Broken promises for women, agriculture, and the environment mark Xiomara Castro’s first 100 days
The first 100 days of Honduran president Xiomara Castro’s administration have exposed the complex situation facing Honduras. Internal conflicts within the president’s party and the political alliance that won the elections last November have hampered real change. Although Castro has kept some of her promises, the country’s structural problems are holding her back in many ways. Un met campaign commitments loom over the first female president of Honduras, including her promises made to women.
Why the US is charging a recent Honduran president with electoral fraud, drug trafficking
Shortly after his extradition to the United States on a DEA plane, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York released its indictment of the former president of Honduras. The indictment alleges that, in addition to drug trafficking and firearms possession, the former president received bribes from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Gúzman, committed fraud in the 2013 and 2017 elections, and enlisted the support of other former presidents to facilitate drug trafficking in Honduras. A U.S. Justice Department judge remanded the former president in custody pending his hearing on May 10.
The US’s plans to fight corruption and work with the new government in Honduras
On June 3, 2021, U.S. president Joe Biden announced that fighting corruption would be a key objective of his administration. Soon after, various U.S. government departments and agencies began to quickly expand their efforts to combat corruption at home and abroad. President Biden’s anti-corruption strategy could very well color his country’s relationship with President Xiomara Castro’s administration and determine whether Honduras can become a strategic partner for the U.S. in the region.
Authorities seize 16 cars, 33 properties, 8 businesses belonging to former Honduran president and family
Translated on April 20 | A judge authorized the seizure of 33 properties, eight businesses, 16 vehicles, and other financial assets from former president Juan Orlando Hernández’s family. However, this represents less than half of Hernández’s $7.8 million net worth.
Recent news reports said that the former first lady sought to protect some of their wealth by transferring US$2.44 million in personal assets to a local bank, allegedly to repay a debt. This asset transfer temporarily prevented the Justice Ministry from seizing these assets, while prosecutors investigate whether the bank and Ana García de Hernández acted in good faith.
Featured Investigation
The textile worker who tried to defeat the richest man in Honduras
Olivia Aurora began her legal battle against Grupo Karims when it fired her in September 2016. This multinational conglomerate is controlled by Yusuf Amdani, a man of Pakistani origins and Honduran citizenship, who owns the Altara shopping center, Altia Business Park, Merendón Hills, and the giant Green Valley manufacturing complex. By Allan Bu Photos by Antonio Gutiérrez Olivia Aurora sometimes wakes up in the early hours of the morning, her slumber interrupted by severe shoulder and cervical pain. While her
People fleeing a tormented country aren’t stopped by a fear of being kidnapped
To understand the mass emmigration of the Honduran people, we must review the last decade of this country: a coup d’état, a looted and poor country, and a narco-state. In Lucerna, a small border town in western Honduras, a worker can earn US$36 a week, but in the United States they can earn 22 times that during the same period. The story of being kidnapped, beaten, and abandoned in the desert to achieve the dream of leaving Honduras and living
Chamelecón: Neglected people rebuild
Approximately 350 families from the sector of Chamelecón are seeking refuge underneath a bridge; shelters are not an option. The families hope to avoid both flooding and the violence of the gangs who control their community.
Hunger caused by the pandemic drives more people onto the streets
Photography by Martín Cálix and Deiby Yánes Translation: John Turnure Extreme poverty has always forced people to beg. This has been the story for years,
We Found Miriam
Miriam is a woman who fled from Honduras with her two year old son. The statement she gave in front of a United States immigration court describing her experience being separated from her son went viral after a video was published that showed a group of actors and other celebrities reading it aloud. Miriam is invisible, but hundreds of thousands heard her in the voices of these people that have everything, who have our attention every day.
President-elect Xiomara Castro’s inauguration means new hope for Honduras
I just wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice urging them to immediately indict and extradite former President Hernandez to be tried on drug-trafficking charges. Hernandez was identified as a co-conspirator in his brother’s case here in the United States, and the DOJ said that President Hernandez “played a leadership role in a violent, state-sponsored drug trafficking conspiracy.” Now we must seek justice for all the people – Americans, Hondurans, and others – who were harmed because of his administration.
The US’s “Engel List” polishes the rough edges of the Northern Triangle
What rational person would be against increasing prosperity, fighting corruption, strengthening democratic governance, improving citizen security, or promoting inclusive development and economic growth? All to prevent more people from Central America’s Northern Triangle from migrating to the United States? Well, no one.
The children who harvest your coffee
The best, export-quality Honduran coffee is grown at 1,600 meters above sea level, say the local coffee growers in the mountains of Corquín, one of Copán department’s most important coffee-growing areas.
The migrant caravan of 2021: thousands flee from the Honduran crisis
Approximately 7000 Honduran citizens are travelling through Guatemalan territory in the first migrant caravan of 2021. This exodus, possibly the largest since 2018, comes despite the pandemic and the widespread police and military deployment in Honduras and Guatemala.
Chamelecón: Neglected people rebuild
Approximately 350 families from the sector of Chamelecón are seeking refuge underneath a bridge; shelters are not an option. The families hope to avoid both flooding and the violence of the gangs who control their community.
Hunger caused by the pandemic drives more people onto the streets
Photography by Martín Cálix and Deiby Yánes Translation: John Turnure Extreme poverty has always forced people to beg. This has been the story for years,
Diverse Voices
President Xiomara Castro’s debt to the women of Honduras
More than a month after Hondurans elected their first female president, her administration done little for gender issues. The mostly male Castro cabinet now has to live up to its campaign promises to reduce femicide, decriminalize three grounds for abortion, and approve the use of emergency contraceptive pills, banned since the 2009 coup d’état.
They Haven’t Forgotten: The Women and Organizations Searching for the Disappeared in Honduras
According to data from the Ministry of Justice [Ministerio Público – MP], more than 3,037 women have been reported missing in Honduras in the last
Femicide in Honduras: women dismissed by their own government
Only 15 cases of femicide in Honduras have resulted in convictions since the country criminalized femicide in 2013. These cases are brought before a justice
Documenting daily life
Covid-19 and hurricanes don’t affect us all equally
Gustavo Moreno Will Live More Than a Hundred Years
By: Jennifer Avila Honduras and its eternal tragedy. Today all of us who live in this country lost Gustavo Moreno, a human being with an
Art & Culture
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