Will we turn this pandemic into an opportunity to begin anew?
2020 Septiembre Honduras
In January and February, the pandemic seemed like something happening in a place so far away on the planet. Far and foreign it seemed to us.
And...
The death of the MACCIH and CC-4’s uncertain future
2020 Marzo Honduras
“MACCIH is doomed. It has become part of the problem due to an impunity pact between Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the OAS, and Honduran...
Is there any way out of this narco-dictatorship?
2019 Diciembre Honduras
After a New York jury handed down Tony Hernández’s conviction, all roads seemed to close off for his brother, Juan Orlando (“Tony”) Hernández, now in...
Ten years of a coup d’état: “I, Juan Orlando Hernández…”
2019 Agosto Honduras
Ten years after the 2009 coup d’état that shook Honduras’ institutional life and that of its entire population and reverberated throughout the continent...
Caravans are the new and tragic identity of the poor
2019 Febrero Honduras
Honduras has become the cuntry of the caravans, a reality not explainable by just one factor. Many years went by of small groups of poor Hondurans...
An election fraud with the taste of an imperialist coup
2018 Febrero Honduras
The general elections of November 26 add yet another new political tragedy to the long and growing list in Honduras. The promoters of the foreseen fraud...
Machista violence killed Berta Cáceres
2017 Octubre Honduras
At daybreak on March 3, 2016, environmental activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home, an event that shocked Honduras and many people around the...
What will we be? Their backyard or our own home?
2017 Julio Honduras
We are four years away from the bicentennial of the signing of the Central American Act of Independence from Spain by the native elite. Its introductory...
Preparing the scene and keeping an eye on those “squealing” in the North
2017 Mayo Honduras
President Juan Orlando Hernández made an untimely trip to Washingtonin mid-March. He traveled right after the Honduran parties’ primary elections,...
One opportunity was lost… but others could open up
2017 Marzo Honduras
According to a Chinese proverb, three things can’t be turned back: a spoken word, a launched arrow and a lost opportunity. We can already call 2017...
Green glimpses of hope against a blood red background
2016 Noviembre Honduras
If we had to portray in paint Honduras’ situation this year, the background would surely be blood red, the color of our national reality after the murder...
Two campaign paths crossing: Clinton-Kaine’s and Hernández’s
2016 Septiembre Honduras
The man who for six months in 2015 was massively rejected by thousands of people shouting “JOH, get out!” has everything properly tied up to be reelected...
A country-laboratory for Washington’s security policies
2016 Junio Honduras
Two months after Berta Cáceres’ assassination, which deeply moved Honduras and the rest of the world, the Public Ministry put out warrants for the arrest...
Berta Cáceres: An indomitable woman with a statesperson’s nature
2016 Abril Honduras
The murder of Berta Cáceres will go unpunished. Honduras’ dark forces under the command of Honduras’ Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA) corporation,...
The United States takes the helm in the Honduran crisis
2016 Febrero Honduras
At ten minutes to midnight on January 25, the last day for electing the 15 new Supreme Court justices, National Congress President Mauricio Oliva called...
The rise and fall of the Rosenthal Clan
2015 Noviembre Honduras
On October 7, the US Department of Justice reported that Jaime Rosenthal, his son Yani Benjamín Rosenthal Hidalgo and his nephew Yankel Rosenthal had...
For a pact of dreamers
2015 Noviembre Internacional
What satisfaction my heart would feel if they were to tell me that I would not receive the Rafto Human Rights Prize because Hondu¬ras was no longer a...
What was won on the streets ...and what was lost
2015 Septiembre Honduras
Life is always complex. And in politics the complexity becomes extreme. We can foresee and anticipate everything, but everything can turn out different...
Indignant torches against the political mafia
2015 Julio Honduras
Has spring finally broken out in Honduras’ devastated, violent and politically arid reality after a long, hard political winter, with its epidemic of...
Seclusion is the greatest of all political diseases
2015 Mayo Honduras
Why are politicians who are as ungifted as Juan Orlando Hernández so successful in Honduras? Why do Honduran politicians make and unmake laws without...
Therise and fall of Los Cachiros cartel
2015 Marzo Honduras
Honduras has been described as the most violent country in the world, and its criminality is closely linked to drug-trafficking. It’s situation has...
Chabelo Morales: Symbol of resistance
2014 Diciembre Honduras
Chabelo” is short for José Isabel, but everyone also calls him “Chele,” because of his unusually light complexion. a peasant who never got beyond second...
LIBRE, hummingbirds and the archipelago
2014 Octubre Honduras
Nearly a year after the general elections in which LIBRE beat out one of the two traditional parties to become the country’s second political force,...
Why so many immigrants? The cup ranneth over...
2014 Agosto Honduras
The data is irrefutable: an enormous wave of unaccompanied children from countries in Central America’s northern triangle has crossed the extensive Mexican...
