| HOTELS |
| RESTAURANTS |
| STORES |
| DISCOS |
| BARS |
| BANKS |
| TOURS |
| MEDICAL SERVICES |
| DRUGSTORES |
| TRANSPORTATION |
| COMPUTERS |
| REAL ESTATE |
| RENTALS |
| History
of Honduras,Timeline of Honduran history
On his fourth and final voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus reached the coast of Honduras in 1502, and landed near the modern town of Trujillo, somewhere along the Guaimoreto Lagoon, and had his priests say mass. After the Spanish discovery, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala. The Spanish ruled Honduras for approximately three centuries. Honduras declared independence from Spain on September 15, 1821 with the rest of the Central America provinces. In 1822 the Central American State was annexed to the newly declared Mexican Empire of Iturbide. The Iturbide Empire was overthown in 1823 and Central America separated from it, forming the Federation of the United Provinces, which disintegrated in 1838. The states of the United Provinces became independent nations. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Honduras joined the Allied Nations on the 8th of December, 1941. Less than a month later, on the first day of 1942, Honduras, along with 25 other governments signed the Declaration by United Nations The so-called Soccer War of 1969 was fought with El Salvador. There had always been border tension between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, past president of Honduras, blamed the poor economy on the large number of immigrants from El Salvador. From that point on the relationship between El Salvador and Honduras had been a sour one. It reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match as a preliminary to the World Cup. Tensions escalated, and on July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August. The war lasted approximately 100 hours and led to an arms race between the two countries. During the 1980s, the United States established a military presence in Honduras with the purpose of supporting the anti-Sandinista Contras fighting the Nicaraguan government and to support the El Salvador military fighting against the FMLN guerrillas. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against leftists. Hurricane Fifí caused severe damage while skimming the northern coast of Honduras on September 18 and 19, 1974. Many years later, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country and wrecked its economic system in 1998. Politics Honduras has five registered political parties: PNH, PLH, Social Democrats (Partido Innovación Nacional y Social Demócrata: PINU-SD), Social Christians (Partido Demócrata-Cristiano: DC), and Democrat Unification (Partido Unificación Democrática: UD). The PNH and PLH have ruled the country for decades. In the last years, Honduras has had five Liberal presidents: Roberto Suazo Córdova, José Azcona del Hoyo, Carlos Roberto Reina, Carlos Roberto Flores and Manuel Zelaya, and two Nationalists: Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero and Ricardo Maduro. The elections have been full of controversies, including questions about whether Azcona was born in Honduras or Spain, and whether Maduro should have been able to stand given he was born in Panama. In 1986, Azcona del Hoyo was elected via the "Formula B," when Azcona did not obtain the majority of votes. However, 5 Liberal candidates and 4 Nationalist were running for president at that time, and the "Formula B" required all votes from all candidates from the same party to be added together. Azcona then became the president. In 1990, Callejas won the election under the slogan "Llegó el momento del Cambio," (The time for Change has arrived), which was heavily criticized for resembling El Salvador's "ARENAs" political campaign. Callejas Romero gained a reputation for illicit enrichment. Callejas has been the subject of several scandals and accusations in the last two decades. In 1998, during Flores Facusse's mandate, Hurricane Mitch hit the country and all indications of economic growth were washed out in a period of 5 days. In 2004 separate ballots were used for mayors, congress, and president. Many more candidates were registered for the 2005 election. The Nationalist and Liberal parties are distinct political parties with their own dedicated band of supporters, but some have pointed out that their interests and policy measures throughout the 23 years of uninterrupted democracy have been very similar. They are often seen as primarily serving the interests of their own members, who receive jobs when their party gains power and lose them again when the other party does so. Both are seen as supportive of the elite who owns most of the wealth in the country, with neither of them promoting socialist ideals, even though in many ways Honduras is run like a democratic version of an old socialist state, with price controls and nationalized electric and land-line telephone services. However, President Maduro's administration "de-nationalized" the telecommunications sector in a move to promote the rapid diffusion of telecom services to the Honduran population. As of November 2005, there were around 10 private-sector telecom companies in the Honduran market, including two mobile phone companies.
