Honduras: News & Updates

U.S. military training bestows prestige and power on its recipients when they return to their home militaries. After graduating from West Point Military Academy, Roberto David Castillo became an officer in the Honduran military and used his military and government positions to directly benefit his corporate pursuits. When Castillo and the criminal structure he was a part of could not silence environmental activist Berta Cáceres through intimidation, criminal charges, or bribery, he used his military skills to coordinate her murder. The issue is not only what is being taught to the graduates of West Point, but the fact that a prestigious U.S. military education bestows significant power and prestige on elites from Central America and other countries, without any accountability for what they use that power and prestige to do.

The historic election of President Castro, which saw the highest voter turnout in the country’s history, is testament to the steadfast organizing of grassroots social movements who came together in resistance to the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup. President Castro’s LIBRE party was born out of the National Front of Popular Resistance, which brought together a diverse array of Hondurans to strategize and mobilize their resistance efforts. We honor this victory for the social movements of Honduras and recognize that President Castro faces many challenges in her pursuit to transform a system of governance that has long been devastated by the stronghold of the economic elite, stubborn political corruption, and intervening U.S. interests. As Xiomara Castro assumes power, we call on the U.S. to finally respect the autonomy of the Honduran people and their elected officials.

More than a month after being forcibly and unlawfully evicted, campesino landowners in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras regained possession of their lands. This is only the latest in repeated attacks on rightfully held land at the hands of corrupt judicial authorities working in the interests of large agribusiness and mining companies. That the campesino landowners will now be able to return home, is a huge victory. The recent election of Xiomara Castro has given many of our partners and Honduran society reason for hope as a step towards accountability and real democratic change for the first time in the years since the 2009 coup. However, President Castro is already facing significant challenges and political conflict within her own party.

Xiomara Castro has been sworn in as the first female president of Honduras on Thursday, marking the culmination of a remarkable rise to power that began just over 12 years ago when she led a massive protest movement in response to the ousting of her husband, former president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, in a military-backed coup. Activists are optimistic that Castro, of the center-left Libre party, will not only take actions that help improve conditions for women in the immediate, but also accelerate broader changes in the country’s culture. Castro’s inauguration will cap a remarkable rise but she faces daunting challenges around femicide and abortion.

In her inauguration speech as the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Honduras, Xiomara Castro said that among her priorities is an amnesty law for political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and the return of exiles who had to leave Honduras. Among other immediate actions, Castro stated that she will be working towards the dismantling of the controversial Special Economic Development Zones (ZEDEs), the condemnation of the 2009 coup d'état, and the fight against impunity and corruption. She also stressed the urgency for the Guapinol water defenders--who have been held in pretrial detention for more than two years--to be released and for there to be justice for Berta Cáceres, the world-renowned Indigenous environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016. Read her full inauguration speech from January 27, 2022 in this article.

On Thursday, Honduras will inaugurate Hernández’s successor: the country’s first female president, Xiomara Castro. Her resounding victory in November’s general election was propelled by a wave of anti-Hernández sentiment that reached even into his home town of Gracias. Hernández is widely expected to be indicted by US prosecutors on drug trafficking conspiracy charges upon leaving office. It would mark a spectacular fall from grace for a president who was once considered one of Washington’s top allies in the region.

A new study shows the impact the warmer climate will have on cultivating coffee, avocados and cashews, and on the farmers doing so. Of the three crops, coffee will be hit hardest by warming: The study model foresees an overall decline by 2050 in the number of regions where it could grow. For cashews and avocados, results were more complicated. Certain growing regions would experience declines in those crops while others, such as the southern United States, would likely find more land better suited to tropical food crops like cashews and avocados. By predicting decades in advance how agriculture will change, scientists can help farmers know what to expect, and can advise policy makers on how to encourage farmers to use more efficient growing methods like cover crops to prevent erosion or planting new crops when needed.

In scouring the globe for cheap labor, US clothing brands are not merely opportunistic, they are also sometimes actively parasitic. Honduras is a case study: one in which US corporations and the US state department have worked together for decades to bring cheap garments to American consumers, framing job creation as a blessing for the Honduran economy while simultaneously engaging in political interventions that keep Honduran citizens poor. Among the manifold complexities of the global supply chain, a simple principle holds: corporations will always go where their costs – and their responsibilities – can be kept to an absolute minimum.