Wednesday, July 8, 2026 — Evening Edition

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

The National Migration Institute has revived a temporary legal-residency permit for the foreign-born children of Honduran parents, letting them stay in the country legally until age 21 for a 200-lempira fee (about $8).

Lawmakers have altered the text of at least three laws already on the books through parliamentary reconsiderations and amendments to session records—a practice legal analysts say violates the Legislative Organic Law and echoes a 2018 corruption case.

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

The cost of Honduras's basic food basket rose 800 lempiras (about $32) in a year, a 6.16% jump driven by pricier meat and fruit, while drought across 75 municipalities threatens to push 2.8 million Hondurans into food insecurity by year's end.

Also reported by: Radio América, Radio América Honduras

Family remittances to Honduras reached $11.9 billion in 2025, reaching 3.1 million recipients and accounting for 30% of GDP, though growth is slowing from 2024.

Agriculture authorities will admit only processed pork products from disease-free zones in Spain, keeping a ban on fresh pork imports to protect domestic producers and guard against disease.

The Central Bank of Honduras sold $98.5 million at its July 7 currency auction, setting the weighted average exchange rate at L26.7474 per dollar for July 8.

The Honduran lempira has weakened to more than 26.87 per dollar on the selling side, and economists and civil groups warn the slide is fueling inflation and driving up the cost of living.

The Inter-American Development Bank ranked Honduras among the region's fastest-growing exporters in early 2026, led by coffee, apparel, bananas, and palm oil, while warning of risks from market volatility and rising costs.

Honduras is under pressure to hit the 1% fiscal-deficit target in its International Monetary Fund agreement, with economists warning that holding the line will be one of its toughest tasks in keeping the IMF's confidence and safeguarding its economic credibility.

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

Infrastructure Minister Aníbal Ehrler said half of the Germania Bridge on Tegucigalpa's southern exit will close tonight.

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

The infrastructure ministry announced the paving of a nearly five-kilometer stretch between Tencoa and El Jilote in Santa Bárbara department.

Honduras has recorded 15 infant deaths from whooping cough so far in 2026, health authorities said.

Also reported by: Radio Cadena Voces (X), Radio América Honduras

An integrated food-security analysis warns that acute food insecurity in Honduras could deepen to 1.8 million people (18% of the population analyzed) between April and July 2026, driven by erratic rains, high grain prices, and depleted household reserves.

Honduras has logged more than 5,000 dengue cases so far in 2026, including one confirmed death, according to the health authority's surveillance chief, prompting new public-health alerts.

Also reported by: Radio Cadena Voces (X)

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

Civil-society groups and lawmakers in Cortés are challenging the Forestry Conservation Institute's plan to redraw the boundaries of the El Merendón protected forest reserve, arguing it would benefit private real-estate projects even though the reserve supplies 80% of San Pedro Sula's water and is vital to regional biodiversity.

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

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

Estefany Guevara Varela, 26, of Santa Ana de Yusguare in Choluteca, was found dead in Mexico with a shotgun wound; her family awaits autopsy results and is trying to raise $3,300 to bring her body home for burial.

Also reported by: Once Noticias, HCH

From 2019 to 2025, Honduras officially recorded 2,278 femicides, but courts have prosecuted only about 150 of them, leaving families like that of 18-year-old Cinthia Melissa Hernández—found buried in her home after her partner fled—wrestling with despair and distrust of the justice system.