Atlántida
The Honduran territory consists mainly of mountains (~81%), but there are narrow plains along the coasts, a large undeveloped lowland jungle La Mosquitia region in the northeast and the heavily populated lowland San Pedro Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia lies the UNESCO-world heritage site Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, with the Coco River dividing the country from Nicaragua. See Rivers of Honduras. Natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, shrimp, and hydropower. Cabo Gracias a Dios Economy Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, with GDP per capita at US$2050 per year (1999). The economy has continued to grow slowly but the distribution of wealth remains very polarized with average wages remaining very low. Economic growth is roughly 5% a year, but many people remain below the poverty line. It is estimated that there are more than 1.2 million people who are unemployed. The rate of unemployment is 28% The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund classified Honduras as one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries eligible for debt relief, and this debt relief was given in 2005. Both the electricity services (ENEE) and land line telephone services (HONDUTEL) were run by government monopolies, with the ENEE receiving heavy subsidies from the government because of its chronic financial problems. HONDUTEL however is no longer a monopoly, the telecomunication sector having been opened after December 25, 2005; this was one of the requirements before approving the beginning of CAFTA. There are price controls around the price of petrol, and other temporary price controls of basic commodities are often passed for short periods by the Congress. After years of declining against the US dollar the Lempira has stabilized at around 19 Lempiras per dollar. In 2005 Honduras signed the CAFTA (Free Trade Agreement with USA). In December 2005, Honduras' main seaport Puerto Cortes was included in the U.S. Container Security Initiative. Demographics The population of Honduras is predominantly of Mestizo descent and Roman Catholic faith. Along the northern coast were until recently communities of English speakers who maintained a separate culture, as some islands and sections along the Caribbean coast were occupied by pirates and by the British at one time or another. Groups of Garífuna (peole of mixed of Amerindian and African ancestry) live along the north coast and islands, where there are also many Afro-Latin Americans. Garífunas are part of Honduras' identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu. Asians in Honduras are mostly of Chinese and Japanese descent. Hundreds of families can find their roots in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon or Palestine. These Arab-Hondurans are sometimes called "turcos", because they arrived in Honduras using Turkish travel documents, as their homelands were then under the control of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The "turcos", along with the Jewish minority population, exert considerable influence on Honduran economics and politics through their industrial and financial interests. Many other Hondurans have connections to Spain, the United States (especially New Orleans) and the Cayman Islands. Chortí (Mayan descent), Pech or Paya, Tolupan or Xicaque, Lenca, Sumo or Tawahka, and Miskito still exist, and most still keep their language, Lenca being an exception. For the most part, these tribes live in extreme poverty.
The patron saint of Honduras is the Virgin of Suyapa. A Honduran can be called a Catracho or Catracha (fem) in Spanish. The word is derived from the last name of a french Honduran General Florencio Xatruch, who led Honduran armed forces in defense of Honduran territories in 1857 against an attempted invasion led by North American filibuster William Walker. The nickname is considered complimentary, not derogatory. One of Honduras' best known writers is Ramón Amaya Amador. Other writers include Roberto Sosa, Eduardo Bähr, Amanda Castro, Javier Abril Espinoza, and Roberto Quesada. Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga is a Cardinal who was a potential candidate for Pope in the Papal conclave, 2005. Not as famous as the cardinal, but also noteworthy, and in a different field, is Salvador Moncada, a world-renowned scientist with authorship of more than 12 highly cited papers, including his work on nitric oxide. His research on heart-related drugs includes the development of Viagra. Moncada works at the University College of London and funds an NGO in Tegucigalpa. He is married to Princess Maria-Esmeralda of Belgium. Honduras This Week is a weekly English language newspaper that has been published now for 17 years in Tegucigalpa. On the islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja the Bay Islands Voice is a source of monthly news since 2003. Three important Honduran journalists:Neida Sandoval and Satcha Pretto work for Univision in Miami, Florida and Dunia Elvir works for Telemundo in LA.
In the northeastern region of La Mosquitia lies the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a lowland rainforest which provides home to a great diversity of life. Sometimes called "The Last Lungs of Central America", this Reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1982. Besides lush rain forests, untouched cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges ladden with pine and oak trees, Honduras harbours yet another priceless ecosystem: The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands it is no coincidence to swim with bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrot fish, schools of blue tang and even the colossal whale shark. The white sands, tall coconut palms and the easy going caribbean atmosphere provide refuge from the busy Central American cities, or across the Atlantic Ocean.
