Honduras: News & Updates

Honduras heads into its November 30 elections after a turbulent decade marked by the post-coup era and the COVID-19 crisis. Under President Xiomara Castro and her LIBRE party, some economic and social indicators have begun to recover: poverty has fallen from its pandemic peak, inequality continues a slow decline, underemployment is at a decade low, and both public and private investment have grown. External public debt has stabilized, and the country remains fiscally sound under an IMF program. Still, Honduras remains Central America’s poorest country, with low per-capita growth and persistent structural vulnerability. Voters will choose among LIBRE’s Rixi Moncada, opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla, and National Party contender Nasry Asfura as the country seeks to consolidate fragile gains and confront ongoing poverty, inequality, and economic exposure.

Honduras holds presidential and legislative elections on November 30, with Libre Party candidate Rixi Moncada—former finance and defense minister—running to succeed outgoing president Xiomara Castro. The country’s entrenched economic elites and traditional parties, long resistant to leftist governments, are accused of plotting to manipulate the vote. Leaked recordings suggest a plan by National Party figures and a military officer to disrupt vote transmission, declare conservative candidate Salvador Nasralla the winner, and push the U.S. Embassy not to recognize a Libre victory. Libre warns of an “electoral coup” and mobilizes supporters to safeguard results. The stakes are heightened by U.S. geopolitical interests, Castro’s break with U.S. positions, and Libre’s social gains since 2022. Polls show a close race, and observers expect intense pressure and foreign interference to shape the outcome.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ vote and new national campaign to support migrants are the group’s first responses to the Trump administration’s crackdown.

In a rare group statement, America’s Catholic bishops voted nearly unanimously Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants as an attack on “God-given human dignity,” and advocated for “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws.”

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” read the message from the U.S.

Conference of Catholic Bishops. After the vote (216-5, with three abstentions), the bishops stood and applauded. The last such “Special Message” was delivered 12 years ago.

The new message listed the types of suffering the church leaders say many undocumented migrants experience, including “arbitrarily” losing their legal status, being subject to poor detention conditions, and being afraid to take children to school or go to church. “We feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,” the bishops wrote.

Thank you to all who gathered with IRTF on November 9 for our annual commemoration event to mark the 45th anniversary of the sacrifice of four US women missioners in El Salvador. In response to that horrific tragedy, people of faith and conscience in Cleveland founded IRTF as a way to carry forward their legacy—taking action in solidarity with oppressed and marginalized communities as they struggle for peace, dignity, and justice.

IRTF board and staff wishes to thank all the volunteers who helped us set up, decorate, run the event and pack up at the end of the night, Pilgrim Church for hosting us, the kitchen staff at Guanaquitas pupsería for preparing our dinner, Megan Wilson-Reitz for coordinating our social hour (and the many kitchen volunteers!), Salim and Lucía for coordinating our raffle/auction, Pastor Jay for running the tech, and all who participated in the service and speaker program.

To our 46 co-sponsors: Thank you for your financial support that helps us continue calling people into solidarity with oppressed peoples in Central America and Colombia. We are deeply appreciative of your affirmation of our mission and ongoing commitment to this important work.

Mayor Adán Fúnez of Tocoa granted land to journalist Héctor Madrid and pastor Erlin Henríquez—administrators of Facebook pages that later ran smear campaigns against peasant and environmental organizations in Bajo Aguán. These pages promoted pro-Fúnez and pro-Dinant narratives, defended individuals accused of belonging to the criminal group Los Cachos, and spread disinformation labeling land defenders as criminal actors. Complaints filed by the Agrarian Platform and COPA accuse this coordinated media network of inciting violence and legitimizing attacks tied to criminal groups and local power structures.

The Trump administration has further dismantled legal protections for Honduran women fleeing gender-based violence. Recent U.S. immigration rulings have invalidated key “particular social group” (PSG) categories—such as “Honduran women unable to leave a relationship”—that previously allowed women to claim asylum based on gender persecution. These changes, effectively bar many victims of domestic and sexual violence from receiving asylum. The rulings ignore the deep links between private violence, organized crime, and state complicity in Honduras, which has the highest femicide rate in Latin America.

Karen Spring of the Honduras Solidarity Network exposes how Canadian and U.S.-backed tourism expansion has dispossessed Indigenous Garifuna communities along Honduras’ north coast. During 13 years of U.S. and Canadian support for corrupt, militarized “Narco Regimes,” tourism investors — many Canadian and American — illegally acquired Garifuna lands in Trujillo Bay. Now, as Garifuna communities reclaim their ancestral territories, Canadian investors and companies like NJOI are leading racist defamation campaigns against Garifuna leaders and OFRANEH, falsely portraying themselves as victims. The conflict highlights the ongoing colonial exploitation of Indigenous lands under the guise of “development” and tourism.

A vehicle blocked their car, and its passengers stepped out with their weapons, trying to attack the group. They managed to escape, but the incident was not the first – nor would it be the last time Bertha Zúñiga would face a violent threat.

That encounter came just over a year after Zúñiga’s mother, Berta Cáceres, a prominent Lenca Indigenous rights activist in Honduras, was killed in her home in March 2016, leading to Zúñiga taking the leadership of her group, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Zúñiga was a toddler when her mother started the group to defend indigenous Lenca land from commercial interests that local communities say harm and exploit it.

Bertha Zúñiga continues the fight that her mother began against powerful corporate and political interests. Facing death threats, smear campaigns, and even state security leaks, Zúñiga leads COPINH in defending Lenca land and water from destructive projects—undaunted by the risks that cost her mother’s life.