Will the bipartite system get the opposition back under control?
2014 Abril Honduras
In the National Congress’ inaugural session on January 22, Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) Party representatives went so far as to break the microphone...
A first brief take on the November 24 elections
2013 Diciembre Honduras
The November 24 elections were yet another clear sign that the dynamics of the political crisis that came to a head with the coup d’état in Honduras...
A river, an oak tree, a people, and exemplary resistance
2013 Septiembre Honduras
Families from the village of Rio Blanco and 10 other Lenca communities scattered through the rugged mountains in the northern part of the department...
Our country needs a truce, and not just with gangs
2013 Julio Honduras
Four years after the coup that overthrew President Mel Zalaya, Honduras has more red alerts than ever. While the government tries to deny that we are...
A walk in repudiation of the Mining Law
2013 Abril Honduras
The year already has an election smell, and this time, not just among the same parties as always. The LIBRE party candidate is muscling his way onto...
The primary elections were just one more shortcut
2012 Diciembre Honduras
Since the June 28, 2009, coup d’état that violently wrenched President Manuel Zelaya Rosales from government, several paths have opened up to resolve...
Notes for a debate about cooperation and the “logframe”
2012 Octubre Honduras
While recognizing international cooperation’s enormous service in channeling funds from donor agencies in various—especially European—countries for development,...
The country that gave birth to the new LIBRE Party
2012 Agosto Honduras
Four elements are influencing Honduras’ current dynamic: the very unstable economy; the age-old, unending and ever more acute agrarian conflict; the...
Why is there so much violence in our country?
2012 Mayo Honduras
No matter how much people may want to hide it, the Honduras we’re currently living in has escaped the hands of all sectors, including politicians, business...
A ship of State in flame and sinking
2012 Marzo Honduras
It’s not an easy task in Honduras to get people to give their opinion, express themselves, especially if they’re on foot, don’t go to university, earn...
Radio Progreso’s present for defending freedom of expresión
2011 Noviembre Honduras
Karla Rivas, news editor for Honduras’ Jesuit-founded Radio Progreso and communications coordinator for the Jesuits’ Reflection, Investigation and Comunication...
“Normalized” politics in a failing society
2011 Octubre Honduras
Who can possibly figure out all the twists and turns of Honduran reality? September ended with President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa signing Honduras’...
Observations on Cuba’s reality
2011 Agosto Cuba
At the end of the 1990s, when the whole world was expecting the end of Cuba’s revolution, starved of oxygen since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the...
Zelaya’s back with agreements under his hat
2011 Junio Honduras
Waving in one hand the national flag, his party’s Liberal flag and the flag of the Honduran resistance movement of which he is the general coordinator,...
A Model City for a Society in Tatters
2011 Abril Honduras
A committee led by President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, made up of some 50 members of his administration visited Southeast Asia between February 18 and March...
Authoritarian, Messianic Solutions: Real Dangers for a Depressed Society
2011 Enero Honduras
On January 28, General Carlos Antonio Cuéllar, Joint Chief of Staff for the Honduran Armed Forces and successor to General Romeo Vásquez—both of whom...
Dialogue to Change Things So Everything Remains the Same
2010 Noviembre Honduras
First thing in the morning of October 1, President Lobo Sosa issued an invitation to various sectors of Honduran society to discuss the idea of a Constituent...
General strike? Constituent Assembly?
2010 Septiembre Honduras
A general Strike! Let’s have a General Strike! That’s the slogan the resistance is using in these turbulent times. Whose initiative was it? Who’s...
What the Coup Left Us
2010 Julio Honduras
President Porfirio Lobo Sosa’s government platform contains all the same destabilizing dynamics present in the June 28, 2009, coup d’état. Despite the...
A Wolf with No Direction, A Government with No Compass
2010 Abril Honduras
The specter of the coup hovers over every sphere of Honduran politics. Congressman Wenceslao Lara, member of the Liberal Party that led the coup, shamelessly...
A “Sweeping” Electoral Triumph but The Nation Got Trounced
2009 Diciembre Honduras
Let’s go vote, let’s go vote, let’s go vote…” It was five-thirty in the morning on Sunday, November 29, and this was the jingle repeated over and over...
Agreements, Traps and Resistance beyond Zelaya
2009 Noviembre Honduras
Ireiterate my deepest gratitude to the government of the United States for the firm support it is giving us to put the agreements into effect, and regret...
What Comes After Zelaya?
2009 Octubre Honduras
The coup on September 21 represented a sea change in the national conflict triggered by the June 28 coup d’état. When we received the news at Radio...
There are No Ideal Solutions To This Coup D’état
2009 Agosto Honduras
All of us in El Progreso were expecting something odd to happen on Sunday 28. Coup or no coup, the day was full of omens. The “consultation” or “citizens’...
