Perfil de Jennifer Ávila

Editora/Periodista
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Journalist, co-founder, and editorial director of Contra Corriente. Winner of the LASA Media Award 2020.
Opinion

Will we be able to heal our wounds after this trial?

Amilcar Alexander Ardón Soriano walked to the witness stand, beneath the solemn gaze of Judge Castel, presiding over the trial that is still an open wound within all Hondurans. A wound that cannot be explained, yet has fractured us, leading us to address—or rather, complicate—every issue with a relentless cycle of dispossession.

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In-depth Investigations

Death of 46 women under Honduran state custody. Who is responsible?

The death of 46 women in the National Female Penitentiary for Social Adaptation (Penitenciaría Nacional Femenina de Adaptación Social – PNFAS) exposed the poor decisions of the State in the face of a prison crisis that had already sounded alarms. The Xiomara Castro Administration improvised an intervention in the penitentiary system which, according to the Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva – who presided over the intervention – had insufficient time to make the necessary changes coupled with lack of action by the National Police, hindered the intervention that lead to the tragic outcome that had been predicted. With the remilitarization of the penitentiary system as a response, there are those who fear that the masterminds who benefited from the chaos in the PNFAS will never be known.

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News

«States of exception, in general, are difficult to sustain»: Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary of State

In an exclusive interview for Contracorriente (CC), Undersecretary Uzra Zeya (UZ) spoke about her government’s support to Honduras on issues of education, security, migration and human rights and about the conditions of the United States to support the installation of an International Commission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (CICIH) to strengthen the anti-corruption efforts in the country.

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seguro social ihss Los Kafie: La historia de empresarios hondureños que acumulan consulados honorarios | Honorary Consuls
In-depth Investigations

The Kafies: A story of Honduran Elites, Honorary Consuls, and their dubious international ties

Translated on November 21 •

Honorary consuls are limited-function, voluntary diplomatic actors whose role proceeds for an undetermined period of time. In Honduras today there are 62 honorary consuls, most being Honduran businessmen.This is the story of eight members of the Kafie family who hold honorary consul positions, even as some of them have been implicated in cases of corruption or human rights violations.

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raíces del narcotráfico en la Policía Nacional de Honduras Honduras’ National Police
In-depth Investigations

Between purges and drug trafficking, the uphill battle of Honduras’ National Police

At the entrance to the Metropolitan Preventative Police Unit (Unidad Metropolitana de Prevención – UMEP) in the city of Trujillo in northern Honduras, once the haven of the drug trafficking cartel ‘Los Cachiros’, a vehicle with more than a hundred large caliber bullet holes sits on display.

Honduras’ National Police, a key tool for the narco-state, now struggles to reform itself under the new government.

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gobierno de xiomara castro ley de amnistia honduras 2022 El retorno del clan Zelaya Xiomara Zelayas Mel Castro primera mujer presidenta de Honduras 2022 noticias congreso nacional hoy corrupción gobierno honduras 2022
In-depth Investigations

The Zelaya clan returns to power in Honduras

Xiomara Castro became the first female president of Honduras. She ran with the Libre Party, the party founded by her husband, José Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, not long after the coup d’état that ousted him from power in 2009. Castro promised a new future for Honduras after 12 years of National Party autocracy.
However, just a few months after taking office in January, the past has already cast a long shadow over the Castro administration. She pushed through an amnesty for allies of her husband accused of corruption, appointed former Zelaya officials to government positions, and placed several family members in key positions; provoking accusations of nepotism. Now an advisor to the president, Mel Zelaya is increasingly influential in the country’s politics.

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sala de juicios en Estados Unidos EEUU
News

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.

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In-depth Investigations

Two NGOs, two diplomats, and the dubious tight-knit circle around the former Honduran president

As detained former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández faces extradition to the United States on three drug trafficking charges, this investigation examines a group of his relatives and friends, who have been partners for years in a maze of charities and companies in Honduras and Florida, multiple of which have no apparent business activity. The paper trail also leads to Panama. The associates – including the current Honduran ambassadors to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, a nephew of the former president, and a former financial consultant to the congress – told us that their ventures didn’t succeed due to a decade-old scandal involving one of their charities, Fundecima.

