Sunday, September 13, 2026 — Evening Edition

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.