birthday. Berta Cáceres would have turned 46 years old today, but instead of gathering to celebrate her birthday, people have been gathering to mark the anniversary of her death.

A lifelong organizer and activist, Cáceres was the co-founder and general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She was shot to death in her home the night of March 2, 2016. Eight suspects, including members of the Honduran armed forces and employees of a hydroelectric dam company, have since been arrested in connection with her murder.

From Irish Independent, March 4, 2017

The village that's disappearing into the sea

A PIPE protrudes from the beach, spurting drinking water into the oncoming surf. It once fed a house, since washed away by the sea, one of 23 lost to rising sea levels in Cuyamel sandbar in Omoa, Honduras.

This community of more than 500 people has existed for more than a century, its inhabitants sustained by agriculture and fishing.

But palm trees buffeted by the Caribbean sea, their roots barely clinging to what remains of the soil below, now mark the spot where homes once stood.

From Thomas Reuters Foundation, March 3, 2017

"Berta is not dead": A year after Honduran activist's killing, her legacy grows

TEGUCIGALPA, March 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The killing of land rights campaigner Berta Caceres has unleashed a wave of activism in support of women and the environment, said friends, colleagues, and family commemorating the first anniversary of the Honduran's death.

The indigenous activist has become a figurehead for protests in her home country since she was shot and killed on March 3, 2016, after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam project.

From CNN, March 3, 2017

Berta Cáceres' family seeks justice on anniversary of fearless activist's death

(CNN) - In one of the most dangerous countries in the world, one woman paid the ultimate price for her cause.

One day before her 45th birthday on March 3, 2016, Berta Cáceres was shot dead in her home after years of threats to her life for her work as a fearless human rights activist.

The mother of four, herself a member of the indigenous Lenca group, was a hero to rural indigenous populations in Honduras, who have been under constant threat in recent years from groups wanting to build mega-projects such dams and mines and carry out logging on their land.

From NACLA, March 2, 2017

A Year Without Berta

March 2 marks the first anniversary of the assassination of Berta Cáceres, the world-renowned Honduran environmental and indigenous rights activist. Gustavo Castro Soto was the only witness to the murder, and in the days following was subjected to mistreatment by the Honduran authorities and threats against his life. Last year, Gustavo shared this experience with NACLA.

From the New York Times Opinion Pages, March 2, 2017

An Idealist’s Martyrdom Fails to Move Honduras

LA ESPERANZA, Honduras — Precisely a year ago, I awoke to a garbled text message from my mother. She was too distraught to write clearly, but I understood her immediately, and my heart dropped. Murderers had finally gotten to my aunt Berta Cáceres, who, as a child, had been young enough to be my playmate Bertita, and later, as a woman, was courageous enough to stand up to evil in Honduras.

As we mark this sad anniversary in the town where Berta died, there is no solace for my family. Neither Honduras nor the United States seems to have learned anything from this loss.

From The Hill, March 2, 2017

A year after Cáceres assassination, US policy on Honduras yet to change

This week, hundreds of people are gathered in the small town of La Esperanza in Honduras to remember the extraordinary life of Berta Cáceres, brutally cut short one year ago by a death squad that included U.S.-trained security agents.

During her short time on Earth, Cáceres was a powerful leader involved in many struggles. She led protests against corporate-driven regional trade agreements. She was a key figure in the broad-based movement of peaceful resistance to the 2009 military coup that deposed Honduras's democratically elected president. Later, she was an outspoken critic of the U.S.-backed militarization of Honduras that rapidly expanded after the coup.

From Yale Environment 360, March 1, 2017

In Honduras, Defending Nature Is a Deadly Business

They came for her late one evening last March, as Berta Cáceres prepared for bed. A heavy boot broke the back door of the safe house she had just moved into. Her colleague and family friend, Gustavo Castro, heard her shout, “Who’s there?” Then came a series of shots. He survived. But the most famous and fearless social and environmental activist in Honduras died instantly. She was 44 years old. It was a cold-blooded political assassination.

From The Guardian, February 28, 2017

Berta Cáceres court papers show murder suspects' links to US-trained elite troops

Leaked court documents raise concerns that the murder of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Cáceres was shot dead a year ago while supposedly under state protection after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam.

The murder of Cáceres, winner of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize in 2015, prompted international outcry and calls for the US to revoke military aid to Honduras, a key ally in its war on drugs.

