Honduras Education

Education
Education in Honduras is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 12. The government has pledged to raise the literacy rate, which stands at about 60 percent. In the late 1980s some 878,000 pupils were enrolled in about 7330 primary schools and some 184,300 students in about 475 secondary, technical, and teacher-training institutions.
The National Autonomous University of Honduras (1847), in Tegucigalpa, is the major institution of higher learning. Annual enrollment in higher education numbers about 38,400 students.


Honduras, republic in Central America, bounded on the north and east by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by Nicaragua, on the southwest by the Pacific Ocean and El Salvador, and on the west by Guatemala. Honduras is one of the largest Central American republics, with an area of 111,888 sq km (43,199 sq mi).

Land and Resources
Except for two coastal strips, one extending about 640 km (about 400 mi) along the Caribbean Sea and the other 64 km (about 40 mi) on the Pacific Ocean, Honduras is a plateau, consisting of broad, fertile plains broken by deep valleys, and traversed by mountain ranges in a northwestern to southwestern direction. The mountains, which are volcanic in origin, rise to maximum elevations of more than 2800 m (more than 9186 ft). Most of the country's rivers drain to the Atlantic Ocean. Navigable Atlantic rivers include the Ulúa, which drains approximately one-third of the country, and the Coco. Forests, covering about 31 percent of the land, yield valuable hardwoods and softwoods. Fertile pasturelands provide the basis for increasingly productive dairy farming and livestock raising. Valuable mineral deposits, such as lead and zinc, are also present.

Climate
The climate of Honduras is tropical, but is tempered by the higher elevations of the interior. The mean annual temperature in the interior is about 21.1° C (about 70° F). The low-lying coastal regions, however, are warmer, and the humidity is oppressive; the mean annual temperature here averages 26.7° C (80° F). The dry season prevails from November to May; the average annual rainfall ranges from 1016 mm (40 in) in some mountain valleys to 2540 mm (100 in) along the northern coast.

Plants and Animals
Forests of oak and pine cover the cooler highlands, and savanna grasses cover the drier parts of Honduras. Mangrove and palms are found in the coastal regions.
Honduras has a wide variety of wildlife. Bear, deer, monkey, wolf, and coyote are numerous. The cat family includes jaguar, puma, ocelot, and lynx. A wide variety of reptiles exists, and marine and bird life abound.

Population
About 90 percent of the population is mestizo (persons of Spanish and Native American ancestry); the remainder are Native Americans, blacks, and whites. The population is about 60 percent rural.

Population Characteristics
The population of Honduras (1993) was 5,170,108. The overall population density was about 46 people per sq km (about 118 per sq mi), with the greatest concentrations in the small towns and villages in the northern coastal and central areas.

Principal Cities
The capital and largest city of Honduras is Tegucigalpa (population, 1989 estimate, greater city, 608,100), located in the south-central region. The principal city and commercial center in the north is San Pedro Sula (300,900). La Ceiba (71,600) and Puerto Cortés (32,000) are among the leading Caribbean ports.

Language and Religion
Spanish is the official language and is spoken by nearly all the Honduran people. English is spoken by some people in the north, and the Native Americans have retained their languages. About 85 percent of the people are Roman Catholics; Protestants constitute a small minority.

Culture
The interaction of both Native American and Spanish strains in Honduran cultural history is clearly visible in the architecture. Many colonial buildings show strong Native American influences combined with baroque, Renaissance, and Moorish styles imported by the Spanish.
With the exception of a few isolated Native American settlements where ancient languages and customs have been preserved, Honduras is primarily a Spanish culture today. The marimba is the most popular instrument and forms the core of many bands. Native folklore, folk music, and dances are limited, and artistic activity is concentrated around the School of Fine Arts in Comayagua, the old capital. In northwestern Honduras lies Copán, a ceremonial center of the Old Empire of the Maya and one of the most important archaeological sites in the western hemisphere.

Economy
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Government plans seek to promote and expand the manufacturing sector, diversify agriculture, improve transportation facilities, and develop hydroelectric projects. Annual electricity production in the late 1980s amounted to some 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours, of which more than 80 percent was hydroelectric. The estimated yearly national budget in the same period included $750 million in revenue and $1.1 billion in expenditure.

Agriculture
About 16 percent of the total land area of Honduras is arable, most of it on the coastal plains. The leading cash crops (with annual production for the late 1980s in metric tons) are coffee (90,000) and bananas and plantains (1.2 million). Other important crops include sugarcane (2.8 million) and palm oil (72,000). The principal food crops are corn (505,000), dry beans (46,000), and rice (57,000). Citrus fruit and pineapples also are grown.
The livestock population in the late 1980s numbered some 2.8 million cattle and 600,000 pigs. Chickens are raised for local consumption.