What’s Behind the Fourth Ballot Box?
2009 Mayo Honduras
According to veteran union leader Carlos Humberto Reyes, “Mel Zelaya knows how to kick a soccer ball with either foot. Sometimes he uses his left to...
Zelaya’s Final Year Is Off to a Bad Start
2009 Marzo Honduras
The year got off to a troubled start. The lurching of the economies of the rich world’s power centers is now bringing consequences to countries as poor...
Now in ALBA, Always in Impunity
2008 Septiembre Honduras
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez came to Honduras to shake things up, bringing his brainchild, the Latin American Bolivarian Alternative (ALBA), in...
What I Saw, Felt and Discovered in a Three-Week Hunger Strike
2008 Julio Honduras
The Honduran Prosecutor General’s Office, or Public Ministry, is an institution created in 1993. Its head is appointed by the National Congress. Both...
The Social Movement and the Formal/Real Government Contradiction
2008 Mayo Honduras
Formal government, real government: it sounds like a play on words. But in Honduras, it’s a concrete problem. The government, with its three branches...
Omoa Beach Smells of Gas, Impunity and Corruption
2007 Noviembre Honduras
Omoa is a port in the department of Cortés that looks out on the Honduran Caribbean. To the west, the imposing Merendón mountain range separating Honduras...
The President in His Thicket
2007 Agosto Honduras
Only two of Central America’s Presidents accepted the invitation to go to Managua to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship,...
Insecurity, Criminality, Hidden Powers and Visible Roots
2007 Julio Honduras
One afternoon recently, Suyapa, an NGO employee, headed off along the main highway to San Pedro Sula. A pair of policemen in a patrol car—now part of...
After 25 Years: Formal Democracy But More Social Tragedy
2007 Abril Honduras
The first several weeks of 2007 were saturated with public displays of politicians and government officials celebrating the 25th anniversary of Honduras’...
A New Government from Which Nothing Is Expected
2006 Junio Honduras
The sarcastic comment one hears frequently on the streets of Tegucigalpa is that “the only thing the government has changed in four months has been the...
Honduras’ Prison Massacres Reflect a Social and Political Crisis
2006 Enero Honduras
Yet more prison violence broke out on the afternoon of January 5, 2006, this time at the Támara National Penitentiary, where thirteen prisoners were...
A Pact of Impunity Around the Elections
2005 Septiembre Honduras
Each day brings further confirmation that Honduran society is being taught to use violence to resolve its conflicts. From 1998 through mid-2005, over...
Miguel Facussé: Fencing off Paradise
2005 Mayo Honduras
A news story tucked away in the corner of page 42 of a national newspaper on April 15 told of the arrest of ten community leaders from the southern Honduran...
A Year Full of Disappointments
2005 Enero Honduras
This year ended with frustration as Honduras’ national soccer team was eliminated from the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup. What at first glance may...
The Teachers’ Conflict: Long but Inconclusive
2004 Septiembre Honduras
What do a former Honduran President, an obscure leader of one of the country’s tiny parties and one of the ruling party’s pre-candidates for mayor of...
Monsignor Virgilio: A Bishop Who Walked with the People
2004 Julio Honduras
In an event packed with humble people who had come from the surrounding hills and valleys, Monsignor Virgilio López Irías, of the Franciscan order, was...
Fifty Years Later: Between Resistance and Servility
2004 Mayo Honduras
Glorious May. This May, Honduran society, especially the poor and working class, commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the strike waged in 1954 by...
The Next Two Years in a Country that No Longer Exists
2004 Marzo Honduras
It look just two years for President Ricardo Maduro’s National Party government to erase any doubts about its basic leanings: easygoing and obliging...
The March on Tegucigalpa: “It’s Our Water!”
2003 Septiembre Honduras
August 26 marked a turning point for Honduran society. On that day, 25,000 people from all corners of the country converged on the capital to protest...
For the Forests, For Water, For Life
2003 Julio Honduras
Father Tamayo, the diocesan priest in Juticalpa, the capital of the eastern department of Olancho, organized and led the March for Life in defense of...
Has ‘Social Cleansing’ of Gang Members Spread to Honduran Jails?
2003 Mayo Honduras
On the morning of April 5, El Porvenir prison in the northern city of La Ceiba was turned into a slaughterhouse. In less than an hour, 108 bloodied...
President Maduro’s First Year: The Worst is Yet to Come
2002 Diciembre Honduras
Will Honduras’ President Ricardo Maduro, his ministers, the parliamentary representatives and judicial branch officials enjoy their Christmas holidays...
500 Years after the First Mass: A Demobilizing Celebration
2002 Septiembre Honduras
On August 14, Honduras commemorated the 500th anniversary of the first mass celebrated by Spanish conquistadors on the mainland of the Americas, at a...