|
| Population:
6.7 million Capital City: Tegucigalpa (pop. 1.2m) Time difference: -6 hours GMT Language: Spanish Honduras is an agricultural country of succulent tropical fruits, sometimes unkindly labelled “the original banana republic”. It does however have much to offer the visitor with its many miles of coastline, dazzling Caribbean islands, a cool mountain interior and impressive Mayan ruins. As a nation situated in a region of turbulent political and economic history, Honduras is known by many as one of the participants in the so-called Football War of 1969, when disagreements between fans of El Salvador and Honduras football teams escalated into a full-scale if short-lived war. Now, the country is peaceful, and beginning to develop a tourist infrastructure partly based on eco-tourism. A number of national parks in the cloudforest, coastal wetlands and mountain interior have been established. Highlights The Bay Islands Pico Bonito Festivals and Holidays Currency Visas Vaccinations
|
On his fourth and final voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus reached the coast of Honduras in 1502, and landed near the modern town of Trujillo, somewhere along the Guaimoreto Lagoon, and had his priests say mass. After the Spanish discovery, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala. The Spanish ruled Honduras for approximately three centuries. Honduras declared independence from Spain on September 15, 1821 with the rest of the Central America provinces. In 1822 the Central American State was annexed to the newly declared Mexican Empire of Iturbide. The Iturbide Empire was overthown in 1823 and Central America separated from it, forming the Federation of the United Provinces, which disintegrated in 1838. The states of the United Provinces became independent nations. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Honduras joined the Allied Nations on the 8th of December, 1941. Less than a month later, on the first day of 1942, Honduras, along with 25 other governments signed the Declaration by United Nations The so-called Soccer War of 1969 was fought with El Salvador. There had always been border tension between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, past president of Honduras, blamed the poor economy on the large number of immigrants from El Salvador. From that point on the relationship between El Salvador and Honduras had been a sour one. It reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match as a preliminary to the World Cup. Tensions escalated, and on July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August. The war lasted approximately 100 hours and led to an arms race between the two countries. During the 1980s, the United States established a military presence in Honduras with the purpose of supporting the anti-Sandinista Contras fighting the Nicaraguan government and to support the El Salvador military fighting against the FMLN guerrillas. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against leftists. Hurricane Fifí caused severe damage while skimming the northern coast of Honduras on September 18 and 19, 1974. Many years later, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country and wrecked its economic system in 1998.
Honduras has five registered political parties: PNH, PLH, Social Democrats (Partido Innovación Nacional y Social Demócrata: PINU-SD), Social Christians (Partido Demócrata-Cristiano: DC), and Democrat Unification (Partido Unificación Democrática: UD). The PNH and PLH have ruled the country for decades. In the last years, Honduras has had five Liberal presidents: Roberto Suazo Córdova, José Azcona del Hoyo, Carlos Roberto Reina, Carlos Roberto Flores and Manuel Zelaya, and two Nationalists: Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero and Ricardo Maduro. The elections have been full of controversies, including questions about whether Azcona was born in Honduras or Spain, and whether Maduro should have been able to stand given he was born in Panama. In 1986, Azcona del Hoyo was elected via the "Formula B," when Azcona did not obtain the majority of votes. However, 5 Liberal candidates and 4 Nationalist were running for president at that time, and the "Formula B" required all votes from all candidates from the same party to be added together. Azcona then became the president. In 1990, Callejas won the election under the slogan "Llegó el momento del Cambio," (The time for Change has arrived), which was heavily criticized for resembling El Salvador's "ARENAs" political campaign. Callejas Romero gained a reputation for illicit enrichment. Callejas has been the subject of several scandals and accusations in the last two decades. In 1998, during Flores Facusse's mandate, Hurricane Mitch hit the country and all indications of economic growth were washed out in a period of 5 days. In 2004 separate ballots were used for mayors, congress, and president. Many more candidates were registered for the 2005 election. The Nationalist and Liberal parties are distinct political parties with their own dedicated band of supporters, but some have pointed out that their interests and policy measures throughout the 23 years of uninterrupted democracy have been very similar. They are often seen as primarily serving the interests of their own members, who receive jobs when their party gains power and lose them again when the other party does so. Both are seen as supportive of the elite who owns most of the wealth in the country, with neither of them promoting socialist ideals, even though in many ways Honduras is run like a democratic version of an old socialist state, with price controls and nationalized electric and land-line telephone services. However, President Maduro's administration "de-nationalized" the telecommunications sector in a move to promote the rapid diffusion of telecom services to the Honduran population. As of November 2005, there were around 10 private-sector telecom companies in the Honduran market, including two mobile phone companies.
