Thursday, June 18, 2026

More than 19,500 Hondurans were deported home between January and May 2026, a 43% jump from the same period last year, while migration through Honduras fell 77% to fewer than 4,300 people, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Also reported by: Radio América Honduras

With backing from 93 lawmakers across four parties, Congress appointed interim leaders to the National Electoral Council and the Electoral Court to fill vacancies and cover leaves of absence, keeping electoral operations running.

A congressional committee unanimously approved a one-year amnesty letting Hondurans register unlicensed firearms without penalty, a measure officials say is meant to bring illegal weapons into the legal system.

Also reported by: Congreso Nacional

Congress approved a temporary two-month deadline extension and halted collection efforts against 2025 election candidates who failed to file required financial reports, waiving penalties for those who comply by the new deadline.

The Central Bank of Honduras auctioned $94.6 million in its June 17 foreign-exchange tender, setting the weighted average exchange rate at L26.7040 per dollar for June 18.

An ASJ report finds that nearly 800,000 Honduran households skip at least one meal because of high living costs, with 41% of the population calling food the hardest expense to cover, even as macroeconomic indicators show moderate growth.

ENEE manager Guillermo Peña Panting said a bill to overhaul Honduras's electricity system is in its final legislative stages and seeks to draw private investment into generation, transmission, and distribution to ease chronic blackouts and improve reliability.

Lawmakers approved five contracts totaling roughly 464 million lempiras (about $18.6 million) for road maintenance, slope stabilization, and drainage work in Tegucigalpa neighborhoods, aimed at easing traffic and managing stormwater runoff.

About 70% of buildings at the Cajón Dam's worker camps show significant deterioration, with 12 homes deemed uninhabitable and repairs estimated at more than 60 million lempiras (about $2.4 million), according to technical assessments.

Salomón Ordóñez, the former head of state utility ENEE, says Honduras risks losing its competitive edge in Central America unless it confronts two decades of governance failures in its electricity system, pointing to successful power-sector overhauls in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Honduras has installed a hyperbaric chamber at the Puerto Lempira hospital in Gracias a Dios to treat decompression sickness in Miskito divers, fulfilling a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and ending dangerous emergency transfers.

Honduras has recorded 14 whooping cough deaths so far in 2026, a 75% increase over the eight reported in all of 2025.

Honduras's labor ministry and national AIDS commission reminded employers that requiring HIV tests for hiring, promotion, or employment is illegal, with violators facing fines of one to five monthly minimum wages.

An Environmental Protection Battalion patrol in Las Agujas, Catacamas, Olancho stopped the illegal felling of about 98 mixed hardwood trees after a citizen report; two chainsaws were seized and the suspects fled.

André Enoc Mejía Romero, the first Honduran to attend NASA's Space Academy Camp at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, returned to San Pedro Sula and pledged to teach science and robotics to Honduran youth interested in STEM fields.

Police arrested a 46-year-old man in Juticalpa, Olancho, seizing six packets of suspected marijuana from his home during a search.

Joaquín Alvarado Bueso, 38, was extradited to the United States on charges of first-degree rape, indecent acts against minors, and child sexual abuse involving two stepchildren.

A man and his young daughter were shot dead in their home in Nueva Granada, a border community in Santa Bárbara department, and the mother was wounded and hospitalized; authorities were investigating possible personal disputes as a motive.

Also reported by: TuNota (Canal 5 / TSI), Radio HRN

Police arrested two women accused of running a smuggling scam that took $3,000 to $4,000 from Hondurans seeking illegal passage to the United States and then never delivered, leaving some victims waiting years for help that never came.

Also reported by: Radio HRN

Electricity-sector reforms pending in Congress guarantee that ENEE employees will keep their union membership and benefits even after the state utility is split into separate generation, distribution, and transmission companies, and explicitly rule out privatization.

Honduran consular offices across the United States will close on Friday, June 19, for the U.S. Juneteenth holiday and reopen Monday, June 22.

Ninfa Flores Castellanos, who led the National Institute for Juvenile Offenders from 2023 to 2024, appeared in court on charges of fraud and abuse of authority; a judge set an initial hearing for July 20 to decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial.

Also reported by: Radio América

The National Congress's Gender Equity Commission met with UN Women, civil society groups, and regulators to review a National Financial Inclusion Strategy meant to expand formal financial services for women and other excluded groups.

A Libre congresswoman contends that two Supreme Court advisers, Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, violated Article 55 of the Constitution by taking leaves of absence to hold paid jobs outside health and education, which she calls political favoritism.

An analysis of Honduras's migrant reintegration program found 581 beneficiaries and more than L1.5 million (about $60,000) in payments listed in the detailed records but missing from official summaries, raising questions about accountability in the L104.3 million fund handed out since January 2025.

Congress passed Decree 78-2026, extending amnesty deadlines for unpaid taxes, social-security contributions, municipal fees, and water and sanitation bills so businesses and citizens can settle what they owe.

Members of the Libre party blocked an entrance to Congress and protested proposed energy reforms set for a first debate, with the party's congressional leader, Ronald Panchame, saying they oppose privatizing the state utility ENEE.

Also reported by: Radio América Honduras

Honduras's business confidence index (ICAE) reached 63.8 points in May 2026, its highest level for that month in six years, extending a climb that has run through the first half of the year.

Demand for the Central Bank's short-term reverse-repurchase operations (RVG) keeps falling as banks enjoy greater liquidity and face higher relative costs, while interbank trading (MED) is growing as an alternative source of funding.

The director of the National Roads and Transport Authority said Honduras is overhauling its traffic law to add new driver-licensing rules, speed limits, and breathalyzer standards, and will also train teachers nationwide in road-safety education.

At least six vehicles, including a municipal water tanker and a cement mixer, collided on the city's ring road near San Miguel, causing heavy congestion; no injuries have been reported so far.

Cancer patients at the Honduran Social Security Institute report a three-month shortage of carboplatin, an essential chemotherapy drug, forcing them to buy vials costing more than L3,000 (about $120) out of pocket or go without full treatment.

CESPAD will present its 2025 report on social, territorial, and environmental conflicts in Honduras on June 23 in Tegucigalpa, covering the key territories, actors, and economic forces driving conflict nationwide.

Argentine coach Silvio Rudman, who recently left Boca Juniors, has been named manager of Honduran first-division club Marathón in San Pedro Sula after the team lost the recent Clausura final.

Yorbic Adony Vallecillo, a National Police officer with eight months on the force, was among seven police killed in a crash on Highway CA-5; a native of El Porvenir, he had recently promised his father he would buy a bass guitar to play in his church.

Also reported by: Policía Nacional de Honduras

Honduras's Security Ministry updated its list of the ten most-wanted fugitives after the U.S. announced larger rewards for information leading to the capture of two senior MS-13 leaders operating in the region.