Stories written by Thelma Mejía
Thelma Mejía has been working for IPS since 1987, when she started collaborating with the agency on subjects relating to childhood and gender. She took part in the Programa Especial de Cooperación Económica regional project, after which she was promoted to associate correspondent from Honduras. She became a full correspondent in 1994.
Mejía has a degree in journalism and a master’s degree in political and social theory from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Honduras. She has worked as editor in chief of the daily Tegucigalpa-based El Heraldo and as a consultant on issue of governance, information access, political parties and mass media for the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the Centro de Competencias y Comunicación of the Friederich Ebert Foundation and various social organisations from Honduras. She is the author of several articles and of a book on journalism and political pressures. For more than five years, she has been a collaborator on the IPS environmental news service Tierramérica.
Honduras was allowed back into the OAS even though it never tried those responsible for the June 2009 coup that ousted then president Manuel Zelaya. But the international criticism and pressure for justice and action on human rights has not let up.
After his return to Honduras put an end to two years of exile, former President Manuel Zelaya said the coup in which he was removed on Jun. 28, 2009 was the work of an "international conspiracy" that should be investigated.
Reasserting effective civilian control over the Honduran armed forces, after a coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009, will require constitutional reform and a greater grasp by society on defence issues.
The United States appears to be strengthening its anti-drug strategy in Central America, whose focus in the case of Honduras will include military operations with troops from both countries, to begin in the jungle region of Mosquitia on the Atlantic coast.
The murder of Henry Suazo, a correspondent for a radio station based in the capital, brought this year's death toll for reporters in Honduras to 10, and made this Central American nation the second most dangerous country for journalists in Latin America, after Mexico.
Honduras must answer to the United Nations Human Rights Council this week with respect to the numerous complaints of human rights violations committed before, during and after the Jun. 28, 2009 coup d'état that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.
Fears of becoming a narco-state have prompted Honduras to refocus its anti-drug strategy, in order to block the infiltration of Mexican drug cartels, which are moving southward into Central America, experts told IPS.
All too aware of the Honduran public health system's shortcomings and the great vulnerability of the country's poorest people, women who have beaten breast cancer are stepping up to share their experiences and knowledge in an effort to save more lives.
The cause of dialogue and reconciliation in Honduras has received a boost from visits by two United Nations delegations, here to test the waters in preparation for talks to resolve political and social conflicts triggered by the coup that ousted former president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009.
The de facto veto power that the military exercised with the toppling of president Manuel Zelaya exactly one year ago today effectively blocks any possible political or electoral reforms, experts say.
Seven years ago, in the isolated Honduran region of Mosquitia, on the Caribbean coast, a group of women, mostly single mothers, elderly or widowed, overcame their fear and timidity -- thanks in part to a waste recycling project.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which form the so-called Central American Northern Triangle, have many weak points when it comes to natural disasters. The were exposed once again this week by tropical storm Agatha, which claimed nearly 200 lives and left millions of dollars in infrastructural damage.
On a fact-finding mission to Honduras this week, an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) delegation took aim at the dismissal of several judges who expressed their opposition to the Jun. 28 ouster of president Manuel Zelaya.
In his first one hundred days in office, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo has lobbied hard for international recognition of his government, in order to pull the country out of the isolation it has faced since the Jun. 28, 2009 coup that overthrew Manuel Zelaya.
With a warning by its members that it will not be a "decorative" body dedicated to merely "collecting stories about what happened," the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in Honduras to investigate events surrounding the June 2009 coup that overthrew the government of Manuel Zelaya began to operate Tuesday.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo plans to seek help from police forces in Colombia and the United States to try to solve the murders of seven journalists committed in the space of less than two months, which will also be investigated by a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights next month.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate the June 2009 coup that ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya will begin its work in May under the sceptical watch of a wide range of observers, from human rights organisations to right-wing political sectors.
Reporters in Honduras have long complained about gag laws, threats, exile and attacks. But never before have so many journalists been killed in one month.
Less than a month into his term, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is facing street protests, complaints of human rights violations, and criticism of the truth commission he set up to investigate the Jun. 28 coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.
The effects of climate change in Honduras have a local accomplice. Not only are forests suffering from global warming; they are also the victim of illegal logging.