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Travel to Honduras — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorHonduras
| Republic of Honduras National
name: República de Honduras President: Manuel Zelaya (2006)
Current government officials
Land area: 43,201 sq mi (111,891 sq km);
total area: 43,278 sq mi (112,090 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 7,483,763 (growth
rate: 2.1%); birth rate: 27.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 25.2/1000;
life expectancy: 69.4; density per sq mi: 173
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Tegucigalpa, 1,436,000 (metro. area), 1,248,300
(city proper) Monetary unit:
Lempira
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.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$24.69 billion; per capita $3,300. Real growth rate: 6%.
Inflation: 6.4%. Unemployment: 28%. Arable land:
10%. Agriculture: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber;
shrimp. Labor force: 2.81 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: $3.924 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): coffee,
shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber.
Imports: $6.798 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and
transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products,
fuels, foodstuffs (2000). Major trading partners: U.S., Costa
Rico, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 708,400 (2006); mobile cellular: 2.241 million (2006). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997).
Internet hosts: 4,672 (2007). Internet users: 337,300
(2006). 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) (2007). Ports and harbors:
Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela. Airports:
112 (2007). 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.
Major sources and definitions
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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 it 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 overdependence 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 improve these problems. In 2006, a new president,
Manuel Zelaya, also vowed to fight corruption and gang violence, but he
promised to do so with a more humane approach. A free-trade agreement
(CAFTA) with the U.S went into effect in April 2006.
See also Encyclopedia: Honduras
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Honduras
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica
http://www.ine-hn.org/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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