Forestry and Fishing
Forestry is an important industry in Honduras; in the late 1980s annual roundwood production was 6 million cu m (212 million cu ft). A reforestation program has been hampered by rudimentary lumbering methods and poor transportation facilities. Valuable woods cut include pine, mahogany, ebony, walnut, and rosewood. The annual fish catch of 10,600 metric tons is primarily shellfish.

Mining
Deposits of silver, zinc, and lead are exploited in Honduras. Other resources, largely unworked, include iron ore, coal, copper, and antimony. In the late 1980s some 11,200 metric tons of lead, 23,500 metric tons of zinc concentrate, and 795,000 troy ounces of silver were mined annually.

Manufacturing
Since the mid-1950s Honduran industry has grown significantly. Cement, cotton, sugar, and wood products are produced in quantities large enough for export. Textiles, detergents, chemicals, light metals, and food products are manufactured primarily for local consumption. The chief industrial areas are near the capital and the cities of San Pedro Sula and the free port of Puerto Cortés.

Currency and Banking
The unit of currency in Honduras is the lempira, divided into 100 centavos (5.6164 lempiras equal U.S.$1; 1991). The bank of issue is the Banco Central de Honduras. The government-controlled Municipal Bank and National Agricultural Development Bank provide credit for developmental projects.

Commerce and Trade
Bananas and coffee are the leading Honduran exports by value. Other important exports include frozen meat, wood and timber, shellfish, silver, lead, and zinc. The total yearly value of exports in the late 1980s was estimated at $893 million. Since the mid-1970s imports have risen rapidly, reaching an annual value of some $916.7 million in the late 1980s. The largest increases have been in raw materials and capital goods. The United States is the principal trading partner; other major trading partners are Japan, Germany, Venezuela, Italy, Belgium, and Mexico.

Transportation
Honduran railroads, employed principally in the transportation of bananas, extend for about 620 km (about 385 mi) along the northern coast. The mountainous character of the country has made aviation an important means of transportation. About 30 local airports, several international airports, and more than 100 small fields are in use. The total length of roads is about 18,500 km (about 11,500 mi), of which 12 percent were paved. The Inter-American Highway (160 km/100 mi in Honduras) links the country with Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Lake Yojoa and a number of rivers are navigable.

Communications
Honduras has seven daily newspapers and more than 65,000 telephones. The country also has about 250 radio stations and four main television stations and about 1.8 million radio receivers and 140,000 television sets.

Labor
The total labor force of Honduras numbers some 1.2 million workers, of whom about 53 percent are engaged in agriculture. Labor union membership exceeds 200,000.

Government
Honduras was governed under the constitution of 1965 until December 1972, when it was largely suspended after a coup d'état (see “History” below). A new constitution was promulgated in January 1982.

Executive
Executive power in Honduras is vested in a president, who is elected by direct and universal vote for a four-year term. The president appoints a cabinet that assists in governing.

Legislature
Legislative power in Honduras is vested in the unicameral Congress, the 128 members of which are popularly elected.

Political Parties
The two strongest parties are the rightist National party and the Liberal party, which is divided into bitterly opposed factions. Smaller groups include the centrist Innovation and Unity party and the Christian Democratic party.

Local Government
Honduras is divided into 18 departments, which are subdivided into municipalities. Each department is administered by a governor appointed by the president. Municipalities are governed by elected councils.

Judiciary
The supreme court is composed of nine judges elected by Congress for four-year terms. The judiciary also includes courts of appeal, courts of first instance, and local judges.

Health and Welfare
In recent years public health services in Honduras have been made more accessible through an increase in mobile health units and through the development of community participation in health programs. Effective programs have resulted in malaria control, improved sewerage, and increased medical personnel. Malnutrition, inadequate housing, and infant diseases are still widespread. In the late 1980s the estimated life expectancy at birth was 67 years for women and 63 for men; the infant mortality rate was 64 per 1000 live births.
The constitution provides social security programs for workers and their families. Funds are collected from employers, employees, and the government. Only a small part of the labor force participates in the program.

Defense
The period of conscription is 24 months. The armed forces comprise an army, a navy, and an air force, with a combined membership of about 19,200.

History
Western Honduras was at the southeastern edge of the great Maya civilization during the 1st millennium AD, and the ruins at Copán attest to the advanced stage of the country's population. The Maya, however, were already in decline by the time Christopher Columbus reached their shores on his fourth voyage in 1502. Several non-Maya tribes also inhabited the Caribbean coastal region. The native population was decimated by the Spanish conquest and by the European diseases it introduced, but the number of Spanish settlers was small and included few women. Race mixture followed rapidly therefore, and mestizos became Honduras's dominant ethnic group.

