National News

A National Party congressman says proposed reforms to Honduras's energy law aim to rescue the state utility ENEE from financial collapse—it loses about 1.5 billion lempiras monthly—and denies the measure includes privatization, calling reports of a selloff false.

The Honduran Football Federation has incorporated Kirian Manzano, a 2010-born player based in Spain, into its youth development project; his father, Moisés Manzano, played for Honduras's Under-17 national team.

The Central Bank of Honduras auctioned $92.1 million in its July 8 foreign-exchange sale, setting the weighted average exchange rate at L26.7494 per dollar for July 9.

Honduras has distributed 10 million textbooks, activated daily meals for 1.2 million children, begun connecting 8,000 rural schools to satellite internet, and awarded teachers a 3.2 billion lempira (about $128 million) salary increase to retain 1.8 million enrolled students.

Honduras remained sixth among Concacaf nations in the latest FIFA rankings after the 2026 World Cup, with a score of 1,378.97 points and a one-point drop, while Mexico climbed into the global top 10 at 1,754.30 points.

A year-long drought has reduced agricultural supply and driven up prices for everyday produce, with the basic food basket rising 6.16% (about 800 lempiras / $30) since June 2025, and the food-security observatory warning that 2.8 million Hondurans could face food insecurity by year-end.

Students and parents are protesting across multiple schools after the Education Ministry laid off cleaning and security staff, demanding the workers be rehired to restore building maintenance and campus safety.

Honduras's transportation authority (DNVT) is rationing physical driver's licenses in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa due to high demand and a single printing machine, prioritizing travelers, commercial drivers, and the first 100 applicants daily, while expecting new equipment next month.

More than 1,000 adolescent girls become pregnant each year in Honduras, according to Cristina Alvarado, the women's rights defender, highlighting a persistent public-health challenge.

Human-rights and democracy organizations are alerting Honduras to the risk that the new Beneficial Owner Law—designed to identify true business owners and combat money laundering—could be weaponized against NGOs and civil-society groups critical of the government, especially if the CNBS uses it to impose extra requirements that block access to financing.

The Infrastructure Ministry poured high-strength concrete to reinforce the ramp foundations on the Juan Manuel Gálvez Bridge, with structural installation to follow.

The Infrastructure Ministry announced July 24 as the deadline for bids on road and protective infrastructure projects in Cortés, Yoro, and Colón aimed at strengthening regional connectivity and development.

The government unveiled a multisectoral plan to combat food insecurity by 2035, coordinating 13 ministries to boost agricultural output, expand irrigation and financing, establish grain reserves, and strengthen school nutrition programs in rural areas.

Former president of Honduras's economists' association Liliana Castillo projects the lempira could depreciate to 27 per US dollar by September if it continues declining at its current rate of about 6 centavos monthly, a gradual depreciation she says would cushion domestic prices better than a sharper drop.

The organization Sendas warned that Honduras's planned electricity-sector reform needs a dedicated, autonomous administrator with real decision-making power to implement structural changes, noting that fragmented responsibility across multiple agencies and weak institutional continuity have hindered past efforts.

Frequent blackouts across Honduras are causing daily losses to small and medium-sized businesses, with some municipalities reporting up to 14 outages daily and Congress stalled on energy reforms.

Experts and civic groups are demanding transparent audits of municipal vehicle-tax revenues to verify that authorities use the money for road maintenance and improvement, as public protests grow over rate increases that citizens say have not improved street and highway conditions.

Honduras's emergency agency COPECO keeps a green alert in place across municipalities in the Dry Corridor due to insufficient rainfall, warning that 144 other municipalities could be added if drought conditions persist.

Family remittances to Honduras reached $11.9 billion in 2025, benefiting 3.1 million recipients and representing 30% of GDP, though growth rates are slowing compared to 2024.

The national utility ENEE will cut power on July 9 across parts of Colón, Cortés, El Paraíso, and Olancho for seven to nine hours of distribution-network maintenance, affecting residential, commercial, industrial, and rural zones.

The private-sector business council estimates that power outages—averaging 21,200 hours of unmet demand annually—cost Honduras about L1.2 billion (roughly $48 million) per year in lost productivity, equipment damage, and generator expenses, while the government pushes stalled reforms to strengthen the state electricity utility.

Agriculture authorities will allow only processed pork products from disease-free zones in Spain, maintaining a ban on fresh pork imports to protect domestic producers and prevent disease entry.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights scheduled a public hearing for August 5 in Washington to examine whether Honduras's political-trial process, used against former prosecutor Johel Zelaya and two other officials, meets international standards for judicial independence and due process.

Three Honduran officials will train at Spain's National Police Academy through the EU-backed EUROFRONT program to strengthen migration intelligence and border management capabilities.

The family of Angie Samantha Peña Melgares, missing for four and a half years, says investigations point to a transnational human-trafficking network operating in the Bay Islands and accuses authorities of delays and irregularities in the case.

More than 1,000 girls aged 9 to 14 become pregnant each year in Honduras, a crisis the women's rights ombudsman attributes to the lack of comprehensive sex education that leaves adolescents vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Members of Congress have modified the content of at least three already-approved laws by using parliamentary reconsiderations and amendments to session records—a practice legal analysts say violates the Legislative Organic Law and echoes a 2018 corruption case.

Jeffrey K. Randall, commander of the US military's Joint Interagency Task Force South, arrived in Honduras to meet with President Nasry Asfura and defense officials to review cooperation on drug trafficking and transnational organized crime.

Edgar Aguilar of the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) says proposed reforms to rescue the state power company ENEE lack fundamental components, while the ASJ has separately presented its own proposals to restructure ENEE's debt and reduce its financial burden.

The head of Honduras's land-transport authority said the government may call taxi operators to negotiate a rollback of the L5 provisional fare increase granted during higher fuel prices, if pump prices continue to decline.