From TeleSUR English, February 21, 2017

Changes to Penal Code in Honduras Raise Human Rights Concerns

The Honduran National Congress meets Tuesday to vote on controversial changes to the country’s penal code that human rights advocates fear will criminalize protests and give immunity to police and the military, instead of carrying out their intended purpose of battling criminal networks and extortion

Reforms will see that state authorities, including police and the military, will be given increased immunity that will protect them from prosecution for use of firearms in the line of duty. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said that the change could open the door for impunity of the arbitrary use of force, including extrajudicial killings and torture by authorities.

From Truth Out, February 21, 2017

Is Berta Cáceres' Assassination a Tipping Point for Change in Honduras?

"We are not satisfied because they have only captured those that executed her. The intellectual authors -- those who ordered it, those who paid for it -- are enjoying complete impunity," said Austra Flores, mother of slain Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, from her home in La Esperanza, before the latest arrest of a suspected hitman.

From Democracy Now, February 21, 2017

Honduras: Indigenous Leader José Santos Sevilla Assassinated

In Honduras, indigenous leader José Santos Sevilla has been assassinated by armed gunmen in his home in Montaña de la Flor, north of the capital. Santos Sevilla was the leader of the indigenous Tolupan people, who are fighting to protect their ancestral lands from industrial mining and logging projects. In 2015, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples warned of rampant violence against Tolupan organizers, including assassinations, as well as state impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes.

From Washington Blade, February 20, 2017

Activists Forge Ahead in Violence-Plagued Honduras City

René Martínez was president of Comunidad Gay Sampedrana, an LGBT advocacy group in San Pedro Sula, a city in northwest Honduras, in June 2016. He was also running an outreach center in the city’s Chamelecón neighborhood through Youth Alliance Honduras, an organization that is part of an anti-violence program the U.S. Agency for International Development helped to develop.

From Witness for Peace, February 15 2017

Global Witness Report on Honduras Vindicates Berta Cáceres Act: We Urge Refining Recommendations for US

A new report from the human rights NGO Global Witness outlines the role of US foreign policy and commercial investment in widespread and systematic abuses of human rights in Honduras. The report, entitled Honduras: The Deadliest Place to Defend the Planet, is the result of two years of on-the-ground research by the team at Global Witness. It documents the threats, intimidation, criminalization, and murder faced by environmental and land rights activists in Honduras. In the wake of its publication, Global Witness staff and the Hondurans who have publicly supported the report have been targeted with defamation campaigns and threats from leaders of Honduran government and industry.

From TODAY, February 9, 2017

Mexico, Central America to discuss migration under Trump: ambassador

MEXICO CITY - The foreign ministers of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will meet in Mexico next week to discuss immigration policy responses to Donald Trump's U.S. presidency, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico said on Wednesday.

Central American ministers want to open lines of communication with Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray to discuss problems with migration and the flow of Central Americans, Alden Rivera said in an interview.

From Mongabay, February 1, 2017

Honduran politicians, U.S. aid implicated in killings of environmentalists

Global Witness, a London-based NGO, published a report yesterday examining the involvement of government officials and foreign aid in violent conflicts over mining, hydroelectric, tourism, and palm oil projects in Honduras. The result of a two-year investigation, the report includes several case studies and a series of recommendations for the Honduran and U.S. governments.

From AFP, January 31, 2017

US gives $125 mn to Honduras to stem emigration

The United States on Tuesday gave Honduras the first $125 million from a regional scheme aimed at curbing emigration from Central America to its borders, according to officials.

The aid transfer was signed by the US ambassador, James Nealon, and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, with the latter saying: "Our goal is to attack the root of the problem of irregular migration" to the United States.

The money comes from a $750 million Alliance for Prosperity Plan authorized by former US president Barack Obama.

From The Guardian, January 31, 2017

Honduras elites blamed for violence against environmental activists

High-ranking politicians and business tycoons are implicated in a wave of violence against environmental activists in Honduras, according to an investigation by the anti-corruption group Global Witness, which says the country’s elites are using criminal methods to terrorize communities with impunity.

From Global Witness, January 31, 2017

REPORT - Honduras: the deadliest country in the world for environmental activism

Nowhere are you more likely to be killed for standing up to companies that grab land and trash the environment than in Honduras.

More than 120 people have died since 2010, according to Global Witness research. The victims were ordinary people who took a stand against dams, mines, logging or agriculture on their land –murdered by state forces, security guards or hired assassins. Countless others have been threatened, attacked or imprisoned.

