- published: 13 Aug 2012
- views: 18410
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
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- 13th parallel north
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Andorra
Andorra (
i/ænˈdɔrə/; Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈdorə], locally: [anˈdɔra]), officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, (Catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra), is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of 468 km2 (181 sq mi) and an estimated population of 84,082 in 2009. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 ft) above sea level. The official language is Catalan, although Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken.
The Principality was formed in 1278. The role of monarch is exercised jointly by the two co-princes, the Catalan Bishop of Urgell and the President of France (the whole state is a part of Diocese of Urgell).
Andorra is a prosperous country mainly because of its tourism industry, which services an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually, and also because of its status as a tax haven. It is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the de facto currency. The people of Andorra have the 4th highest human life expectancy in the world — 82 years at birth.
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Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República de Angola, pronounced: [ʁɨˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈɡɔla];Kikongo, Kimbundu, Umbundu: Repubilika ya Ngola), is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference (1884) was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has on average grown at a two-digit pace since the 1990s, especially since the end of the civil war. In spite of this, standards of living remain low for the majority of the population, and life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Angola are among the worst-ranked in the world. At the same time, a minority has reached comfortable life standards, and the dominant stratum has succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth, so that social inequality in Angola is one of the highest in the world.
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Anguilla
Anguilla (
/æŋˈɡwɪlə/ ang-GWIL-ə) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 26 km (16 mi) long by 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 91 km2 (35 sq mi), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).
Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations.
Anguilla was first settled by Amerindian tribes who migrated from South America. The earliest Amerindian artifacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, and remains of settlements date from 600 AD. The date of European discovery is uncertain: some sources claim that Columbus sighted the island in 1493, while others state that the island was first discovered by the French in 1564 or 1565. The name Anguilla derives from the word for "eel" in any of various Romance languages (modern Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla; Portuguese: enguia), probably chosen because of the island's eel-like shape.
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Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (i/ænˈtiːɡə ænd bɑrˈbjuːdə/; Spanish for "ancient" and "bearded") is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population number approximately 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua.
Separated by a few nautical miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 17 degrees north of the Equator. The country is nicknamed "Land of 365 Beaches" due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been strongly influenced by the British Empire, of which the country was formerly a part.
Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney.Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.
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Argentina
Argentinai/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.
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Aruba
Aruba ( /əˈruːbə/ ə-ROO-bə, Dutch pronunciation: [aˈruba]) is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km (approx.) east of Guajira Peninsula (Colombia). Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles.
Aruba is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, together with the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten whose citizens share a single nationality: Dutch citizen. Aruba has no administrative subdivisions, but for census purposes is divided into 8 regions. Its capital is Oranjestad. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has a land area of 179 square kilometres (69 sq mi) and is densely populated with a total of 101,484 inhabitants at the 2010 Census. It lies outside the hurricane belt. It is also home to the endemic Aruba Island Rattlesnake.
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Barbados
Coordinates: 13°10′N 59°33′W / 13.167°N 59.55°W / 13.167; -59.55
Barbados (i/bɑrˈbeɪdɒs/ or /bɑrˈbeɪdoʊs/) is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is 34 kilometres (21 mi) in length and up to 23 kilometres (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi). It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about 168 kilometres (104 mi) east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.
Barbados was initially visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s and first appears on a Spanish map from 1511. The Spanish explorers may have plundered the island of whatever native peoples resided therein to become slaves. The Portuguese visited in 1536, but they too left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1624. They took possession of it in the name of the British king James I. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.
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Belize
Belizei/bəˈliːz/ (formerly British Honduras) is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America and it is the only country in the area where English is the official language, although Kriol and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and 110 kilometres (68 mi) wide.
With 22,960 square kilometres (8,860 sq mi) of land and a population of only 333,200 inhabitants (2010 est.), Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 2.21% (2008 est.), however, is the highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages and it is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage but as a part of the Western Caribbean Zone, it also shares a common heritage with the Caribbean portions of other Central American countries. In general, Belize is considered to be a Central American nation with strong ties to both the Caribbean and Latin America. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA).
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Bermuda
Bermuda ( /bɜrˈmjuːdə/), officially the Bermudas or Somers Islands, is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) to the west-northwest. It is about 1,373 kilometres (853 mi) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia and 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast of Miami, Florida, USA. Its capital city is Hamilton.
Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez, after whom the islands are named. Apparently uninhabited, he claimed them for the Spanish Empire. Although he paid two visits to the archipelago, Bermúdez was persuaded never to set foot on any of the islands by the dangerous reef surrounding them. Subsequent Spanish or other visitors are believed to have released the feral pigs that were abundant on the island when settlement began. In 1609, the Virginia Company, which had established Virginia and Jamestown on the American continent two years earlier, established a settlement on behalf of the English colonial empire. Initially, it was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614, before its successor, the Somers Isles Company, took over until 1684. Bermuda then became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the unified Kingdom of Great Britain. After Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, Bermuda became the oldest (and, since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the most populous) remaining British overseas territory. Its first capital, St George's, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas.
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Bolivia
Coordinates: 16°42′43″S 64°39′58″W / 16.712°S 64.666°W / -16.712; -64.666 Bolivia (i/bəˈlɪviə/, Spanish: [boliˈβja]) officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Quechua: Bulivya Mamallaqta, Aymara: Wuliwya Suyu), is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west.
Prior to European colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was a part of the Inca Empire – the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century. During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called Upper Peru and was under the administration of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included most of Spain's South American colonies. After declaring independence in 1809, 16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825. Bolivia has struggled through periods of political instability, dictatorships and economic woes.
