Browse Honduras Daily Stories

An investigation by El Heraldo found that Libre members of Congress directed nearly 224 million lempiras ($9 million) in social assistance—food vouchers, scholarships, and infrastructure aid—between 2023 and 2024 toward party members and their circles, while registered beneficiaries reported never receiving promised benefits.

A Honduran court on September 1 dismissed charges against former president Juan Orlando Hernández in the Pandora II case, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he diverted $10.8 million to his 2013 campaign when he led Congress, and ordering his release.

Honduras's Supreme Court is renewing invitations to the Garífuna community and Ofraneh to participate in dialogue tables aimed at addressing a criminal case against five San Juan residents and implementing a 2023 Inter-American Court ruling on the community's territorial and collective rights.

Congress received a comprehensive bill on August 24 designed to prevent child sexual abuse, streamline reporting, and coordinate institutional response across Honduras, where officials report an average of 26 sexual assaults daily, 75% involving minors.

Honduras's criminal investigation agency (ATIC) has given Libre party coordinator Manuel Zelaya 48 hours to provide details on the party's national structure, reactivating a 2018 complaint Zelaya filed against military authorities after FUSINA labeled Libre-affiliated groups as terrorist cells.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano announced that the Electoral Affairs Commission will present reforms next week to strengthen the National Electoral Council (CNE), requiring councillors to attend all plenary sessions and improving result transmission to report outcomes on election day.

Honduras's Judiciary, along with civil-society groups, prosecutors, and police, has drafted reforms to the 1997 domestic violence law to address gaps, add protections for victims including recognition of vicarious and digital violence, and harmonize penalties for perpetrators.

Negotiations over a sweeping overhaul of Honduras's electricity system have hit a standstill in Congress after the Liberal Party created additional review committees, delaying a final committee report and blocking a floor vote despite weeks of technical work with private generators and international experts.

The full Supreme Court has yet to rule on a constitutional appeal filed by the defense of retired General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, who faces charges in the murder of Isy Obed Murillo; the case remains on the court's agenda pending discussion.

Honduras's Energy Commission is reviewing a Liberal Party counterproposal for restructuring the state electric utility into three operating subsidiaries, aiming to attract private capital for modernization while keeping state ownership of major generation and transmission assets.

Honduras's judges are pressing Congress to move forward with a sweeping overhaul of the judicial-career rules, sent on June 10, that would tighten selection of council members and prevent conflicts of interest after a decade marked by constitutional violations and criminal charges against previous office holders.

A member of Congress receives approximately L140,000 (about $5,600) per month in salary and mobility allowances, more than nine times Honduras's average 2026 minimum wage, with additional payments for leadership roles.

Congress will convene a food security summit on August 18 to address a severe drought affecting 75 municipalities, aiming to build long-term legal and financial solutions for the crisis.

A congressman from Partido Libre introduced a bill in Congress to create a law recognizing, protecting, and ensuring the dignity of Honduras's LGTBIQ+ population.

Congress will weigh competing plans to reorganize the state power utility into separate generation, transmission, and distribution units, with the Liberal Party and the government differing on asset ownership, debt responsibility, and long-term contracts.

Honduras's Constitutional Court admitted petitions filed by former Prosecutor General Johel Zelaya and former Electoral Tribunal magistrate Mario Morazán challenging their removal from office by congressional impeachment, though it declined to suspend either dismissal while the cases proceed.

The Public Ministry said it will investigate allegations that the judge overseeing the case against former military chief Roosevelt Hernández has faced interference and threats, responding to complaints from journalists' and human rights groups.

Honduras's Congress will create a multiparty special commission to investigate the entry and whereabouts of roughly 15,000 Chinese nationals who entered the country between 2022 and 2025, amid gaps in migration records.

Land dispossession and threats are forcing indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities from their ancestral territories, with Honduras's human rights ombudsman documenting 48 land-defender killings and 227 forced-displacement complaints over the past decade.

Octavio Pineda, a former infrastructure minister under Xiomara Castro, confirmed his presidential candidacy for the Libre party and said he would adopt El Salvador's strict gang-enforcement model—including detention without judicial warrants and military deployment—if elected.

Honduras's Supreme Court of Accounts found that judges nationwide ordered seizures totaling L921 million (about $37 million) from the state treasury without following required procedures, and referred findings to prosecutors for possible criminal liability.

Congress leadership and the Joint General Staff held talks to discuss proposed reforms to the Armed Forces constitutional law and review the Military Police's operational capacity, aiming to strengthen security efforts nationwide.

Honduras's National Anti-Corruption Council filed charges against former Fosovi directors Juan Ramón Cruz Carvajal and Gilberto Ríos Munguía, alleging misappropriation of public funds to personal accounts, administrative collapse from 2020–2026, and unpaid debts to pension and health-insurance institutes totaling millions of lempiras.

The assigned judge in Juan Orlando Hernández's case for fraud and money laundering declined to continue, saying the investigation no longer involves a sitting high official requiring the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, prompting Hernández's lawyers to appeal and the former president to claim political persecution.

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff head Roosevelt Hernández faces prosecution for allegedly inciting discrimination against journalists Dagoberto Rodríguez, Rodrigo Wong Arévalo, and Juan Carlos Sierra, while analysts and civil-society figures call for broader investigations into his role during the 2025 election.

A proposed electoral reform would grant Honduras's electoral authority (CNE) new powers to monitor parties and candidates for false news, manipulated AI content, and deepfakes, with fines ranging from five to 20 minimum monthly wages.

Lawmakers are proposing to reduce rental rates on idle state-seized agricultural land from 500 lempiras (about $20) per manzana to 200 lempiras (about $8) per manzana, aiming to ease costs for farming cooperatives and discourage illegal land occupations in rural areas.

A poll shows 55.3% of Hondurans disapprove of President Trump's pardon of former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in New York in 2024 on drug-trafficking and weapons charges and returned to Honduras on July 26.

Former president Juan Orlando Hernández landed at Palmerola International Airport on Sunday, July 26, after receiving a US presidential pardon following his narcotics conviction, and now faces a separate Honduran judicial process in the Pandora II corruption case.

At least 10 members of the Liberal Party in Congress oppose proposed counterreforms to the state power utility ENEE, signaling internal party division on energy policy.