The Colonial Period
The conquest of Honduras began in 1524 and was characterized by bitter struggles among rivals representing Spanish power centers in Mexico, Panama, and Hispaniola. Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, went to Honduras in 1525 to establish a firm claim, but the discovery of gold in the country made it a center of intrigue and conflict for several years. Cortés's lieutenant in Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, finally overcame all challengers in 1539. Comayagua, established in 1540, served as the capital during most of the colonial period, although an early mining boom around Gracias gave the town such importance that in 1544 it became the capital for the Audiencia de las Confines, which encompassed all of Central America from Tabasco, Mexico, through Panama. The gold and silver deposits were more limited than originally believed, however, and Honduras lost its early importance; the Audiencia capital was restored to Guatemala in 1549.
Flurries of mining activity around Tegucigalpa encouraged that town also to challenge Comayagua, especially in the late colonial period, creating a rivalry that would grow in intensity after independence. For the most part, however, colonial Honduras was a sparsely populated province of the kingdom of Guatemala (in the viceroyalty of New Spain), with most of its population dedicated to subsistence agriculture or ranching. By the end of the colonial period Honduras was an important supplier of foodstuffs and livestock to the indigo-exporting regions of El Salvador and Guatemala.

Development After Independence
Following independence from Spain in 1821 and from Mexico in 1823, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America. A Honduran, Francisco Morazan, led liberal forces to victory in a bloody civil war between 1827 and 1829 and was president of the federation for its last ten years. Two years before his downfall in 1840, Honduras declared its independence; however, stronger neighbors, especially Guatemala, exercised great influence in Honduran politics throughout the 19th century. From 1840 to the 1870s the republic was frequently ruled by conservative dictatorships, notably those of Francisco Ferrera, Juan Lindo, and Santos Guardiola. Elections meant little, and revolutions were frequent.
Liberal dictators, beginning with Marcos A. Soto in 1876, dominated the state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they began to emphasize modernization and exports. The transfer of the capital from conservative Comayagua to liberal Tegucigalpa reflected both the triumph of the liberals and the renewed emphasis on mining, which the government stimulated by attracting foreign investment. U.S. mining companies played a major role in late 19th-century Honduran economic growth, although Honduras remained the least developed state in Central America.
In the 20th century U.S. fruit companies—United, Standard, and Cuyamel—rapidly made bananas the principal export of the country, as they competed ruthlessly for favorable concessions from the liberal governments. United Fruit purchased Cuyamel in 1929, but the fiercely competitive founder of Cuyamel, Samuel Zemurray, soon emerged as the head of the giant United. The fruit companies gave Honduras a major export commodity, developed its Caribbean ports, and contributed, indirectly, to the growth of San Pedro Sula as the major population center on the entire Central American Caribbean plain, even though they contributed little to the general development of the country. Most of Honduras remained backward, illiterate, and underpopulated.

Honduras in Modern Central America
The relatively benign dictatorship (1932-1948) of Tiburcio Carías ended the political disorder that had long characterized Honduran politics. After 1948 the military and landholding elite came to dominate the country, resisting modernization of political, social, or economic structures. Then a liberal, Ramón Villeda Morales, was elected by a constituent assembly in 1957; he led the country into the Central American Common Market (CACM) and initiated programs for agrarian reform and education. His policies, combined with apprehension over the rise of communism in Cuba, brought about a coup led by Colonel Osvaldo López Arellano in 1963.
López held the reins of government for 11 of the next 12 years. The fragile Honduran economy was further weakened during his regime by a brief but costly war with El Salvador in 1969 over heavy immigration from that densely populated nation. The final blow for Lopez was the exposure in 1974 of a $250,000 bribe paid to government officials by United Brands (successor to United Fruit). The armed forces helped Colonel Juan Alberto Melgar Castro take power in 1975, but three years later he was ousted in another coup, led by General Policarpo Paz García.
The central problem for Honduras in the late 1970s and the 1980s was political instability in neighboring countries. In 1980 General Paz signed a peace treaty with El Salvador, and there was progress toward constitutional government. In elections held in November 1981, the Liberal party candidate, Roberto Suazo Córdova, won the presidency, but the military retained considerable influence. Honduras became a base for thousands of guerrillas fighting the Nicaraguan government, and the United States began holding regular military exercises in an effort to put additional pressure on the Sandinista government. In 1985 José Azcona Hoyo, a civilian, was elected president; he was succeeded by Rafael Leonardo Callejas, the winner of the 1989 presidential election. His administration was beset by strikes as it struggled with a desperate economic situation. Carlos Roberto Reina, a longtime human rights and political activist, won November 1993 elections over Callejas. Reina promised to institute economic reforms and exert civilian control over the army.