Yearbook 2010
Honduras. On January 27, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, winner of the 2009 presidential election, was sworn in as Honduras new president. According to softwareleverage, one of his first measures was to issue a general amnesty for all those involved in the military coup on June 28, 2009, when the incumbent President Manuel Zelaya was ousted, which has already been approved by Congress where Lobo Sosa’s party Partido Nacional dominates. At the same time, the Supreme Court freed the military’s command of suspicion of illegal acts in connection with the coup. Zelaya himself, who had been at the Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa since the coup, was let out of the country to the Dominican Republic in connection with the presidential installation.
However, in order to accommodate international opinion and, in particular, for Honduras to be re-admitted to the US-based OAS, a Truth Commission was appointed in May to investigate the course of events, and in October, President Zelaya and his party were invited to participate. that a constituent assembly be convened to review the constitution of the country. The political opposition immediately set up a parallel truth commission.
According to COUNTRYAAH, Honduras has a population of 9.588 million (2018). Crime continued to rise, and in October 79 homicides per 100,000 residents were recorded during the year in Honduras, which already had the highest homicide rate in the region.
HONDURAS. – Between the 1961 and 1974 censuses the population increased from 1,884,765 to 2,653,857 units, denouncing an average annual increase of 3.1% (this high value, however, must be accepted with reserve, because it seems that the census data 1961 is poorly reliable). In 1975, according to an estimate, the population was 3,037,000 units and the average density of 27 residents per km 2, an insignificant figure since the western half of the country, roughly corresponding to the three vast departments of Gracias in Dios, Olancho and Colón, has just 5 residents per km 2. The capital Tegucigalpa (270,600 residents In 1974) remains the largest urban center, but its development is rather slow due to its position which makes connections difficult; more rapid growth manifests the other great city, San Pedro Sula (over 100,000 residents), seat of industries and center of the main banana region.
- Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the two letter abbreviation of HN stands for the country of Honduras in geography.
Although attenuated in recent years, the predominance of rural activities is still clear, which account for 35% of the gross national product and employ 67% of the active population. Bananas (16 million q in 1973) are always the main product and the first item of exports; progress has been made in the cultivation of coffee (400,000 q in 1973), which is also exported; for tobacco, which feeds an active national industry, Honduras it ranks first among the Isthmian republics; corn (3.4 million q in 1973) is widely cultivated both for internal consumption and for export; the cultivation of cotton has remained modest, and so has that of cane, which, although providing an increasingly abundant product, does not cover the internal needs. The breeding has made progress and the number of cattle is remarkable (1, 6 million in 1973), pigs and horses. The forests supplied 4.4 million m of wood in 19733. An agrarian reform law (1962) led to the creation of a national agricultural institute which provides for the expropriation and redistribution of land and the displacement of agricultural families. The mining activity is of little importance: the extraction of silver and other metals has lost its importance, and on the other hand the use of the oil fields of Mosquitia and of the iron ore found near Tegucigalpa has not been undertaken. In the 1960s, the Cañaveral power plant became operational, the first of the Río Lindo group. In 1969 the installed power was 90,000 kW; in 1970, 310 million kWh were produced. Manufacturing industries, although increasing, still employ just 10% of the active population and provide no more than 14% of the gross national product. They are mainly food and textile factories. The export of bananas, coffee and timber is far from compensating for the heavy imports of consumer goods, and the trade balance remains passive. The main partner is represented by the United States, but the Honduran-American trade is decreasing in percentage due to the increasingly close relations established, after the establishment of the Central American Common Market, with neighboring countries, in particular Costa Rica and Guatemala. In 1972, Honduras it received 140,000 tourists.
The Honduras it has a much smaller merchant navy than it was in the 1950s, because its function as a shadow flag has declined. Puerto Cortés is the main port. San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa have international airports. The railways extend for a thousand km, the roads for 5600, of which 240 pertaining to the Pan-American highway ; in 1971 there were 30,000 cars.
The Honduras reveals conditions of underdevelopment, found in the lower income per – capita (one of the lowest in Latin America) and the demographic and economic imbalance between the various parts of the country.