Atlántida
The Honduran territory consists mainly of mountains (~81%), but there are narrow plains along the coasts, a large undeveloped lowland jungle La Mosquitia region in the northeast and the heavily populated lowland San Pedro Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia lies the UNESCO-world heritage site Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, with the Coco River dividing the country from Nicaragua. See Rivers of Honduras. Natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, shrimp, and hydropower. Cabo Gracias a Dios [edit] Economy Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, with GDP per capita at US$2050 per year (1999). The economy has continued to grow slowly but the distribution of wealth remains very polarized with average wages remaining very low. Economic growth is roughly 5% a year, but many people remain below the poverty line. It is estimated that there are more than 1.2 million people who are unemployed. The rate of unemployment is 28% The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund classified Honduras as one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries eligible for debt relief, and this debt relief was given in 2005. Both the electricity services (ENEE) and land line telephone services (HONDUTEL) were run by government monopolies, with the ENEE receiving heavy subsidies from the government because of its chronic financial problems. HONDUTEL however is no longer a monopoly, the telecomunication sector having been opened after December 25, 2005; this was one of the requirements before approving the beginning of CAFTA. There are price controls around the price of petrol, and other temporary price controls of basic commodities are often passed for short periods by the Congress. After years of declining against the US dollar the Lempira has stabilized at around 19 Lempiras per dollar. In 2005 Honduras signed the CAFTA (Free Trade Agreement with USA). In December 2005, Honduras' main seaport Puerto Cortes was included in the U.S. Container Security Initiative.
The population of Honduras is predominantly of Mestizo descent and Roman Catholic faith. Along the northern coast were until recently communities of English speakers who maintained a separate culture, as some islands and sections along the Caribbean coast were occupied by pirates and by the British at one time or another. Groups of Garífuna (peole of mixed of Amerindian and African ancestry) live along the north coast and islands, where there are also many Afro-Latin Americans. Garífunas are part of Honduras' identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu. Asians in Honduras are mostly of Chinese and Japanese descent. Hundreds of families can find their roots in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon or Palestine. These Arab-Hondurans are sometimes called "turcos", because they arrived in Honduras using Turkish travel documents, as their homelands were then under the control of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The "turcos", along with the Jewish minority population, exert considerable influence on Honduran economics and politics through their industrial and financial interests. Many other Hondurans have connections to Spain, the United States (especially New Orleans) and the Cayman Islands. Chortí (Mayan descent), Pech or Paya, Tolupan or Xicaque, Lenca, Sumo or Tawahka, and Miskito still exist, and most still keep their language, Lenca being an exception. For the most part, these tribes live in extreme poverty.
The patron saint of Honduras is the Virgin of Suyapa. A Honduran can be called a Catracho or Catracha (fem) in Spanish. The word is derived from the last name of a french Honduran General Florencio Xatruch, who led Honduran armed forces in defense of Honduran territories in 1857 against an attempted invasion led by North American filibuster William Walker. The nickname is considered complimentary, not derogatory. One of Honduras' best known writers is Ramón Amaya Amador. Other writers include Roberto Sosa, Eduardo Bähr, Amanda Castro, Javier Abril Espinoza, and Roberto Quesada. Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga is a Cardinal who was a potential candidate for Pope in the Papal conclave, 2005. Not as famous as the cardinal, but also noteworthy, and in a different field, is Salvador Moncada, a world-renowned scientist with authorship of more than 12 highly cited papers, including his work on nitric oxide. His research on heart-related drugs includes the development of Viagra. Moncada works at the University College of London and funds an NGO in Tegucigalpa. He is married to Princess Maria-Esmeralda of Belgium. Honduras This Week is a weekly English language newspaper that has been published now for 17 years in Tegucigalpa. On the islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja the Bay Islands Voice is a source of monthly news since 2003. Three important Honduran journalists:Neida Sandoval and Satcha Pretto work for Univision in Miami, Florida and Dunia Elvir works for Telemundo in LA.
In the northeastern region of La Mosquitia lies the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a lowland rainforest which provides home to a great diversity of life. Sometimes called "The Last Lungs of Central America", this Reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1982. Besides lush rain forests, untouched cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges ladden with pine and oak trees, Honduras harbours yet another priceless ecosystem: The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands it is no coincidence to swim with bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrot fish, schools of blue tang and even the colossal whale shark. The white sands, tall coconut palms and the easy going caribbean atmosphere provide refuge from the busy Central American cities, or across the Atlantic Ocean.
|
