|
Honduras
Geography
Honduras, in the north-central part of Central America, has a Caribbean as well as a Pacific coastline. Guatemala is to the west, El Salvador to the south, and Nicaragua to the east. The second-largest country in Central America, Honduras is slightly larger than Tennessee. Generally mountainous, the country is marked by fertile plateaus, river valleys, and narrow coastal plains.
Government
Democratic constitutional republic.
History
During the first millennium, Honduras was inhabited by the Maya. Columbus explored the country in 1502. Honduras, with four other Central American nations, declared its independence from Spain in 1821 to form a federation of Central American states. In 1838, Honduras left the federation and became independent. Political unrest rocked Honduras in the early 1900s, resulting in an occupation by U.S. Marines. Dictator Gen. Tiburcio Carias Andino established a strong government in 1932.
In 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras after Honduran landowners deported several thousand Salvadorans. Five thousand people ultimately died in what is called “the football war” because it broke out during a soccer game between the two countries. By threatening economic sanctions and military intervention, the Organization of American States (OAS) induced El Salvador to withdraw. After a decade of military rule, parliamentary democracy returned with the election of Roberto Suazo Córdova as president in 1982. However, Honduras faced severe economic problems and tensions along its border with Nicaragua. ?Contra? rebels, waging a guerrilla war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, used Honduras as a training and staging area. The U.S. also used Honduras for military exercises and built bases to train Honduran and Salvadoran troops.
In 1997, Carlos Flores Facussé of the Liberal Party was elected president. He began to reform the economy and modernize the government. In recent years, Honduras has faced high unemployment, inflation, and economic over-dependence on coffee and bananas. In Oct. 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed some 13,000 Hondurans, left 2 million homeless, and caused more than $5 billion in damage.
In 2002, Ricardo Maduro became president, promising to lessen crime and corruption, but his hard-line efforts, growing increasingly more repressive, did not improved these problems. In 2006, a new president, Manuel Zelaya, also vowed to fight corruption and gang violence, but promised to do so with a more humane approach.
In March 2005, the nation's Congress ratified a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S.
Official Website:
www.congreso.gob.hn
« Back to Flags Index
REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS
|
National name: República de Honduras
President: Manuel Zelaya (2006)
Land area: 43,201 sq mi (111,891 sq km); total area: 43,278 sq mi (112,090 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 7,326,496 (growth rate: 2.2%); birth rate: 28.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 25.8/1000; life expectancy: 69.3; density per sq mi: 170
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Tegucigalpa, 1,436,000 (metro. area), 1,248,300 (city proper)
Languages: Spanish (official), Amerindian dialects; English widely spoken in business
Ethnicity/race: mestizo 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%
Literacy rate: 76% (2003 est.)
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 322,500 (2002); mobile cellular: 326,500 (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997). Internet hosts: ,944 (2003). Internet users: 168,600 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 699 km (2004). Highways: total: 13,603 km; paved: 2,775 km; unpaved: 10,828 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2004). Ports and harbors: Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela. Airports: 115 (2004 est.).
|
Monetary unit: Lempira
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $20.21 billion; per capita $2,800. Real growth rate: 4%. Inflation: 9.2%. Unemployment: 28%. Arable land: 10%. Agriculture: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp. Labor force: 2.54 million; agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.). Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products. Natural resources: timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower. Exports: $1.726 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber. Imports: $4.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000). Major trading partners: U.S., El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala (2004).
International disputes: in 1992, ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border, but despite OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize, but agreed to creation of a joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in the failed 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum, which the OAS is attempting to revive; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex dispute over islands and maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea.
|
(Info on Honduras as of 8/1/06 from
www.infoplease.com &
www.nationsonline.org.)
Argentina |
Bolivia |
Chile |
Colombia |
Costa Rica |
Cuba |
Dominican Republic
Ecuador |
El Salvador |
Guatemala |
Honduras |
Mexico |
Nicaragua |
Panama
Paraguay |
Peru |
Puerto Rico |
Spain |
Uruguay |
Venezuela
« Back to Flags Index
| |
