THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 112,492 sq km
Population: 6.4 million
Capital City: Tegucigalpa (1.5 million)
People: Many Hondurans are descended
from those Spaniards and other
immigrants, mainly Europeans, who
have settled in Honduras since the
sixteenth century. A breakdown of
ethnic groups would be: mestizo (mixed
Amerindian and European) 90%;
Amerindian 7%; black 2%; white 1%.
Languages: The official language of
government and business is Spanish,
though many executives speak English.
There are also Amerindian dialects.
Religion(s): Roman Catholicism is the
principal religion (97%) and a
Prostestant minority.
Currency: The Lempira
Major Political Parties:Partido Liberal
(PL); Partido Dem=crata Cristiano
(PDC); Partido Nacional (PN); Partido
de Innovacion Nacional y Unidad-Social
Democrata (PINU-SD); Partido de
Unificacion Democratica (PUD)
Government: In 1982 a freely elected
civilian president and National Congress
were inaugurated, returning the
country to constitutional rule after ten
years of military-led government.
Honduras has a republican system of
government consisting of three
separate and independent branches: the
Executive Branch, headed by the
President, who is advised by a Cabinet
of Ministers; the Legislative Branch;
and the Judicial Branch, headed by the
Supreme Court. The President is
directly elected for a four year term.
GEOGRAPHY
Honduras is the second largest country
in Central America after Nicaragua.
Bordered by Guatemala and El Salvador
to its west and Nicaragua to its east,
the country has 644 km of Caribbean
coast line and 124 km of Pacific coast
line. Approximately 75% of the country
is mountainous but these areas have
suffered considerably from
deforestation in recent years. The only
substantial lowlands are found in
coastal areas.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
Mayan civilisation reached western
Honduras in the fifth century A.D. and
spread rapidly. Over the next three
and a half centuries the area of Copan
developed into the principal centre of
Mayan culture and was the leading
centre for both astronomical studies û
in which the Maya were quite advanced
û and art. Then, at the height of the
Mayan civilisation around 800 A.D.,
Copan was mysteriously abandoned and
fell into ruin.
Following the period of Mayan
dominance, Honduras was inhabited by
a multiplicity of indigenous peoples.
Although divided into numerous distinct
and frequently hostile groups, they
carried on considerable trade with
other parts of their immediate region
as well as with areas as far away as
Panama and Mexico.
In August 1502, on his fourth and final
voyage, Columbus arrived off the
island of Guanaja. Sailing east along the
Caribbean coast and into harsh storms,
the fleet rounded a cape where,
encountering calmer waters, Columbus
is reputed to have exclaimed æGracias
a Dios que hemos salido de estas
HondurasÆs (Thank God we have now
left these depths), christening both the
cape û Cabo Gracias û and eventually
the country. Twenty years later, the
conquistadors returned to take
possession of the new territory.
For the indigenous inhabitants, the
consolidation of Spanish power was
catastrophic. Contemporary population
records are notoriously inaccurate, but
from an estimated 400,000 in 1524, the
population probably fell to as low as
15,000 by 1571. Those who survived
were enslaved and shipped either
overseas or into the mines. Incredibly,
considering their impact, the number
of colonists numbered fewer than 300
throughout the seventeenth century.
By the early 1800s, Honduras was an
economy in crisis. Mining was virtually
defunct and a series of severe
droughts hit both agriculture and
livestock. Spanish power went into
rapid decline. On September 15, 1821, all
the Central American provinces
declared their independence from
Spain.
For Honduras, the first decades of
independence were neither peaceful
nor prosperous. The combined impact
of civil strife and foreign interventions
had doomed Honduras to a position of
relative economic and social
backwardness which lasted throughout
the 1800s. In the late nineteenth
century, US fruit companies were
more than happy to accept government
concessions which included exemption
from customs duties and ownership of
mineral rights in order to develop the
banana industry, an industry that was
to become the dominating factor in
HondurasÆs future.
By 1900, bananas were the most
important export and by 1930 Honduras
was the worldÆs leading banana
exporter. By 1940, however, diseases
had taken their toll and Ecuador
overtook Honduras in production. For
much of the 20th century the political
scene was dominated by the military,
foreign (banana) companies and large
landowning interests.
Recent History
In October 1963, a second coup in ten
years installed Colonel Oswaldo Lopez
Arellano as provisional president.
During twelve years in power, he
decimated the Liberal opposition and
reversed most of his predecessorÆs
social reforms. Above all, however, his
period of office is best remembered
for one of the more bizarre conflicts
of modern Central America, the
so-called æFootball WarÆ. On July 14,
1969, war broke out on the
Honduras-El Salvador border
ostensibly caused by a disputed result
in a soccer match between the two
countries. After three days, around
two thousand deaths and a complete
rupture of diplomatic relations, the
Organisation of American States (OAS)
negotiated a ceasefire. Only in 1992 did
both sides accept an International Court
of Justice ruling demarcating the
border in its current location. In
January 2002 however, 10 years after
the ICJ delimitation of the boundaries,
Honduras raised with the UN Security
Council, alleged El Salvadorean refusal
to give effect to those judgements. The
matter remains before the Security
Council.
