Honduras’ population in 2015 was estimated to be around 8.5 million people, making it the fourth most populous country in Central America. The majority of Hondurans identify as Roman Catholic, with a sizeable minority of Protestant Christians also present. The Honduran economy is heavily reliant on agriculture and manufacturing, with these two industries accounting for nearly two-thirds of the country’s GDP. Other exports include coffee and bananas. Honduras has strong trade ties with its Central American neighbours, particularly Guatemala and El Salvador, as well as other countries worldwide. In terms of politics, Honduras is a unitary presidential republic with a multi-party system. In 2015 Juan Orlando Hernandez was the President after winning reelection in 2017. In foreign relations, Honduras is a member of both the United Nations and Organization of American States (OAS) and is actively involved in international affairs such as peacekeeping operations. Relations with its Central American neighbours have been mostly positive but tensions remain between Honduras and Nicaragua over maritime border disputes. See ehealthfacts for Honduras in the year of 2005.
Yearbook 2015
Honduras. The widespread corruption was one of the main political areas during the year. Several grassroots groups demanded the establishment of an independent international commission to deal with the impunity of corrupt politicians.
According to COUNTRYAAH, Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras which is located in North America. Nationwide protests in the form of torchlight trains with thousands of participants erupted in May after new corruption cases were revealed. Among other things, $ 114 million from the state Social Security Institute had disappeared and some ended up with the ruling National Party (PN) to fund President Juan Orlando Hernández’s 2013 election campaign. The Left Radical People’s National Resistance Front (FNRP) organized a nationwide strike October 1 requirement. However, such a commission (called MACCIH) has already been formed on the initiative of the American cooperation organization OAS and with the support of the US, but the FNRP accused it of not being sufficiently independent and going to the present government’s affairs. Another group, Los indignados (“The Indignants”), demanded a commission similar to that found in Guatemala for several years (CICIG). President Hernández, who supports the idea of MACCIH and denied all personal involvement in the Social Security scandal, in turn accused in 2009 President Manuel Zelaya of politicizing the issue rather than addressing the main problem of corruption. Zelaya demanded, among other things, a referendum on the matter.
- Also see AbbreviationFinder.org for Honduras country abbreviations, including geography, history, economy and politics.
The notoriously high murder rate in Honduras fell for the first time in many years. Already in 2014, the number of murders dropped by 10% from the record year 2013, when 7,172 people were murdered, and in 2015 the murder rate is assumed to decrease further by 29%. The biggest decline was in the hard-hit industrial city of San Pedro Sula. The reason is believed to be faster action and better coordination between the authorities involved.
HONDURAS
The precarious economic conditions caused by the destruction of banana plantations affected by the “Panamá disease” had repercussions in political life, during 1947, when in February only the intervention of the aviation allowed President Tiburcio Carias Andino (elected in 1932 and reconfirmed in 1936) to stifle the revolution that had broken out in the provinces, while the dispute over the borders with Nicaragua remained unsolved (see in this App.), despite the recourse to arbitration. Only in 1940 there was a certain improvement in the economy and the cultivation of rubber plants was introduced on an experimental basis. Meanwhile, Honduras fully adhered to the policy of “continental solidarity”,Japanese goods (1939), created obstacles to German propaganda, to the point of expelling the German charge d’affaires and breaking (September 1941) relations with Germany and Italy; then immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor he declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy (8 and 12 December). But, with the war, the export of bananas to the United States further decreased, so that to combat unemployment, work was intensified on the “Pan-American Road” (the last iron bridge was completed in 1944) and the one from Tegucigalpa to Pacifico, and the United Fruit company planned to introduce hemp cultivation. But 1942 and even more 1943 were hard years; in July 1944 a revolution broke out: the Carias, reconfirmed again in 1939 for 10 years, he resorted to a state of siege, had Ocotepeque bombed, but he maintained himself, thanks to a demonstration favorable to him in Tegucigalpa, and authorized wages increases in August. But the revolution still continued in April 1945. Shortly before Christmas the last political prisoners were released and in 1946, party demonstrations were suppressed. Acción Democrática, Carias remained in power after 13 years of holding the presidency.
Honduras had resumed relations with China, suspended the prohibitive Chinese emigration laws (in March 1944) and signed health agreements with the United States. On 12 October, the Pan-American Agricultural School of Zamorano (near Tegucigalpa) was inaugurated, diplomatic relations were established with the USSR in March 1945 and in December the president approved the United Nations pact and the Bretton Woods monetary agreements; and in February 1946 a trade agreement was concluded with Canada, based on the “most favored nation” clause. But Honduras did not associate with Guatemala and El Salvador in efforts to reconstitute the Central American Federation. In those years, new crops were introduced: abacá (Musa textilis Née), Hevea (for rubber), barbasco (for rotenone), rice, soy, etc.: because the scarcity of foodstuffs had also worsened. With the end of the Second World War, however, the export of bananas also resumed; but a terrible hurricane, in October 1945, produced damage that was valued at nearly 15 million dollars.