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Xiomara Castro | 2021 | presidenta | cne 2021 resultado | hn | Honduras | resultados | 2021 | censa | elecciones | generales | conteo | "elecciones 2021" |
In-depth Investigations

Massive voter turnout and a vote for Xiomara Castro turns the tide in Honduras

A climate of uncertainty surrounded Sunday’s general election. But in the end, the day proceeded without violence and ended with the highest voter turnout in the last twelve years. Preliminary results gave Xiomara Castro of the Libre Party a wide lead. Though the country is still waiting for an official declaration, it seems Honduras will have its first female president and break with the two-party stranglehold on political power.

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Yaudet Burbara Canahuati | "pandora papers Honduras" |
Special: Pandora Papers

Profits in San Pedro Sula, offshore savings in the British Virgin Islands

Yaudet Burbara Canahuati, businessperson and popular Honduran legislator who is running for re-election for his fourth term, did not declare his assets to the Court of Accounts in 2010, as he is obliged to. It was not possible to establish if he declared the funds he had in the British Virgin Islands of the offshore company he managed there since 2015. Although the law prohibits it, his family’s hotel has signed several contracts with the state.

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empresario Fauzi Rishmawy | "pandora papers Honduras" | múltiples empresas en paraísos fiscales equipos Industriales
Special: Pandora Papers

Honduran businessperson involved in social security scandal had three companies in tax havens

After selling equipment to Social Security for three times its value, according to the Attorney General’s Office, businessperson Fauzi Rishmawy created multiple companies in tax havens. Equipos Industriales, Rishmawy’s Honduran company, continues to be a state contractor and is one of the suppliers of the Honduran Energy Company (EEH), which manages the bills and distribution of energy in the country.

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"Pandora papers Honduras" | Yani Rosenthal | Yankel Rosenthal
Special: Pandora Papers

After Honduran politician Yankel Rosenthal’s marathon in the courts, new offshore businesses come to light

During the trial that ended in a two-year prison sentence in the United States for attempting to do business with drug traffickers, it was revealed that former Honduran minister Yankel Rosenthal Coello had three offshore companies. This journalistic investigation found that he actually had six other companies in tax havens.

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presidente | expresidente | pandora papers | caso de pandora | "pandora papers honduras" | Porfirio Lobo Sosa | Lista pandora papers
Special: Pandora Papers

Pepe Lobo’s secret offshore companies

An analysis of thousands of documents from the Pandora Papers has revealed that the former politician and cattle rancher owned three shell companies in Panama, and that his wife, Rosa Elena Bonilla, managed an offshore company while she was first lady. Lobo’s son and a former right-hand man both sought to create companies in tax havens. Adding to their woes, the former president and his wife were both named on the Engel List, and Bonilla is currently facing a corruption trial.

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papi a la orden 2021 | partido nacional de en | Honduras | "pandora papers Honduras"
Special: Pandora Papers

A tale of two Tegucigalpa mayors and their offshore companies in Panama

Current mayor of Tegucigalpa and popular presidential candidate Nasry Asfura, and former mayor and current vice-president of Honduras Ricardo Álvarez, managed offshore companies in Panama while in office. The revelation is particularly important considering they have both been investigated for alleged embezzlement. So far neither of them has offered explanations for the offshores.

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News

New U.S. State Department report on corruption in Central America names Honduran congresspeople

The six Honduran officials named in the report are current National Party congressional representatives. Five of these had been previously implicated in the MACCIH-UFECIC Arca Abierta (Open Vault) investigation, including Oscar Nájera, a congressional representative sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for his involvement in high-level corruption.

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News

The women on the front lines

The pandemic and two hurricanes this year added to the heavy burden that Honduran nurses already bear. Together, they have learned to cope and confront the virus, the floods and long-standing evils: the plundering of the health system, unequal working conditions, violence, and machismo.

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Climate change and the environment

The hidden connection between a U.S. steel company and the controversial Los Pinares mine in Honduras

An environmental conflict marked by violence is raging in Guapinol, Honduras, where local inhabitants are resisting an iron oxide mine in a national park. This cross-border journalism alliance* has uncovered that Nucor Corporation, the chief steel producer in the United States, was a powerful hidden partner behind the mining project.

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Columns

Solidarity to resist ICE

Photo: Gorge ICE Resistance I am thousands of kilometers away on a Witness for Peace* tour in the northwest Pacific of the United States. In

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