Center for Democracy in the Americas

Associated Press- Honduras’ top anti-money-laundering prosecutor has been shot to death, a prosecution spokesman said Friday. Spokesman Carlos Vallecillo says prosecutor Orlan Arturo Chavez was killed in his truck as he returned from the National University, where he also taught. Vallecillo said the killing was carried out in a manner… read more »

Big News Network – The US has told Honduras it will no longer share radar intelligence. The suspension, which was announced by a US State Department spokesman on Friday, followed the shooting down of two civilian aircraft by the Honduran drug agency. While the Honduran government said the civilian planes… read more »

AP- The government of Honduras has signed a deal with private investors for the construction of three privately run cities with their own legal and tax systems. The memorandum of agreement signed Tuesday is part of a controversial experiment meant to bring badly needed economic growth to this small Central American… read more »

Hannah Stone, Insight Crime- Honduras’ Congress is set to approve a bill to establish a new elite military police unit to fight organized crime, known as the “Tigers,” according to a legislator. Representative Augusto Cruz Asencio said Congress would approve the legislation in a matter of days, and that there… read more »

Prensa Latina – The Honduran Government rejected today that this country was a large airport of the mafia, as said in a US State Department report. In remarks to HRN radio station, President Porfirio Lobo described the document as hypocrisy. Lobo wondered what would happen if the United States was not… read more »

Tracey Knott, InSight Crime - According to an El Heraldo report, 30 percent of Tegucigalpa’s small businesses — some 10,800 — active in the beginning of 2012 have closed due to frequent threats from criminals attempting to extort money. Some business owners have elected to move to Nicaragua, where they believe the… read more »

Alberto Arce, Associated Press - The land seizures have inspired similar takeovers elsewhere in Honduras, alarming the nation’s business class and raising fears of spreading political violence. They also have become a rallying point for a broad leftist coalition that has grown around ex-President Manuel Zelaya since he was ousted in… read more »

BBC News - Two agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shot dead the pilot of a suspected drug flight last week, a DEA spokeswoman has said. It happened on 3 July when a small plane being tracked by Honduran and DEA agents crashed in eastern Honduras. It is the second… read more »

Honduras Weekly – Former President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009) yesterday confirmed that he intends to run for a seat in the National Congress in the national elections scheduled for November 2013. He will campaign as a member of the socialist Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) Party. Mr. Zelaya currently serves as the… read more »

Tracey Knott, InSight Crime – The Committee of Families of Disappeared and Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) filed a claim with the Honduran Supreme Court on June 30 against the government’s decision to grant police powers to the military. The victims’ advocacy group argues that the military’s presence in the streets is… read more »