Browse Honduras Daily Stories

Congressman Marco Tulio Rodríguez (Liberal Party) said electrical-sector reforms should include legislation against energy theft and require public bidding rather than direct contracts, arguing that will prevent inflated costs and rigged deals for Hondurans.

Lawmakers are moving closer to agreement on reforms to Honduras's General Law of the Electrical Industry, with the Liberal Party and the legislative committee narrowing differences over how to attract private investment while keeping state assets under the control of the state-owned utility ENEE.

Congressman Arnold Burgos says the government lacks 13 votes from the opposition Liberal Party to pass reforms to Honduras's electricity sector, while denying plans to privatize the state utility ENEE.

Former ENEE chief Erick Tejada accused the current utility head of signaling a government drive to privatize Honduras's electricity sector, citing France, Costa Rica, and other nations as examples of successful public energy systems.

A Libre congressman argues that collecting millions owed by large corporations to the state electricity utility ENEE would shore up its finances and make privatization unnecessary, and has called for public disclosure of the major delinquent accounts.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano said pending legislation to reform Honduras's state power utility aims to strengthen ENEE, reduce losses, and improve service—not privatize it—while the government spends over 16 billion lempiras annually to cover the company's deficits.

Former energy official Guillermo Peña Panting warns that Honduras faces potential loss in international arbitrations filed by electricity-sector investors at the ICSID, citing the current administration's reforms to contracts signed under prior legal frameworks.

Honduras's engineering college says a draft reform to the national electricity law could threaten sector stability by exempting state-owned subsidiaries from traditional asset controls and lacks binding mechanisms to address endemic technical and non-technical losses.

The European Investment Bank has offered up to 15 billion lempiras (roughly $600 million) to finance Honduras's transmission networks and renewable energy, EU Ambassador Gonzalo Fournier announced at a meeting with Congress leaders.