Fact sheet

• Population: 9,346,277 (July 2021 est.)
• Capital: Tegucigalpa 
• System of Governance: Presidential Republic
• President: Juan Orlando Hernández
• Majority Language: Spanish
• Majority Religion: Roman Catholic
• GDP Per Capita: $2,574.912
• Global Freedom Score: 44

Brief History with the U.S.

The U.S. established diplomatic relations with Honduras as early as 1853; however, it was not until the 1980s that Honduras became a critical ally for U.S. policy in Central America. Honduras was encircled by two countries swept by civil wars. Nicaragua, Honduras’ southern neighbor, entered into a violent revolution between the revolutionary Sandinistas and the dictator Antonio Somoza. Similarly, in the southwest, El Salvador experienced clashes between the revolutionary Martí Front for National Liberation, also known as Frente Martí para la Liberación Nacional in Spanish (FMLN), and the U.S.-backed government. As Roberto Suazo Córdova, an outspoken anticommunist, assumed the Honduran presidency, the country became a strategic ally for U.S. policy in Central America. It was in Honduras’ territory where the U.S. trained “the Contra” forces (guerilla fighters), who attempted to oust the left-wing Sandinista government, as well as Salvadoran forces in their effort to dissolve the FMLN insurgency. In 1983, the U.S. military unit known as the Joint Task Force Bravo settled in Honduras, which played a critical role for U.S. counterinsurgency activity during the Cold War. Eventually, this model of military coordination was interrupted in the late 1980s, when Costa Rica mediated peace talks that aimed to quell the armed conflict in Central America by restricting Contra activity and reducing U.S. presence in Honduras. 

Historically, migration has been a defining feature of the United States’ relationship with Honduras. The migratory flows from Honduras that the United States has witnessed recently can be traced back to 1998, when Hurricane Mitch, one of the worst storms to ever strike the Western Hemisphere, resulted in more than 11,000 deaths and displaced 1.1 million people in Central America, with Honduras at the forefront of the devastation. The U.S. government responded in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch by increasing development aid and establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans. Today more than 79,000 Hondurans are TSP holders. The widespread poverty and devastation occasioned by Hurricane Mitch and staggering levels of gang violence have pushed Hondurans to migrate to the U.S.. In 1996, after a change in immigration law, the U.S. exported street gangs to Central America causing gang violence in Honduras to increase. From 1995 to 2010, crime rates nearly tripled. In 2012, Honduras broke records and led the world with the highest crime rate. In that year, 90 people were murdered for every 100,000 inhabitants. 

Since the onset of the twenty-first century, the U.S. has pursued ambitious efforts to promote stability in Honduras, hoping to prevent migration. Honduras was one of the first countries to join the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provided the government with $215 million in aid to support economic development. A year later, Honduras entered the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Both of these initiatives were designed and funded by the U.S. government as part of a strategy to address migration by promoting economic development and stability. 

U.S. relations with Honduras were strained during the country’s severe political crisis in 2009. The two parties backed a military coup, in which former President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly sent into exile in Costa Rica after he attempted to revise the constitution to allow him to run for a second term. The United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS)  were quick to denounce the military coup and demanded the return of Zelaya to power; however, the U.S. State Department opted for calling for new elections and refrained from using the word “coup,” ultimately weakening trust in the bilateral relationship. Since 2014, President Juan Orlando Hernández has been leading the country. In 2017, the U.S. government controversially sided with Hernández once again and backed his re-election, despite the opposition from the OAS electoral observers and some members of the U.S. Congress, who declared the election to be fraudulent. In exchange, Honduras has remained on board with contentious U.S. foreign policy positions, such as the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to East Jerusalem. The steady support the U.S. government continues to provide to the Hernández presidency, despite the disputed election, as well as credible accusations of corruption and drug trafficking, has undermined the credibility of the U.S.-backed initiatives in Honduras.

More recently, the Hernández administration has been challenged by slow economic growth, high rates of crime, and rising migration. Recent U.S. efforts to reduce migration, tackle local crime, and promote development in Honduras include CARSI (The Central America Regional Security Initiative), the Strategy for Central America Engagement, and the Alliance for Prosperity. More recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development has invested $8.9 million dollars in assistance to respond to health, educational, and economic effects of the pandemic. There is disagreement over how successful U.S. aid has been, and U.S. development agencies have been accused of failing to provide “meaningful metrics to measure progress.” 

Strategic Interests:

• Trade: The total amount of trade between the two countries amounted to $10.3 billion dollars. The U.S. is Honduras’ main trading partner and has run a trade surplus with Honduras since 2007.
• Anti-corruption and governance: The National Anti-Corruption Council, a recipient of aid from USAID, estimates that corruption during the Hernández administration has cost Honduras $10.5 billion—nearly the government’s annual budget. President Hernández cooperated with the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) in the creation of the Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras or MACCIH, as it is known from its initials in Spanish. This anti-impunity commission was modeled after Guatemala’s CICIG but with a much weaker structure. Still, the MACCIH managed to bring charges against 360 politicians, including President Hernández. Threatened with conviction, many members of the Honduran Congress passed a law that blocked anti-impunity efforts, which effectively overturned the charges in October of 2019. In 2020, President Hernández decided not to renew the MACCIH’s mandate, bringing about the commission’s collapse in January 2020. 
• Drug-trafficking: Honduras is a major transit country for illicit drugs. In 2016, roughly 53% of South American cocaine bound for the U.S. was shipped through Honduras. Honduras has willingly cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the establishment of anti-narcotic units and has supported aerial interdictions conducted by the U.S. Additionally, since Honduras signed an extradition agreement with the U.S., the Department of Justice has brought at least 25 Honduran narco-traffickers to justice, including President Hernández’s brother, who was accused of “state-sponsored drug trafficking” for allegedly working with Mexican, Colombian, and Honduran cartels. 
• Military cooperation: Today, the Joint Task Force Bravo in Honduras remains crucial for U.S. intelligence operations in Central America. It is comprised of 500 U.S. military officers and more than 500 American and Honduran civilians. Current operations focus primarily on disrupting drug trafficking, preventing gang violence, providing disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, and monitoring military operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Security: USAID has designed local programs that focus on crime prevention. According to recent assessments, communities where USAID implemented these programs reported 43% fewer murders.  
• Migration management: In 2018, a caravan of Honduran migrants caught the world’s attention. It became a symbol for the massive migration waves that would follow. In 2019, for example, apprehensions of Hondurans along the U.S. border reached a record high, representing 3 percent of Honduras’ population. The U.S. government has made the reduction of migration from Honduras one of its top priorities, particularly during the Trump Administration, which suspended development aid and demanded that Honduras deter its citizens from traveling to the U.S.. Hernández’s government signed a “Safe Third Country Agreement,” which the Biden administration rescinded. President Biden has resumed disbursing development aid but has upheld the deterrence approach in Honduras. 
• Human Rights: The U.S. government has emphasized human rights promotion in Honduras since the 1980s, though some analysts argue that this goal has been subordinated to U.S. military interests. More recently, the U.S. has allocated an average of $6 million per year to the defense of human rights in Honduras, emphasizing the protection of human rights defenders, environmental activists, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.