Wednesday, August 19, 2026

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed on August 18 that all TPS terminations — including for Hondurans — have taken effect after months of court battles, warning that holders who remain in the country without status will be deported.

Also reported by: Once Noticias

The Partido Nacional said it would back the Liberal Party's competing energy-sector bill if it wins broad support in Congress, citing a shortage of votes for its own proposal and the urgency of approving public contracts to lower electricity costs for consumers.

Also reported by: El Heraldo

Miriam Miranda, coordinator of the Garífuna rights group Ofraneh, turned down a Supreme Court invitation to discuss territorial disputes, insisting the government first drop criminal charges against five land defenders accused under a contested agroindustrial law.

Also reported by: HCH

Environmental activists in Honduras face coordinated online attacks branding them as fake environmentalists, terrorists, or opponents of development, along with legal persecution and displacement, according to a regional investigation presented at a Tegucigalpa forum.

Honduras ranks third in Central America for residential electricity costs at $0.236 per kilowatt-hour, but economists say the real cost to users and public finances runs far higher because of losses at the state utility Enee, debt payments, and an unfinished energy-sector reform.

Honduras's main port has ended ship delays since March and swung from a loss of 862 million lempiras in 2025 to a profit of 423 million lempiras in 2026, with plans to invest more than $400 million in yard expansion, new cranes, and modernization at Puerto Cortés and the southern port of Henecán.

The municipality of Gualcinse, Lempira, declared an emergency over prolonged drought and climate change, reporting the loss of roughly 1,400 acres of corn and 520 of beans, shortages of livestock feed, and an 80% drop in river water levels.

Five teachers in Choloma requested transfers in June after receiving threats, and authorities say threats against educators in Cortés have grown from school-level complaints into formal investigations by police and prosecutors.

Honduras's disaster agency is tracking two areas in the Pacific with an 80% and 60% chance of cyclone formation, while Hurricane Lala moves west and poses no immediate threat to Honduras.

Teatro La Fragua in El Progreso is marking 47 years of using theater and the arts to spark community creativity, memory, and social change, with its annual Artistic Expression season running through August and featuring concerts, films, book readings, and stage productions.

Honduras's tourism board will represent the Bay Islands at DEMA Show, a major international diving and water-sports trade fair held November 3–6 in New Orleans, to promote the islands' diving industry and connect with operators worldwide.

Honduras's reserve-team tournament opened on Tuesday with Juticalpa beating Motagua 3–2 and Genesis FC routing Choloma in a 16-goal opening round, as defending champion Olimpia looks to keep its title.

Jorge Álvarez will miss Olimpia's Central American Cup game in Panama because of a recurring muscle injury that has limited him since the start of the season.

Security footage of armed men believed to be DPI investigators detaining a man at a business in northern Honduras has stirred public debate, as authorities have not confirmed who the men are or whether the detention was lawful.

The military and police are stepping up patrols across Comayagüela's commercial districts, including the Belén Market, to deter crime and protect traders and shoppers in the busy area.

Between August 12 and 15, a law student was shot dead in a San Pedro Sula law office, three women were killed in separate incidents across Comayagua, Valle, and Francisco Morazán within roughly 24 hours, and police in Olanchito arrested suspects linked to a massacre and other violent crimes.

Lawyers for former President Juan Orlando Hernández submitted 36 pieces of evidence—34 documents, one witness, and one expert analysis—at an initial hearing in the Pandora II fraud and money-laundering case, which resumes August 24 to take up prosecution objections.

Also reported by: Radio América, La Prensa

Residents of the Paseo Real del Carmen neighborhood in San Pedro Sula say they have faced two weeks of pressure and harassment from developers trying to evict them for residential construction, and they are urging authorities to step in.

Internal documents from the agricultural development bank Banadesa show that a July 2026 credit committee met over just three loan applications totaling L31.7 million (about $1.27 million), including L7.8 million (about $312,000) to a man with political and family ties to the bank's president.

Standard & Poor's is carrying out a periodic review of Honduras's sovereign credit rating on August 18–19, meeting with President Asfura, members of Congress, and the private sector to gauge the government's fiscal, economic, and institutional conditions.

President Asfura announced an investment in Puerto Henecán and pointed to Honduras's formal return to the international investment arbitration center (CIADI) as a sign of legal stability and confidence for private capital.

Cuarterías, Honduras's traditional shared-housing model, are being carved into private rooms with their own bathrooms, Wi-Fi, and utilities at rents two or three times those of unrenovated units, reshaping urban rental markets in major cities.

The national utility ENEE has scheduled maintenance outages on August 19 affecting neighborhoods in Francisco Morazán, Cortés, Intibucá, Copán, and Santa Bárbara, with most cuts lasting about six hours between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The L9.8 million pedestrian bridge in Tegucigalpa's Germania neighborhood, due to open in January 2025, remains just 40% complete, forcing more than 700 students and residents to cross a busy highway every day; neighbors have threatened to protest.

The Liberal mayor of Piraera, Lempira, says a drought has left 3,500 families short of food after crop losses, and he is asking the Honduran government for corn and beans, warning he will turn to El Salvador's president if the aid is refused.

Also reported by: TuNota (Canal 5 / TSI), La Prensa

HonduHerp, a nonprofit founded in 2023 by Honduran and US scientists, protects reptile and amphibian species through land conservation, community education, and research, including a 30-hectare cloud-forest reserve in Copán that shelters the jade pit viper, a venomous snake whose presence signals a healthy forest ecosystem.

Five marble sculptures by Honduran artists, made during a national symposium and carved from local stone, now stand in public spaces in Pinalejo as a permanent cultural attraction and draw for tourism.

Honduran midfielder Kervin Arriaga's move from Spain's Levante to Greece's AEK Athens for about 3 million euros will bring roughly 3.5 million lempiras (about $140,000) to Platense and Marathón under FIFA's solidarity mechanism, which pays the clubs that developed a player before age 23.

Zoé Cano, 19, was found dead in an apartment in La Entrada, Copán, with multiple stab wounds and injuries to her neck; authorities believe she was killed in a violent struggle around August 16.

Also reported by: HCH

Police say businessman Jaime Roberto Becker Menardi, shot dead outside his motorcycle and car dealership in San Pedro Sula on August 8, was likely killed over money he owed to friends, according to investigators pursuing several theories.