From TeleSUR English, January 30, 2017

Irish Firm Exploiting Plantation Workers in Honduras: Observers

An international delegation on melon plantations owned by the Irish company Fyffes in Honduras found an open and systematic violation of the most basic labor and trade union rights, often with the complicity of public officials, according to a statement issued Monday.

From TeleSUR English, January 18, 2017

Journalist Shot Dead in Honduras

Honduran journalist Igor Padilla was shot dead Tuesday in San Pedro Sula, authorities said, making him the 69th member of the media killed in the violence-plagued Central American country since 2003.

From TruthOut, January 17, 2017

How Washington Created a Honduran Nightmare on Its Doorstep

Armed men wearing ski masks suddenly appeared in the distance. On a dirt road in northern Honduras, between the city of Tocoa and the small village of Punta de Piedra, a massive drug raid was underway. Dozens of men in bulletproof vests with high-calibre weapons swarmed the area: members of the Honduran military and police as well as US-trained Tigres and Cobra forces. They burst forcefully into this area where drug trafficking was rampant.

From TeleSUR English, January 17, 2017

Witness to Berta Caceres Murder Sues Honduras for Detention

Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro, the only witness to Berta Caceres' murder, launched an international criminal complaint against Honduras on Monday for detaining him in the country for weeks after the killing of a fellow activist.

From El Pais, January 16, 2017

Eighth arrest made in hunt for killer of environmentalist Berta Cáceres

*** Note: Only 7 individuals have been arrested in Caceres' murder case ***

The investigation into the murder of Honduran environmental campaigner Berta Cáceres has taken a new turn. Mexican Federal Police officers have arrested one of the suspects in Reynosa (Tamaulipas). The detainee is Henry Javier Hernández Rodríguez, a 26-year-old former member of the military, who was working in a barber shop at the time of his arrest. A total of eight people have been detained so far in the investigation.

From the Huffington Post, January 16, 2017

Land Grabs Are Partly To Blame For Skyrocketing Violence In Central America

In 2013, San Pedro Sula in Honduras was the world’s murder capital, with a murder rate of 187 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, driven by a surge in gang and drug trafficking violence. Nationwide, the year before, Honduras’s murder rate was 90 murders per 100,000 people ― the highest in the world.

From Frontline Defenders, January 12, 2017

Miriam Miranda and members of OFRANEH Harassed by Police Officers

On 11 January 2017, members of the National Police attempted to detain human rights defender Ms. Miriam Miranda while she was passing through a checkpoint in La Ceiba, on the Northern coast of Honduras, with fellow human rights defenders Mr. Luis Gutierrez, Mr. Oscar Gaboa and Mr. Luis Miranda.

From WPR, January 6, 2017

Why Honduras Remains Latin America’s Most Unequal Country

Honduras is the most unequal country in Latin America and the sixth most unequal country in the world, according to World Bank statistics. The poverty rate currently stands at 64.5 percent, while 42.6 percent of Hondurans live in extreme poverty. In an email interview, Jake Johnston, a research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, discusses income inequality in Honduras.

WPR: What is the rate of income inequality in Honduras, what are the latest trends in terms of widening or lessening inequality, and what are the main factors driving income inequality?

Jake Johnston: Inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient—a ratio of income distribution within a country where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 perfect inequality—had been experiencing a steady decline when, in 2009, President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup. In the years that followed, those gains were quickly erased. By 2013, that trend appeared to have turned around, and the Gini coefficient began decreasing, but more recent information suggests another reversal. While the most recent data on the Gini coefficient is only from 2014, household per capita income data from Honduras shows big gains for the richest segment of the country in 2016. The top 20 percent saw their incomes increase by more than 8 percent, while those in the bottom 20 percent saw a decrease of 7.4 percent. There are myriad factors that drive inequality, but there is little question that the government’s austerity efforts over the past years have contributed to the problem. As part of an economic reform program supported by the International Monetary Fund, the Honduran government significantly cut spending in 2014 and 2015. Though the program does call for a floor on social spending, at just 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, it’s far too low given the immense needs of the population. Further, a regressive tax reform implemented in late 2013 certainly impacted those on the bottom end of the income spectrum.

WPR: What are the political and socio-economic implications of income inequality in Honduras?

Johnston: Honduras remains one of the poorest and most unequal countries in Latin America, and also one of the most violent. With economic doors closed, many of the poorest and most excluded in society have turned to crime, while many more have simply left the country, seeking opportunity elsewhere. This vicious cycle of poverty, exclusion, violence and migration will no doubt have political implications. Hondurans are likely to demand a government more responsive to their needs that will begin to address the deep economic inequalities that have plagued the country for decades.