Journalist, Legislator, Lawyer… And Sexual Abuser
2002 Junio Honduras
"Successful men" stand out in the circles of power in Honduras just as they do in all other Latin American societies. These are the men of politics,...
Election of the Ombudsperson: Whys, Wherefores and Challenges
2002 Abril Honduras
On March 7, recognized Honduran human rights activist Ramón Custodio López was elected National Human Rights Ombudsperson, or People’s Defender, by the...
A New President and Cracks in The Two-Party Structure
2002 Enero Honduras
If by some miracle an ordinary citizen were to gain immediate and personal access to Honduras’ new President and the President could grant him three...
A Small Town with Big Hopes Wants to Change Business as Usual
2001 Mayo El Salvador
Now, four months after the first earthquake and three months after the second, one thing is tragically clear in El Salvador. The lives of all the people...
Santa María Ostuma: The Voice of the Earthquake Victims
2001 Marzo El Salvador
In search of the epicenter of El Salvador’s February 13 earthquake, which, exactly a month after the one on January 13, kicked a country that was already...
Dollarization and the Earthquake: Two Manmade Disasters
2001 Enero El Salvador
Salvadoran society woke up uneasy on New Year’s Day. From that day forth, people would have to get used to making purchases with dollars as well as their...
San Salvador’s Government Goes After Garbage
2000 Noviembre El Salvador
All over the globe, garbage is a growing daily problem. No individual, social sector or institution that wants to be taken seriously can ignore it. The...
The Mayor of San Salvador Dares to Be Supported by the People
2000 Septiembre El Salvador
San Salvador’s municipal government is among 25 in the world recognized for the most efficient urban development. It has been awarded prizes by the United...
A Government Tough on the Weak And Weak with the Strong
2000 Julio El Salvador
A poll done in early June by San Salvador’s Central American University (UCA), marking the end of the first year of Francisco Flores’ government, revealed...
The FMLN’s relative victory
2000 Abril El Salvador
Although the Salvadoran left is still in a state of euphoria following the March 12 elections, the results leave it facing many more challenges and dilemmas...
Election Results: The Cost of Government Intransigence
2000 Marzo El Salvador
At the beginning of this year, the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) was sure that it would defeat the FMLN by a landslide all around...
The Subversive Memory Of a Country’s Martyrs
1999 Diciembre El Salvador
A decade ago, in the early hours of November 16, officers and troops of a special Salvadoran army squad entered the Jesuit Central American University...
Absent Government and Opposition
1999 Octubre El Salvador
A “switched off” performanceAccording to recent surveys, Flores is supported by just 5.3% of the population, and even the archbishop of San...
Finding Children: Working for Peace
1999 Septiembre El Salvador
“Usually when someone dies,” explains María Juana Benavides in a testimony quoted in Probúsqueda's April 1999 report, “the family members know they can...
A Tough New Government And a Lost Opposition
1999 Junio El Salvador
On June 1, addressing an audience of some 60 international delegations, Francisco Flores began his presidential term by expressing his appreciation and...
Reflections After the Electoral Hurricane
1999 Abril El Salvador
On June 1, Armando Calderón Sol will place the presidential sash on his successor, Francisco Flores, signifying the beginning of ARENA's third consecutive...
ARENA's Victory and the Predictable Disenchantment
1999 Marzo El Salvador
Salvadorans awoke on Election Day, Sunday, March 7, filled with doubts about the country's future. They were sure of only two things. First, however...
Double-Edged Presidential Ticket
1998 Octubre El Salvador
In a society that is in constant ferment, El Salvador's Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is still the most promising left expression...
Left and Right in the Pre-Electoral Winds
1998 Junio El Salvador
Salvadoran political parties and their leaders know precisely where the horizon ends: the presidential elections of March 7, 1999. President Armando...
The Environmental Law In the Eye of The Political Storm
1998 Abril El Salvador
At the end of February, with the debate about the environmental bill in the eye of the storm, the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology (CESTA)...
A Tiny Endangered Country
1998 Enero El Salvador
"We have the right to live in a clean country, one with cool, leafy forests and crystalline lakes and rivers. We have the right to clean beaches, to...
End of ARENA and Future of the FMLN
1997 Noviembre El Salvador
Everyone is in agreement, though no one will say it aloud, that Sunday, September 21, marked the end of the government of Armando Calderón Sol, though...
FMLN Congresswomen Speak
1997 Septiembre El Salvador
The morning at the end of June when envío had its first contact with the FMLN congresswomen seemed like a special day: the third floor of the Legislative...
A Leftwing Mayor In the Continent's Most Violent Capital
1997 Julio El Salvador
Many eyes are on Hector Silva. Particularly those in El Salvador's capital city follow his every step, and with good reason. Hector Silva is San Salvador's...