Wednesday, August 19, 2026 — Evening Edition

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.