Friday, July 31, 2026

Congressman Rumy Bueso said the Liberal caucus rejects the government's energy reforms as a threat to the state utility ENEE and will offer a counterproposal to strengthen the public company without privatizing it.

Honduras will send no representatives to an Inter-American Court of Human Rights hearing on August 5 into the politically driven removal of former officials—among them ex-prosecutor Johel Zelaya and former electoral officials Marlon Ochoa and Mario Morazán—and will instead file only a written defense drafted by Congress and the attorney general's office.

Alba Consuelo Flores, who ran the Health Ministry under former President Juan Orlando Hernández, will appear voluntarily on August 4 before a specialized court to answer charges of fraud, misconduct, and forgery over a $47.5 million purchase of seven mobile hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic that prosecutors say cost the state roughly twice their estimated value.

A public-opinion poll finds that 79.3% of Hondurans still want an international anti-corruption commission (CICIH) installed, even after the government rejected the mechanism, reflecting deep distrust of the country's courts, police, and security institutions.

Congress president Tomás Zambrano signed an agreement bringing the National Congress into the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative to strengthen transparency, accountability, and citizen participation.

Honduras will introduce license plates embedded with radio-frequency identification and install 40 electronic readers nationwide to track vehicles, cut the 990,000 unregistered cars now on the roads, and tighten law-enforcement and border controls.

Tegucigalpa's water utility (UMAPS) is fining businesses and homes L2,000 to L5,000 for wasting water and tampering with distribution pipes as the capital faces a shortage, with major reservoirs at 40% capacity or less.

Also reported by: Radio América Honduras

Honduras's medical association is pressing the Health Ministry to disclose how emergency-relief funds have been spent, including breakdowns of contracts, trust funds (fideicomisos), patient-selection criteria, and progress on clearing the surgical backlog.

Congressman Carlos Umaña, a physician, will introduce a motion to make vaccination mandatory in Honduras, citing immunization rates that have fallen below 70% and rising cases of whooping cough, measles, and dengue.

The subdirector of Hospital Santa Teresa de Comayagua said the facility is keeping to its scheduled surgeries and procedures despite a shortage of anesthetics.

Police in Tegucigalpa stopped a minibus driver on the Cerro Grande–Kennedy route after he drove against traffic to skirt congestion, endangering passengers and other motorists.

The National Police arrested two men suspected of drug trafficking in separate operations in Talanga and Guaimaca.

A federal indictment in New York accuses Yulan Andony Archaga Carías, alias 'Porky', of running MS-13 in Honduras as a criminal enterprise that smuggled cocaine to the US, rented out hitmen to drug traffickers, supplied machine guns, and ordered the killings of rivals and disloyal gang members.

Santiago Motiño, mayor of La Lima, is pushing a bill in Congress to hand his municipality 70% of the customs revenue from Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport, citing noise pollution, property damage, and the airport's location within La Lima's jurisdiction.

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

More than 40 peasant, Indigenous, and grassroots organizations filed a citizen-initiated impeachment complaint against 16 lawmakers, including Congress President Tomás Zambrano, over Decree 107-2026, an agro-industrial law they say violates land rights and paves the way for evictions of rural and Indigenous communities.

The economic institute at Honduras's national university forecasts the lempira will weaken to 27.15 per dollar by the end of 2026 and 27.98 by the end of 2027, a slower slide than 2025's 4.16% decline, while international reserves hold strong at 11.45 billion dollars.

Honduras's Energy Ministry says 378,920 homes — about 15% of the country — have no electricity, with rural areas hit hardest and infrastructure investment needed to close the gap.

Honduras's evening school enrollment has fallen by 5,000 students over six years as insecurity and transport shortages push working-age learners toward weekend classes, which have gained 27,000 students in the same period.

Honduras won no medals on July 29 at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, falling from 14th to 15th in the overall standings after Guyana picked up two golds.

Tiburones de Honduras won the Copa Delfines Mayas, a regional swimming competition held July 24–26 at Tegucigalpa's Olympic Complex that drew athletes from Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua and was sponsored by LAFISE insurance as part of the championship's 51st anniversary.

A judge replaced pretrial detention with house arrest for Adán Fúnez Martínez, the former mayor of Tocoa accused of masterminding the September 2024 murder of environmental defender Juan Antonio López, citing his age and health.

Military police arrested a suspected drug dealer in the La Rosa neighborhood of Comayagüela and seized nine wraps of cocaine, twenty of crack, and two of marijuana, along with a cell phone taken for investigation.