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Onyx Secures Financing for Solar Project on Roatán

Business Wire
Onyx Service & Solutions Inc.'s project team are heading back to Roatán, Honduras for meetings with the investors and law firm that are in the process of forming the financial cooperative to fund and operate the island's proposed 22-megawatt solar power project. On October 7, Onyx, based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, signed a letter of intent with BPRE, a Honduran company, to construct a new 18.5-megawatt solar power project on the island of Roatán. Shortly thereafter, BPRE executed a change order increasing the project to 22 megawatts.

DFI Partners with Grupo Alucom‎

Honduras Weekly
Diamon-Fusion International, Inc., global developer and exclusive licensor of patented hydrophobic nanotechnologies, announced yesterday the signing of a new distribution agreement with Grupo Alucom, an industrial group based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The agreement between Grupo Alucom and DFI marks a new expansion into Central America and the Caribbean and aims at DFI's core strategy of market consolidation and integration through regional partnerships wherever viable.

Mexico’s “War on Drugs”: Neither Rights Nor Security

Editor's Note: The Lobo government in Honduras is moving to increase the involvement of the Honduran military in efforts to combat organized crime and violent gangs supported largely by Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. It appears to be following the model used by the Mexican government in its war on drugs during the past five years.

Human Rights Watch
Mexico’s military and police have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat organized crime, virtually none of which are being adequately investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a report released last week. The 212-page report “Neither Rights Nor Security: Killings, Torture, and Disappearances in Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’” examines the human rights consequences of President Felipe Calderón’s approach to confronting Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. Through in-depth research in five of Mexico’s most violent states, Human Rights Watch found evidence that strongly suggests the participation of security forces in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 “disappearances,” and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderón took office in December 2006.

Honduras Signs OAS Human Rights Agreements

Ambassador Rosa Bautista said his country "is committed to protecting and defending human rights," and that this commitment "goes beyond the words."

Media Newswire
TThe Permanent Representative of Honduras to the Organization of American States ( OAS ), Ambassador Leonidas Rosa Bautista, today presented to Secretary General José Miguel Insulza his country's instrument of accession to three continental conventions: the Convention to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities; the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty; and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or "Protocol of San Salvador".

Honduras Named Malaria Champion of the Americas

PAHO/WHO
Three organizations from Honduras, Brazil and Nicaragua were honored this week as Malaria Champions of the Americas for their successful efforts to reduce deaths and illnesses from this disease. The winners were presented during an event marking the 5th annual Malaria Day in the Americas, held at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). The top Malaria Champion of the Americas award went to the Honduran program Integrated Management of Malaria in Wampusirpi, department of Gracias a Dios, which succeeded in reducing malaria cases more than 80 percent -- from 337 to 60 -- between June 2010 and June 2011. The program was carried out by the Ministry of Health of Honduras with technical support from PAHO/WHO and in coordination with municipal committees and nongovernmental organizations. It employed interventions including insecticide-treated mosquito nets, identification of mosquito breeding sites, diagnosis and treatment for the population, and an educational campaign.

Quality of Life in Honduras Ranked Last in Latin America

For the first time this year, a non-Western country leads the Economy sub-index, with Singapore claiming 1st place ahead of Norway and Switzerland. The US has fallen behind China for the first time on this measure (US 18th; China 10th).

PRNewswire
Uruguay and Chile lead the Latin American continent in a new study assessing wealth and quality of life in 110 countries worldwide, with Nicaragua and Honduras coming in last in the region. Norway, Denmark, and Australia lead the global rankings. Nicaragua and Honduras have dropped 13 and 8 places respectively since 2009. The Legatum Prosperity Index (TM) provides the world's only global assessment of national prosperity based on both wealth and well-being. The Index assesses 110 countries (accounting for over 93 percent of the world's population and 97 percent of the world's GDP) and ranks them based on their performance in eight sub-indices, including Economy, Governance, Personal Freedom, and Social Capital.

Brazil Will Create Truth and Reconciliation Commission

... the government of Brazil now has the opportunity to acknowledge a painful past and to implement an effective tool to establish the facts about past abuse, to help victims heal and to allow Brazilian society to understand a painful period of their history, therefore preventing recurrent violations.

By Alex Sánchez
The government of Brazil has been making great strides toward securing a prosperous future, but one of its recent actions has centered on resolving a troubling aspect of the country’s past. On October 27, state officials announced a plan to establish a truth and reconciliation commission that will investigate crimes against humanity from 1946 to 1988, which encompasses the period during which the South American giant was run by a military junta. Like other post World War II Latin American nations, Brazil had previously been under military rule, and once President Dilma Rousseff signs the legislation into action, it will become the ninth country in the region to carry forth such a provision of self-scrutiny.

Imagine if Honduras Were Developing a Nuclear Weapon

Honduras Weekly
Speaking during a campaign stop in Palm Beach, Florida, Republican presidential candidate and former US Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum expressed support for a pre-emptive military strike on Iran by Israel. He explained that such a move would be necessary because Iran is to Israel as Honduras is to the United States. According to Mr. Santorium, "If we are in a position where Iran is close to getting a nuclear weapon, then action needs to be taken. It simply can’t be ignored. I mean, imagine this... Imagine if Honduras has been making noise about trying to destroy the United States and that they were developing a nuclear weapon, and we had a report saying they were in a few months of developing a nuclear weapon. Would the United States just sit there knowing that they had made comments that they would destroy our country and they were about to get a nuclear weapon? Would we sit there and allow them to do that? I don’t think any American would let that happen. In fact, the President would be impeached for letting that happen. Well, then what would we say to the state of Israel... that has been threatened to be wiped out?"

US Commando Squad Operating in Honduras

Because the presence of armed Americans on their soil raises sensitivities about sovereignty, some countries that have sought the assistance of the United States will not acknowledge it, and the DEA is reluctant to disclose the details of the commando teams’ deployments.

Honduras Weekly
The New York Times is reporting that the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has deployed five "commando-style squads" in Central America and the Caribbean, including Honduras, to combat drug cartels. Each team consists of 10 specially-trained agents with military experience. The operation is part of the Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team (FAST) program established under President George. W. Bush in response to drug trafficking associated with the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to the article yesterday by Charlie Savage, the Obama administration has expanded FAST "far beyond the war zone".

Perry Stand on College Tuition for Illegal Immigrants Hurts Candidacy

Honduras Weekly
Although it is still too soon to predict a winner among Republican presidential candidates, it is becoming apparent that the race for the Republican nomination is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's to lose. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, conducted between October 31 and November 3, found that 24 percent of Republicans want Mr. Romney to win the nomination, followed by businessman Herman Cain with 23 percent, Texas Governor Rick Perry with 13 percent, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with 12 percent. The other GOP candidates -- Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and former Utah Government Jon Huntsman -- remain in the single digits. Mr. Romney has consistently polled at or near the top of the Republican field, and he now seems to absorbed a strong challenge from Mr. Perry, who was the heavy odds-on favorite to win the nomination when her entered the race in August.

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