Honduras finds submarine cocaine

29 July 2011 Last updated at 23:26 GMT Naval forces from the US and Honduras have recovered 2.5 tonnes of cocaine from a semi-submersible craft intercepted off the Honduran coast.

Honduran General Rene Osorio said there were more than five tonnes of cocaine on the vessel, and authorities would need two days to retrieve all of it.

The vessel is submerged because the crew tried to sink it after they were intercepted two weeks ago.

Honduras is on a key route used by cartels trafficking drugs to the US.

Coast guard officials intercepted the submarine-like craft off the Caribbean coast of Honduras near the province of Gracias a Dios.

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Removal of Zelaya 'Honduras coup'

7 July 2011 Last updated at 22:42 GMT The chair of the Truth Commission is former Guatemalan Vice-President Eduardo Stein

The Honduras Truth and Reconciliation Commission has concluded that the removal from office of former President Manuel Zelaya was a coup.

It said the move was illegal and not a constitutional succession as some of Mr Zelaya's opponents said.

The Commission investigated the events of 28 June 2009, when Mr Zelaya was forced into exile in Costa Rica.

The crisis was triggered by Mr Zelaya's refusal to cancel a referendum linked to presidential term limits.

Point of no return

The chair of the Commission, former Guatemalan Vice-President Eduardo Stein, presented the report to current Honduran President Porfirio Lobos, Head of the Supreme Court Jorge Rivera Avilez and Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

The Commission identified Mr Zelaya's decision to press ahead with the referendum on constitutional change as "a point of no return" in the crisis.

His critics said the move was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on serving as president, and paving the way for his possible re-election - a charge he repeatedly denied.

The consultation was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and Congress.

When Mr Zelaya insisted the consultation go ahead, Congress voted to remove him for what it called "repeated violations of the constitution and the law".

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Mr Zelaya, 58, had manoeuvred himself into a corner, where he lacked the support of Congress, the Supreme Court, and even his own party.

The Commission said Mr Zelaya broke the law when he disregarded the Supreme Court ruling ordering him to cancel the referendum.

It said therefore both Mr Zelaya and those who ousted him bore responsibility for his forced removal from office.

De facto regime

The report said the Honduran Congress lacked a clear procedure to resolve power conflicts such as the one which arose in June 2009 between the president and Congress, but that it had acted beyond its limits by deposing the president.

The report further said that Congress overstepped its powers when it nominated Speaker of Congress Roberto Micheletti as interim president.

Mr Zelaya gave OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza one of his trademark hats during his visit

According to the Commission, the interim administration was therefore illegal and a "de facto regime".

The report also said that 20 people were killed in the repression which followed the coup.

"At least 12 people were killed by police and military forces making disproportionate use of their firearms and toxic gases," the report added, while another eight opposition activists were killed "by the state or people acting in its interest".

Mr Micheletti led the interim government for seven months, but his administration was not recognised internationally, and the Organization of American States expelled Honduras.

He was replaced by the current President Porfirio Lobo after general elections were held in November 2009.

Many governments, including the United States, restored their ties with Honduras after Mr Lobo's election.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established under the auspices of the Organization of American States to look into the events surrounding Mr Zelaya's removal from power.

Mr Zelaya returned to Honduras in May, but under Honduras' constitution he cannot run in the 2013 election as presidents are limited to a single term in office.

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Honduras

Military rule, corruption, a huge wealth gap, crime and natural disasters have rendered Honduras one of the least developed and least secure countries in Central America.

Until the mid-1980s Honduras was dominated by the military, which enthusiastically supported US efforts to stem revolutionary movements in the region.

Since then, civilian leaders have sought to curb the power of the military - with varying degrees of success.

Some army officers have been charged with human rights abuses, but many have still to be prosecuted for violations committed in the 1980s.

Honduran society is rife with economic inequality. Malnutrition, poor housing and infant diseases are widespread.

The country has a youthful population; 50% of Hondurans are under the age of 19. But endemic poverty, chronic unemployment and the prospects offered by drug trafficking have contributed to a virulent crime wave conducted mainly by youth gangs known as "maras".

The maras are said to have tens of thousands of members and use threats and violence to control poorer districts in towns and cities.

Meanwhile, police officers have been implicated in high-profile crimes, and the police are thought to have been involved in the murders by death squads of youths and street children.

Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. At least 5,000 people were killed and 70% of the country's crops were destroyed. The damage was estimated at $3bn, setting development back by decades.

Thousands of Hondurans leave the country each year, most of them for the US. The money sent home by the overseas workers is an important source of income for many families.

The economy was dominated, until the mid-20th century, by foreign-owned banana companies that wielded outsized influence in politics and controlled wide swaths of land. Still a major exporter of the fruit, Honduras is also Central America's second biggest coffee producer. Part of a regional free trade deal with the United States, Honduras developed its textile industry to diversify away from dependence on agriculture.

Full name: Republic of Honduras Population: 7.6 million (UN, 2010) Capital: Tegucigalpa Area: 112,492 sq km (43,433 sq miles) Major languages: Spanish, indigenous languages, English Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 71 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 lempira = 100 centavos Main exports: Coffee, bananas, shellfish, meat, timber, gold and other minerals GNI per capita: US$1,820 (World Bank, 2009) Internet domain: .hn International dialling code: +504

President: Porfirio Lobo Sosa

Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa of the right-wing National Party won a November 2009 election organised by the interim authorities which took over following the military-backed ouster of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Porfirio Lobo Sosa - onetime left-winger turned right-winger

Mr Lobo was sworn into office in January 2010 as Mr Zelaya went into exile, marking the closure of seven months of political chaos set off by his ouster by troops in June 2009. When Mr Zelaya was toppled he was flown out of the country while still in his pajamas but he sneaked back in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

US and Latin American governments criticized the coup and many countries denounced Mr Lobo's election under a de facto government as illegitimate, but months of mediation and talks failed to reverse the coup and restore Mr Zelaya.

Mr Lobo won 56% against 38% for Elvin Santos, the candidate of the Liberal Party, which was deeply split between supporters of Mr Zelaya and his coup-backed interim replacement, Roberto Micheletti. The turnout was given as 60%.

After the election, Mr Lobo promised to form a unity government and launch a national dialogue aimed at overcoming the crisis. His campaign included promises to boost investment, jobs and security.

Born in 1948, Porfirio Lobo Sosa is a wealthy rancher who was once viewed as left-leaning after studies in Soviet Moscow in the 1980s, but since then has moved to the right. He was elected to Congress in 1990, and only narrowly lost the 2005 presidential election to Manuel Zelaya.

Media freedom in Honduras is restricted by punitive defamation laws. These require journalists to reveal sources in certain cases.

Journalists tend to exercise self-censorship to avoid offending the political or economic interests of media owners and there have been cases of journalists accepting bribes from officials.

The level of violence against journalists is "alarmingly high", Reporters Without Borders said in 2007.

The press

Television

Radio

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