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Guide to Honduras

Introduction

Background: Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage.

Geography

Location: Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean), between El Salvador and Nicaragua
Geographic coordinates: 15 00 N, 86 30 W
Map references: Central America and the Caribbean
Area: total
Area - comparative: slightly larger than Tennessee
Land boundaries: total
Coastline: 820 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea
Climate: subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains
Terrain: mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains
Elevation extremes: lowest point
Natural resources: timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower
Land use: arable land
Irrigated land: 760 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast
Environment - current issues: urban population expanding; deforestation results from logging and the clearing of land for agricultural purposes; further land degradation and soil erosion hastened by uncontrolled development and improper land use practices such as farming of marginal lands; mining activities polluting Lago de Yojoa (the country's largest source of fresh water), as well as several rivers and streams, with heavy metals
Environment - international agreements: party to
Geography - note: has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline, including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast

People

Population: 6,975,204 note
Age structure: 0-14 years
Median age: total
Population growth rate: 2.16% (2005 est.)
Birth rate: 30.38 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate: 6.87 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate: -1.95 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth
Infant mortality rate: total
Life expectancy at birth: total population
Total fertility rate: 3.87 children born/woman (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 1.8% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 63,000 (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 4,100 (2003 est.)
Nationality: noun
Ethnic groups: mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%
Languages: Spanish, Amerindian dialects
Literacy: definition

Government

Country name: conventional long form
Government type: democratic constitutional republic
Capital: Tegucigalpa
Administrative divisions: 18 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Atlantida, Choluteca, Colon, Comayagua, Copan, Cortes, El Paraiso, Francisco Morazan, Gracias a Dios, Intibuca, Islas de la Bahia, La Paz, Lempira, Ocotepeque, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Valle, Yoro
Independence: 15 September 1821 (from Spain)
National holiday: Independence Day, 15 September (1821)
Constitution: 11 January 1982, effective 20 January 1982; amended 1995
Legal system: rooted in Roman and Spanish civil law with increasing influence of English common law; recent judicial reforms include abandoning Napoleonic legal codes in favor of the oral adversarial system; accepts ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory
Executive branch: chief of state
Legislative branch: unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (128 seats; members are elected proportionally to the number of votes their party's presidential candidate receives to serve four-year terms) elections
Judicial branch: Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges are elected for seven-year terms by the National Congress)
Political parties and leaders: Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Juan Ramon VELAZQUEZ Nassar]; Democratic Unification Party or PUD [Matias FUNES]; Liberal Party or PL [Roberto MICHELETTI Bain]; National Innovation and Unity Party-Social Democratic Party or PINU-SD [Olban F. VALLADARES]; National Party of Honduras or PN [Jose Celin DISCUA Elvir]; United Confederation of Honduran Workers or CUTH
Political pressure groups and leaders: Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras or CODEH; Confederation of Honduran Workers or CTH; Coordinating Committee of Popular Organizations or CCOP; General Workers Confederation or CGT; Honduran Council of Private Enterprise or COHEP; National Association of Honduran Campesinos or ANACH; National Union of Campesinos or UNC; Popular Bloc or BP; United Federation of Honduran Workers or FUTH
International organization participation: ABEDA, BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (subscriber), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission
Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission
Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band; the stars represent the members of the former Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a triangle encircled by the word REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band

Economy

Economy - overview: Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a three-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program in February 2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US, its largest trading partner, on commodity prices, particularly coffee, and on reduction of the high crime rate.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $18.79 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4.2% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,800 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture
Labor force: 2.47 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.)
Unemployment rate: 28.5% (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line: 53% (1993 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 56.3 (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 7% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 24.1% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget: revenues
Public debt: 74.1% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp
Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products
Industrial production growth rate: 7.7% (2003 est.)
Electricity - production: 3.626 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel
Electricity - consumption: 3.771 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - exports: 16 million kWh (2002)
Electricity - imports: 415 million kWh (2002)
Oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption: 29,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports: NA
Oil - imports: NA
Current account balance: $258.3 million (2003 est.)
Exports: $1.457 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities: coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber
Exports - partners: US 54.4%, El Salvador 8.1%, Germany 5.9%, Guatemala 5.4% (2004)
Imports: $3.332 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000)
Imports - partners: US 37.5%, Guatemala 6.9%, Mexico 5.4%, Costa Rica 4.3%, El Salvador 4% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $1.464 billion (2004 est.)
Debt - external: $5.365 billion (September 2004 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $557.8 million (1999)
Currency (code): lempira (HNL)
Currency code: HNL
Exchange rates: lempiras per US dollar - 18.206 (2004), 17.345 (2003), 16.433 (2002), 15.474 (2001), 14.839 (2000)
Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 322,500 (2002)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 326,500 (2002)
Telephone system: general assessment
Radio broadcast stations: AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998)
Radios: 2.45 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 570,000 (1997)
Internet country code: .hn
Internet hosts: 1,944 (2003)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 8 (2000)
Internet users: 168,600 (2002)

Transportation

Railways: total
Highways: total
Waterways: 465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2004)
Ports and harbors: Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela
Merchant marine: total
Airports: 115 (2004 est.)
Airports - with paved runways: total
Airports - with unpaved runways: total

Military

Military branches: Army, Navy (includes Naval Infantry), Air Force
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary 2-3 year military service (2004)
Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49
Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49
Manpower reaching military service age annually: males
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $100.6 million (2004)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.4% (2004)

Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: 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
Illicit drugs: transshipment point for drugs and narcotics; illicit producer of cannabis, cultivated on small plots and used principally for local consumption; corruption is a major problem; some money-laundering activity
Last updated: 20 October, 2005


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