WPR: What policy measures are in place to address inequality and poverty, how have they evolved recently, and how important of an issue is income inequality to politicians and the general public?

Johnston: In theory, there are conditional cash transfer programs and a basic social safety net; however, in practice these programs have done little to alleviate suffering at the bottom end of the income spectrum. In fact, under President Juan Orlando Hernandez, fiscal austerity has actually led to cuts in other key social spending categories. While the government has spent lavishly on military and police forces embroiled in human rights abuse allegations, the poorest appear to largely have been forgotten. Zelaya, who was one of the few presidents who took concrete measures to lift up the most vulnerable and oversaw a massive increase in the minimum wage, was overthrown by the military with the support of the country's political and economic elite in 2009. Widespread repression of human rights activists, environmental and indigenous rights leaders, and others who represent the most excluded and poorest segments of society indicates the level of interest the current Honduran government has shown toward addressing the country’s fundamental economic inequities. Unfortunately, internationally backed development initiatives such as the Alliance for Prosperity appear to simply reinforce the economic model that has produced such profound inequality.

From The Nation, January 5, 2017

 Will the Trump Administration Approve a Military Deal Between Honduras and Israel?

 If you want to know how Donald Trump’s Latin American policy will play—and how he might deputize Israel to conduct a good bit of it—keep an eye on Honduras.

Honduras is both the coal mine (a country on the front lines of intensified energy extraction, mostly in the form of highly destructive and violent biofuel production) and the canary (the place where democratic activists, including those fighting deforestation, are killed at accelerating rates) of US foreign policy. In 2009, as Nation readers know, a decent, democratically elected, president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a coup that was quickly legitimated by then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

From Refinery 29, January 3, 2017

What It’s Like To Be A Human Rights Defender In One Of The Deadliest Countries On Earth

Pull back the label on a T-shirt or a pair of trainers and you might see “Made in Honduras”. Fish your favourite long-lasting lipstick out of your makeup bag and it may contain palm oil, another of the tiny Central American country’s major exports.

But although Honduras is one of the smallest countries in the world, it boasts one of the highest murder rates per capita. Human rights defenders, many of them women, pushing for better conditions in these industries and beyond, often find themselves in the crosshairs of the violence.

From The Nation, December 21, 2016

The Alliance for Prosperity Will Intensify the Central American Refugee Crisis

 It took a few tries before the taxi driver taking me to meet Lorena Cabnal found his way to her address. We drove up and down streets along the outskirts of Guatemala City, directions made confusing by the profusion of closed-off neighborhoods. Here, residents simply block streets and put up barriers to prevent cars from circulating, paying a guard to monitor who goes in and out. These aren’t the private gated communities of the rich, but rather survival strategies of the poor and working class in Central America’s largest metropolis.

From TruthOut, December 13, 2016

Native Waters, Native Warriors: From Standing Rock to Honduras

Around the globe, land has become gold-standard currency. As a result, Indigenous and other land-based peoples face threats to the natural commons on which they live, produce food and sustain community, culture and cosmovision.

In some places, organized Indigenous movements have stood up and fought off extraction and corporate development, winning protection of waters, forests, territories and more. In most places, the resistance has been met with assassination and violent repression by state security forces and corporate-financed hit squads.

From Jacobin, December 7, 2016

The Fate of Honduras

t’s rare for Honduras to make headlines during a US national election. But after Honduran human rights activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home in the early hours of March 3, observers raised the connection between her assassination and Hillary Clinton’s support for the 2009 coup that unseated President Manuel Zelaya and unleashed a wave of violence against activists in the country. To many, Cáceres’s death was emblematic of everything wrong with Clintonite foreign policy: a toxic confluence of investor and commercial interests with an uncomfortably high tolerance for shady regime change.

From the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nov/Dec 2016, p. 44

Canada's "looting of Honduras"

“THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT needs to act in a responsible manner and should stop giving legitimacy to the Honduran regime which has criminalized and killed many people in my country and has created a grave situation there. The Canadian government should remove all their companies, investments and financing from Honduras.” This was the plea of Berta Zúñiga Cáceres when I interviewed her at the World Social Forum in Montreal this summer. Zúñiga is the daughter of renowned Indigenous Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres, who was murdered this March by assassins linked to the Honduran military.  Berta was targeted for her prominent role in the Lenca nation’s opposition to the construction of the Agua Zarca dam on it its territory in the area of Rio Blanco.