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.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Police Implicated in Murders of Minors

By Thelma Mejía
The Honduran police are suspected of carrying out execution-style murders of alleged gang members, the photos of whose tortured corpses have lately covered the title pages of local newspapers.

POLITICS-HONDURAS: US Military Aid Targets Anti-Drug Fight

By Thelma Mejía
The United States revised its co- operation with the Honduran armed forces to focus on the anti-drug fight, natural disaster prevention and environmental protection.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Army Base Surrounded by Talk of Drugs, Torture

By Thelma Mejía
The El Aguacate military base is once again in the headlines in Honduras, due to revelations that its airstrip is used for drug trafficking, and that officers forced local farmers to fork out 3,000 dollars to use their own land in the 1980s.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: US Priest Allegedly Buried at Military Base

By Thelma Mejía
The body of U.S. priest Guadelupe Carney, who disappeared in Honduras in 1987, is at a military base, but his head was buried at the headquarters of the Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged a rural leader.

DEVELOPMENT-HONDURAS: Politics Overshadow Reconstruction

By Thelma Mejía
Representatives of civil society in Honduras complained that an unusually early pre-election campaign seemed to be pushing the reconstruction and development programme agreed with donors to the backburner.

HONDURAS: Democracy Still in Jeopardy, Activists Warn

By Thelma Mejía
Democracy in Honduras remains in jeopardy after the latest military crisis, because sectors of the armed forces "are resisting change," warned the president of the non-governmental Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CODEH), Ramon Custodio.

POLITICS-HONDURAS: Military Power an Unresolved Question

By Thelma Mejía
The future of the Honduran armed forces is uncertain after last Friday's coup attempt against president Carlos Flores, who was alerted by counter-intelligence services in time to prevent a military takeover.

HONDURAS: Democracy Still in Jeopardy, Activists Warn

By Thelma Mejía
Democracy in Honduras remains in jeopardy after the latest military crisis, because sectors of the armed forces "are resisting change," warned the president of the non-governmental Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CODEH), Ramon Custodio.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/HONDURAS: Pre-Colombian Site Found Among Rubble

By Thelma Mejía
Residents of Morolica were preparing to rebuild their city - destroyed by Hurricane Mitch late last year - when they discovered a surprise: artifacts from an era prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.

ENERGY-HONDURAS: Let There be Light

By Thelma Mejía
For the first time in their lives the 843 residents of this remote southern village are enjoying the benefits of electricity, brought to them through a solar power project operated by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

ENERGY-HONDURAS: Let There be Light

By Thelma Mejía
For the first time in a Mejia

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Civilian Defence Minister Says the Party’s Over

By Thelma Mejía
The first civilian defence minister in the history of Honduras, Edgardo Dumas, said that in the five months he had been in his post, many things had changed among the armed forces, which were used to "a culture of fear, rather than respect and dialogue.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Civilian Defence Minister Says the Party’s Over

By Thelma Mejía
The first civilian defence minister in the history of Honduras, Edgardo Dumas, said that in the five months he had been in his post, many things had changed among the armed forces, which were used to "a culture of fear, rather than respect and dialogue.

DEVELOPMENT: 9 Billion Dollars for Central American Reconstruction

By Thelma Mejía
International donor nations have pledged 9 billion US dollars to repair the devastation in Central America caused by Hurricane Mitch last October.

ECONOMY: No Transparency, No Aid for Central America, Donors Warn

By Thelma Mejía
Donors meeting in the Swedish capital conditioned their aid to hurricane-ravaged Central America Tuesday on a minimum level of transparency, participation by civil society and the decentralised management of funds.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Courts Order Arrest of Former Armed Forces Chief

By Thelma Mejía
A Honduran court ordered Tuesday the arrest of former armed forces chief Gen. Mario Hung Pacheco (1994- 98) on charges of illegally authorising a private security agency allegedly linked to the drug trade.

RIGHTS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Innovative Program for Community Education

By Thelma Mejía
Approximately 105,000 boys and girls in rural Honduras will benefit from a community preschool education project launched this year by the Government and the World Bank.

ENVIRONMENT-HONDURAS: Probe into Mismanagement of Forests

By Thelma Mejía
Irregularities in the administration of forestry conservation projects, which led to the cutting off of U.S. funds, will be investigated by the Honduran Environmental Prosecutors and Comptroller-General's offices.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Functions of Human Rights Commission Restored

By Thelma Mejía
The Honduran parliament lifted the restrictions slapped on the government's Human Rights Commission, which had drawn an outcry from the international community and civil society last week.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Limits on Human Rights Commissioner to Be Lifted

By Thelma Mejía
The Honduran government announced Friday, in the wake of an international outcry, that the restrictions slapped on the governmental Human Rights Commissioner earlier this week would be lifted.

RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Parliament Limits Powers of Gov’t Commission

By Thelma Mejía
The Honduran parliament restricted the powers of the National Human Rights Commission, three weeks after the government body denounced corruption in the management of international aid for the survivors of hurricane Mitch.
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