Sunday, September 13, 2026

Dozens of Hondurans carrying torches and signs marched peacefully to Casa Presidencial on Friday to demand action on the water shortage and protest recent energy reforms passed by Congress.

Also reported by: HCH

Honduras's courts closed 2025 with 43,006 unresolved cases out of 129,997 filed, a 33% backlog, and Supreme Court magistrates say hiring more judges, alongside performance targets and better budgeting, is essential to clear the delays.

A congressional decree extending the temporary terms of National Electoral Council (CNE) counselors expired today, but the officials will keep serving while lawmakers work toward consensus on permanent replacements.

Year-on-year inflation in Honduras reached 6.20% in August 2026, driven by rising fuel, food, and electricity costs amid bad weather that has damaged crops and pushed up prices on 64% of the goods and services in the consumer basket.

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to create Procafín, a nonprofit financing body that would negotiate lower-interest loans for coffee farmers and curb reliance on informal lenders, funded by a per-sack export contribution.

The official gazette has published a monthly salary increase of L1,200 (about $48) for central government employees, agreed between the government and three labor unions on August 26.

The national power utility ENEE will shut off electricity in central Tegucigalpa on September 13 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for scheduled maintenance on the Pueblo Nuevo substation circuit, affecting commercial, residential, and institutional areas including Boulevard Morazán and several shopping centers.

With reservoirs falling under drought and El Niño, Tegucigalpa plans to stretch water rationing from nine to twelve days should the La Concepción dam drop to 20% capacity, while repairing wells and pressing ahead on a new dam.

A newborn girl was found abandoned near the Ermita de Suyapa shrine in Tegucigalpa with a note from her mother describing extreme poverty and homelessness, and authorities have taken the child into protective care and are searching for the mother to offer help rather than punishment.

Also reported by: HCH

Guatemala's vice president has declared a red alert for the Trifinio border region it shares with Honduras and El Salvador, as El Niño–driven drought threatens corn and bean crops, rural jobs, and food security across the three countries.

Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela will close streets in nine districts on September 13 from 6:00 a.m. for Independence Day school parades, affecting major routes including Boulevard Kennedy, the historic center, and Boulevard del Norte.

Tourism Minister Andrés Ehrler projects that about 500,000 Hondurans will travel within the country during the Morazán Week holiday, spending more than 600 million lempiras ($24 million), with Tela, La Ceiba, Omoa, and the Bay Islands among the top destinations.

Honduras's men's futsal team beat Costa Rica 5–3 in the third-place match at the CODICADER 2026 Central American secondary-school games, though the game broke down into disciplinary trouble after several referee calls sparked confrontations, including a Costa Rican player striking the referee.

Platense striker Georgie Welcome scored a spectacular goal against Estrella Roja in a 2–2 draw, crediting the strike to faith and noting he shares an active-player record with Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modrić, and Lionel Messi from the 2010 World Cup.

Luis Quiroz, a security guard at Instituto Gubernamental Soberanía in San Antonio de Cortés, was attacked and killed with machetes on September 11 as students rehearsed for Honduras's Independence Day celebrations, and police have opened an investigation into the motive and the attackers.

A dump truck driver identified as Arnold Erazo died when his sand-laden vehicle overturned on the road between La Encarnación and San Jorge in Ocotepeque, in a crash authorities blamed on mechanical failure.

David Matute Meléndez, held as a suspect in the September 1 murder of footballer Kenny Martínez Webster in Roatán, denies any role in the crime and says he was at work when the killing took place.

Fresh blackouts struck Tegucigalpa and other cities on September 11 as the National Dispatch Center (CND) invoked emergency measures to cope with fuel shortages and forced outages, prompting experts to warn the crisis could worsen.

Also reported by: Radio América

More than 117,000 Honduran women are out of work at a jobless rate of 6.8%, nearly double the 3.7% rate for men, underscoring the barriers women face in entering the formal labor market despite Labor Minister Fernando Puerto's claim that they are more present once employed.

Honduran labor law requires employers to pay double wages to anyone working on September 15, Independence Day, and to grant them a compensatory day off that same week.

Finance Minister Emilio Hércules said IMF Director Nigel Chalk will lead a technical mission to Honduras for the sixth review of the country's ongoing IMF program.

Honduras's electrical system runs near capacity with too little reserve to absorb sudden failures, CREE commissioner Leonardo Deras said, noting that the country lost 1,800 of 2,400 megawatts in this week's regional outage—more than its neighbors.

The official gazette published a salary increase of L1,200 (about $48) per month for central government employees, agreed between the government and three labor unions on August 26.

Lawmakers introduced a bill to create Procafín, a nonprofit financing mechanism that would negotiate lower-interest loans for coffee farmers and reduce reliance on informal lending, funded by a per-sack export contribution.

A severe water shortage in Tegucigalpa has left tanker-truck drivers queuing overnight at the municipal filling station in Altos de Toncontín, snarling traffic and straining the informal water supply that now serves much of the capital.

More than 400 physicians on interim contracts in Honduras are owed up to nine months of pay, and after Friday's talks with the Health Ministry ended with no payment date, they are pressing on with nationwide hospital assemblies that suspend scheduled patient care.

The Health Ministry received four portable X-ray machines equipped with artificial intelligence from the Global Fund through Global Communities to strengthen tuberculosis screening and early diagnosis.

Tegucigalpa's La Concepción reservoir stood at 25.49% of capacity—just 0.49 percentage points above the critical threshold—while Los Laureles held 27.09%, with reserves still falling, water utility UMAPS officials warn.

Firefighters safely captured a 1.5-meter boa constrictor found beneath a parked vehicle near Puente Germania in south Tegucigalpa and moved it to a safe area away from people.

Tegucigalpa will close Boulevard Suyapa from 11 p.m. on September 14 until 8 p.m. on September 15 for Honduras's 205th Independence Day parades, which will run from the Central American Integration Bank to National Stadium.

Luisa Paola Pineda Barahona of San Francisco de Yojoa was crowned Miss Honduras Universo 2026 on September 11 and will represent Honduras at the Miss Universo pageant in Puerto Rico on November 26.

The Copán archaeological site is launching a three-dimensional satellite mapping project using LiDAR across its 25-square-kilometer area to update surveys done 50 years ago and search for undiscovered structures.

Police arrested Eduin Raúl Portillo Pereira, 24, on suspicion of kidnapping and killing his girlfriend, Ingrid Gabriela Cruz, after her body was found in a mountainous area of Francisco Morazán; he allegedly confessed to the killing.

Five years after Keyla Martínez died at a police station in La Esperanza, Intibucá, family and friends protested outside the building demanding justice as a retrial involving one defendant gets underway.