48 Facts About Honduras

Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America.

The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.

Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market.

Many regions in the north of Honduras never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom.

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Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821 and was a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823, when it became part of the United Provinces of Central America.

Banana-exporting companies, dominated until 1930 by the Cuyamel Fruit Company, as well as the United Fruit Company, and Standard Fruit Company, built an enclave economy in northern Honduras, controlling infrastructure and creating self-sufficient, tax-exempt sectors that contributed relatively little to economic growth.

In 1904, the writer O Henry coined the term "banana republic" to describe Honduras, publishing a book called Cabbages and Kings, about a fictional country, Anchuria, inspired by his experiences in Honduras, where he had lived for six months.

Honduras joined the Allied Nations after Pearl Harbor, on 8 December 1941, and signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, along with twenty-five other governments.

Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, the president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating Honduran economy on immigrants from El Salvador.

Honduras launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid.

Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.

Under Zelaya, Honduras joined ALBA in 2008, but withdrew in 2010 after the 2009 Honduran coup d'etat.

Honduras has rain forests, cloud forests, mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges with pine and oak trees, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

Honduras had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.

Honduras is governed within a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic.

Honduras was succeeded by Xiomara Castro, the leader of the left-wing Libre Party, and wife of Manuel Zelaya, on 27 January 2022, becoming the first woman to serve as president.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, advised by John Negroponte, the former Reagan-era Ambassador to Honduras implicated in the Iran–Contra affair, refrained from expressing support.

Honduras's has since explained that the US would have had to cut aid if it called Zelaya's ouster a military coup, although the US has a record of ignoring these events when it chooses.

Honduras has a military with the Honduran Army, Honduran Navy and Honduran Air Force.

In 2017, Honduras signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Since the 1970s when Honduras was designated a "food priority country" by the UN, organizations such as The World Food Program have worked to decrease malnutrition and food insecurity.

Levels of income inequality in Honduras are higher than in any other Latin American country.

North and central Honduras are home to the country's industries and infrastructure, resulting in low levels of poverty.

Since 1965 there has been an increase in the number of landless peasants in Honduras which has led to a growing class of urban poor individuals.

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Middle class Honduras is a small group defined by relatively low membership and income levels.

In 2005 Honduras signed CAFTA, a free trade agreement with the United States.

In December 2005, Puerto Cortes, the primary seaport of Honduras, was included in the U S Container Security Initiative.

In 2013, Honduras's Congress ratified Decree 120, which led to the establishment of ZEDEs.

Since 1975, emigration from Honduras has accelerated as economic migrants and political refugees sought a better life elsewhere.

Non-ladino groups in Honduras include the Black Carib, Miskito, Arab immigrants and the black population of the Islas de la Bahia The Black Carib population descended from freed slaves from Saint Vincent.

The Gender Inequality Index depicts gender-based inequalities in Honduras according to reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity.

Honduras has historically functioned with a patriarchal system like many other Latin American countries.

Recently Honduras has seen an increase in challenges to this notion as feminist movements and access to global media increases.

Between 1995 and 1997 Honduras recognized domestic violence as both a public health issue and a punishable offense due to efforts by the Pan American Health Organization .

An educational program in Honduras known as Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial has attempted to "undo gender" through focusing on gender equality in everyday interactions.

Still, in Honduras are thriving Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, Lutheran, Latter-day Saint and Pentecostal churches.

Honduras has bilingual and even trilingual schools and numerous universities.

Crime in Honduras is rampant and criminals operate with a high degree of impunity.

Honduras has one of the highest national murder rates in the world; cities such as San Pedro Sula and the Tegucigalpa likewise have registered homicide rates among the highest in the world.

The violence is associated with drug trafficking as Honduras is often a transit point, and with a number of urban gangs, mainly the MS-13 and the 18th Street gang.

Violence in Honduras increased after Plan Colombia was implemented and after Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared the war against drug trafficking in Mexico.

Honduras has experienced a boom from its film industry for the past two decades.

The middle star represents Honduras, located in the center of the Central American Union.

The change of the national flower was carried out during the administration of general Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, thinking that Brassavola digbyana "is an indigenous plant of Honduras; having this flower exceptional characteristics of beauty, vigor and distinction", as the decree dictates it.

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All other sports tend to be minor at best, as Honduras has not won a medal in the Olympics and has not made notable results in other world championships yet.

Occasionally, Honduras has competed in combat sports ranging from judo to boxing at the Summer Olympics as well.

Gender inequality in Honduras is present in the sports industry, as teams like the Honduras women's national football team has yet to qualify in global and continental tournaments and softball being nearly nonexistent in the country.