HONDURAS

Diplomatic links
Filed October 16, 1998

THE HONDURAN Congress asked the foreign ministry to consider the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. According to the motion introduced by the party for democratic unity, there are conditions for the re-establishment of diplomatic links between Honduras and Cuba. These countries sustain a growing cooperation in the trade, health care and sports spheres.

Money laundering flourishing
Filed July 17, 1998

ACCORDING to government authorities, drug money laundering operations are carrying out a prosperous, constantly busy trade in Honduras. The government recently admitted that the illicit cash flow is being done openly in the small, poverty-stricken Central American nation.

"Money laundering is going on in full view of the authorities," said Vice President Gladys Cabellero.

Evidence of the illegal laundering is everywhere. Attorney General Edmundo Orellana said that the poor nation had the "fanciest cars in all Central America", and pointed out that many people who were bankrupt five years ago now are economically fit enough to engage in constructing buildings. Cabellero added that such citizens are now "competing" over who could build the biggest structure, buy the snazziest car and throw the most lavish parties.

In recent years Honduras, like its Central American counterparts, has become a transit point for smuggling cocaine from Columbia to the United States. US drug agencies estimate that every year US$300 million in drug money is laundered.


Church group kill three attackers
Filed July 3, 1998

ABOUT 60 people attending an evangelical gathering used machetes to kill three men they believed were planning to rob them and rape women, authorities said. A fourth man escaped.

Police said the four men disrupted the gathering in Calderas, a poor farming village of 300 people, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) north of Tegucigalpa, the capital. The men fired shots in the air and wounded the pastor's brother in the abdomen.

The men tried to flee after they ran out of ammunition, but the crowd caught up with them and killed them with machete blows, police said. The men were identified as Francisco Contreras, 26, Benito Cruz, 24, and his brother Selvin, 28.

Police are looking for the fourth man, who was believed to have escaped unharmed.

None of the evangelicals were arrested. Police say the investigation is continuing. (A.P)

copyright© CWI 1998