Utila News

Olvin Javier Velásquez Maldonado, 40, was sentenced to more than four years in prison for conspiring to transport 24 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a boat traveling from Utila to Louisiana in 2022; his fingerprints on the drug packaging provided key evidence.

Utila Municipality has begun the second stage of repairs to the airport road, a L8.5 million (about $340,000) project funded by the Tourism Free Zone that includes resurfacing with concrete and is expected to improve mobility and safety on the island's main access route.

The first swamper iguanas (Ctenosaura bakeri) of the 2026 breeding season have hatched on Utila, advancing conservation efforts for the critically endangered species found only in the island's mangroves; hatchlings will be reared at a research station before reintroduction to the wild.

Health authorities confirmed a sixth measles case in Honduras in 2026—a 29-year-old Italian citizen who contracted the virus while traveling in Guatemala and later arrived on the island of Utila in the Bay Islands; officials are conducting epidemiological surveillance and urging vaccination.