Colón News

Joint Armed Forces Task Force Xatruch arrested a man known as "El Niño" in the Las Palmas neighborhood of Sabá, Colón, seizing over 40 aluminum packets of alleged crack cocaine and a tablet during an operation targeting local drug sales.

Carlos Mejía, a Honduran fashion designer known for his work on beauty pageants and television, died on September 8; no cause has been disclosed.

The Health Ministry is deploying mobile clinics (UMAC) to Margen Izquierda, Colón, from August 24–26 and to Tocoa from August 28–September 1, offering free health services to underserved communities.

A tropical wave brought heavy rains and flooding to Tocoa, Colón, and strong winds with property damage to Namasigüe, Choluteca, on August 22.

A preliminary hearing in the case of three men accused of intellectually orchestrating the September 2024 killing of environmental activist and former Tocoa councilman Juan López has been rescheduled to October 1, while two of the accused remain under house arrest rather than jailed pending trial—a decision that a local defense committee says endangers López's family and other land defenders.

Police said they found no bodies or evidence to support reports of three killings in El Cinco, Bonito Oriental, Colón on August 10, and received no emergency calls about the incident.

Two years after a 2024 decree banned mining in protected areas and ordered restoration of Carlos Escaleras National Park's core zone, Honduras has not executed the law or allocated resources to dismantle mining infrastructure, while local officials warn a new agroindustrial law could weaken protections.

Emily Dayana Muñoz, 9, was kidnapped from her home in Sabá, Colón on August 2, found dead in a plastic bag the next day, and buried Tuesday as her family and community demanded authorities pursue her killer; preliminary autopsy findings confirmed violent death by blunt-force trauma to the head.

A dolphin in advanced decomposition washed ashore at Cristales beach in Trujillo, Colón; local residents alerted authorities, who removed the animal for specialist examination to determine the cause of death.

The body of Evelin Dayana Muñoz, missing since August 1, was discovered Sunday in a palm plantation near Achiote, Sabá, Colón, sparking alarm in the community.

Adán Fúnez, former mayor of Tocoa, was switched from pretrial detention to home detention on health grounds, prompting environmental advocates and victim lawyers to warn the change offers insufficient protection for the family of slain environmental defender Juan López and lacks safeguards against potential witness intimidation.

The government launched a public tender for paving 6 kilometers of the Emerald Corridor connecting Trujillo and Santa Fe in Colón with high-strength concrete, a project aimed at boosting tourism and regional development along the northern coast.

A judge replaced pretrial detention with house arrest for Adán Fúnez Martínez, the former mayor of Tocoa accused of intellectual authorship in the September 2024 murder of environmental defender Juan Antonio López, citing the defendant's age and health concerns.

A 39-year-old fisherman rescued after 20 hours adrift off Corozal was treated for hypothermia and sun exposure, but his 16-year-old crewmate, Joseth David Vuelto García, remains missing since their boat capsized in rough seas on Friday.

A fare collector and her assistant were shot and killed when gunmen opened fire on an intercity bus traveling between Trujillo and La Ceiba in Colón; the driver continued for over 25 kilometers to seek medical help before the victims were identified as Leda Hernández and Geovanny.

UN Special Rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz has called on Honduras to investigate and prosecute both the perpetrators and masterminds behind the Rigores massacre in Trujillo, Colón — in which 20 peasant farmers, including three children, were killed — and to guarantee reparations and non-repetition for affected communities.

Police arrested José Efraín Armijo after an 11-year-old boy in Balfate, Colón, was killed with a machete on Sunday; the suspect confessed and has a prior record of violence, authorities say.

An 11-year-old boy, José Ramón Gutiérrez Maldonado, was fatally stabbed while resting in a hammock in Balfate, Colón; police arrested a man known in the community as "Piolín" who is believed to have a mental illness.

Police arrested seven suspects linked to a mass killing in Rigores, Colón, in raids across three locations targeting the Los Canechos gang; one person died during a confrontation with officers in Esparta, Atlántida.

The Honduran Armed Forces and Public Ministry dismantled ten coca plantations, a marijuana crop, and three drug-processing facilities in Botaderos National Park in Tocoa, Colón, seizing over 125,500 coca bushes and chemical precursors used in narcotics production.

Miguel Hower, a young man from Tocoa, Colón, died while attempting to reach the United States at a Mexico–US border zone; his family says he sought better economic opportunities to support his loved ones.

Honduran prosecutors' agents destroyed a coca plantation containing 7,280 plants in a mountainous area of Bonito Oriental, Colón, as part of ongoing anti-drug operations across the country.

Police arrested four members of the criminal gang known as Los Sagastume on June 25, accused of kidnapping businessman Héctor Eduardo Lisser Pinto in April 2025; the victim was rescued after 36 hours in captivity.

Referee Said Martínez of Honduras has been chosen to officiate Saturday's World Cup match between Portugal and Colombia, one of the tournament's most anticipated games, drawing pride in his hometown of Tocoa.

Óscar Amilcar Alvarado Velásquez, secretary of a peasant cooperative in Colón, was shot dead on June 22 in the Aguán Valley, marking another killing of a rural leader amid state militarization and a new law social groups say favors agribusiness over peasant land rights.

A judge ordered three former municipal councilors from Tocoa to stand trial on charges of abuse of authority in a case involving harm to the state, but released them on condition of monthly check-ins rather than pretrial detention.

Julio Gómez was arrested in Sonaguera after allegedly beating his live-in partner, Suyapa Zamora, to death with a wooden club in the Arenas community on June 17, citing jealousy over her alleged interest in his cousin.

Suyapa Zamora died after being attacked with a club by her partner at their home in Arenas, Sonaguera, Colón; police launched an investigation into the killing.

A collaborative investigation by Contracorriente and partners documents how companies in the EMCO mining group funded coordinated social-media campaigns branding Guapinol river defenders as "fake environmentalists" — a pattern linked to the killing of three activists and the exile of more than 400 others.

Congress on June 4 passed a law declaring agribusiness lands exempt from expropriation and land-reform programs, and ordering police to act immediately against occupations or protests, while peasant groups say it criminalizes rural organizing in the conflict-torn Bajo Aguán region where 20 people were killed on May 21.