Following the Sandinista revolution in
Nicaragua in 1979 and the election of
Ronald Reagan to the US Presidency,
Honduras became the focus for
support to the US-backed Contra war
in Nicaragua, accepting in return over
$1.5 billion of direct economic and
military aid from the US during the
1980s. Domestically, the relationship
between the military and government
grew ever closer. Human rights
violations grew alarmingly, with the
army implicated in the
ædisappearanceÆ of hundreds of
activists from labour organisations and
peace movements.
With the resolution of both the Contra
war and the civil war in El Salvador,
the militaryÆs power receded
somewhat, forced conscription was
ended and most of the US troops
stationed in Honduras were recalled,
throwing the countryÆs endemic
economic and social problems into
stark relief.
Politics
In 2002, the potential for growth in
Honduras remains uncertain. As
throughout its history, economic
development is still tied to foreign
investment. In November 2001,
HondurasÆs voters, beset by high
crime and poverty, made a decisive
break with tradition by not voting along
traditional party lines. On 25 November
the Honduran people voted
overwhelmingly for change in electing
the Nationalist Opposition candidate,
Ricardo Maduro, as their new
President. Hondurans voted tactically,
showing their disenchantment with the
performance of Congress Deputies by
awarding the balance of power there
to the three small Political Parties. But
they voted decisively in the presidential
ballot for Maduro. President Ricardo
Maduro was inaugurated as President
on 27 January 2002. He assumed
office on a ticket promising a New
York style æzero toleranceÆ
crackdown on crime and corruption
and with ambitious plans for reform.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
The Honduran economy experienced a
period of sustained growth in the
1990Æs with an estimated GDP real
growth of 3.5 û 4% in 2001. Inflation
was at 10.5% in 2001. The continuing
burden of its enormous foreign debt
(US$3.6 billion in 2000) has, however,
retarded growth. In November 1998
Hurricane Mitch devastated the whole
country. While the damage has been
difficult to calculate, losses to
infrastructure and agricultural yields
and the displacement of one third of
the population will have repercussions
for many years. The international
community has provided emergency
aid, and later reconstruction aid.
Movements have been made toward
debt reduction and a payment
moratorium. With the new
governmentÆs economic policy there
are great expectations for
improvements in the Honduran
economy.
In spite of the events following the
terrorist attacks in New York on 11
September 2001, the global recession
and falling commodity prices (in
particular coffee), Honduras
nevertheless recorded the highest rate
of growth in the region during 2001.
Basic Economic Facts
Nominal GDP: 5.9 Billion US dollars
(2000)
Nominal GDP per head: 979 US dollars
(2001)
Annual growth: 4% (2001)
Inflation: 10.5% (2001)
Major industries: Sugar, coffee,
textiles, clothing, wood products
Exports: US 35.4%; Germany 7.5%; El
Salvador 6.4%; Guatemala 5.8%;
Nicaragua 4.8% (1999)
Imports: US 47.1%; Guatemala 7.4%; El
Salvador 5.9%; Mexico 4.8%; Japan 4.7%
(1999)
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HondurasÆs Relations with Neighbours
Cuba
During official celebrations of the
Inauguration of President Maduro on
26/27 January 2002, the outgoing
Government of Honduras announced
the restoration of diplomatic relations
with Cuba, broken in April 1961. The
move was not totally unexpected given
the strong Cuban assistance to
Honduras over the three and a half
years since Hurricane Mitch, the
ongoing support of the Cuban medical
team working in remote areas of
Honduras and the conclusion of the
Honduran/Cuban maritime boundary
agreement.
Nicaragua
In November 1999, a maritime dispute
with Nicaragua flared up. The basis for
the dispute was the ratification by
Honduras of the 1986 Ramirez-Lopez
Treaty whereby ColombiaÆs right to
the San Andreas and Providencia
islands in the Caribbean was
recognised. Nicaragua, which has laid
claim to 30,000 square kilometres of
territorial sea, was outraged by the
Honduran action. Both countries agreed
to take the dispute to the International
Court of Justice (ICJ). In the
meantime, the Organisation of
American States (OAS) has supported
confidence-building measures including
visits by an International Verification
Mission to the border between
Honduras and Nicaragua. In December
2001, Foreign Ministers from both
countries signed an agreement at the
headquarters of the OAS establishing
the framework for a Binational Border
Development Plan. A Nicaraguan
surcharge of 35% on Honduran and
Colombian imports was judged
illegal by the Central American
Court.
El Salvador
Alleged El Salvadorean refusal to give
effect to the ICJÆs judgement on the
delimitation of the boundaries between
the two countries, is an ongoing
irritant and has led to Honduras raising
the issue with the UN Security Council.
Flags Of The World: Republic of Honduras
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