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Bonaire
Bonaire ( /bɒˈnɛər/; Dutch: Bonaire, Papiamentu: Boneiru) is a special municipality (officially public body) of the Netherlands, consisting of the Caribbean island of Bonaire and, nestled in its western crescent, the uninhabited islet of Klein Bonaire. Together with Aruba and Curaçao it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles. The name Bonaire is thought to have originally come from the Caiquetio word 'Bonay'. The early Spanish and Dutch modified its spelling to Bojnaj and also Bonaire, which means "Good Air".
Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the country's dissolution on 10 October 2010, when the island (including Klein Bonaire) became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands.
Bonaire's earliest known inhabitants were the Caquetio Indians, a branch of the Arawak who came by canoe from Venezuela in about AD 1000. Archeological remains of Caquetio culture have been found at certain sites northeast of Kralendijk and near Lac Bay. Caquetio rock paintings and petroglyphs have been preserved in caves at Spelonk, Onima, Ceru Pungi, and Ceru Crita-Cabai. The Caquetios were apparently a very tall people, for the Spanish name for the ABC Islands was 'las Islas de los Gigantes' or 'the islands of the giants.'
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Brazil
Brazili/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
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British Honduras
British Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.
First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became fully independent from the United Kingdom in 1981. Belize was the last continental possession of the United Kingdom in the Americas.
The Treaty of Versailles (1783) between Britain and Spain, gave the British rights to cut logwood between the Hondo and Belize rivers. In 1862, the Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras was declared a British colony called British Honduras, and the crown's representative was elevated to a lieutenant governor, subordinate to the governor of Jamaica.
As the British consolidated their settlement and pushed deeper into the interior in search of mahogany in the late 18th century, they encountered resistance from the Maya. In the second half of the 19th century, however, a combination of events outside and inside the colony redefined the position of the Maya.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Cape Verde
Cape Verdei/ˌkeɪp ˈvɜrd/ (Portuguese: Cabo Verde, pronounced: [ˈkabu ˈveɾdɨ]), officially the Republic of Cape Verde, is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. However, because of the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green.
The name of the country stems from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast, which in its turn was originally named "Cabo Verde" when it was sighted by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before the islands were discovered (verde is Portuguese for "green").
The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th Century, and became important in the Atlantic slave trade for their location. The islands' prosperity often attracted privateers and pirates, including Sir Francis Drake, a corsair (privateer) under the authority of the British crown, who twice sacked the (then) capital Ribeira Grande, in the 1580s. The islands were also visited by Charles Darwin's expedition in 1832. The decline in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis for the islands. With few natural resources, and without strong sustainable investment from the Portuguese, the citizens grew increasingly discontent with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. This discontent festered and culminated in 1975, when a movement originally led by Amílcar Cabral who was assassinated on 20 January 1973 then passed onto his half-brother Luís Cabral, achieved independence for the archipelago.
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Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles.
The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the numerous islands of the West Indies, and adjacent coasts, are collectively known as the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest salt water seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km² (1,063,000 sq. mi.). The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m (25,220 ft) below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays: the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria and Gulf of Honduras.
The name "Caribbean" is derived from the Caribs, one of the dominant American Indian groups in the region at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. After the discovery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Spanish term Antillas was assigned to the lands; stemming from this, "Sea of the Antilles" is a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages. During the first century of development, the Spanish dominance was undisputed.
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Chile
Chile (i/ˈtʃɪliː/ or /ˈtʃɪleɪ/), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] (
listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Along with Ecuador, it is one of two countries in South America that do not border Brazil. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Easter Island. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.
Chile's distinctive shape—4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long and on average 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide—makes it the longest country in the world, north to south, with the fifth lengthiest coastline at over 78 thousand kilometers. The diverse climate of Chile ranges from the world's driest desert in the north—the Atacama—through a Mediterranean climate in the centre, humid subtropical in Easter Island, to an Oceanic climate, including alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and south. The northern desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.
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Coco River
The Río Coco, formerly known as the Río Segovia, Cape River, or Yara River, is a river in southern Honduras and northern Nicaragua. To the Miskito Indians that live along the river it is known as the Wanki or Wanks River. The river originates near San Marcos de Colón in Honduras, and flows 750 kilometers, the middle and lower reaches forming the Honduras-Nicaragua border and flows into the Caribbean Sea.
On September 7, 2007, major international news wires reported that the Río Coco was over 11 meters above normal stage, two days after category 5 Hurricane Felix made landfall.
Coordinates: 15°00′N 83°10′W / 15°N 83.167°W / 15; -83.167
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Colombia
Colombia (
/kəˈlʌmbiə/ kə-LUM-biə, or /kəˈlɒmbiə/ kə-LOM-biə), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia has maritime borders with Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, with the fourth largest economy in Latin America, and the third largest in South America. Colombia is famous for the production of coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. All of these products make up the primary sector of economy.
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Comayagua
Comayagua (Spanish pronunciation: [komaˈʝaɣwa]) is a city in Honduras, some 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Tegucigalpa on the highway to San Pedro Sula at an elevation of 1,949 feet (594 m) above sea level. In 2003 the estimated population was 60,000 people. It is the capital of the Comayagua department of Honduras. The city is noted for its wealth of Spanish Colonial architecture. The central square has a cathedral with the oldest clock in the Americas.[citation needed]
Comayagua was founded with the name Santa María de la Nueva Valladolid by Conquistador Alonso de Cáceres under orders from Francisco de Montejo, Governor of Yucatán on December 8, 1537. From 1540 on Comayagua was the capital of the Honduras Province of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. In 1786 (23 December) the Spanish Crown created the Intendencia of Comayagua, with Comayagua as its capital, which lasted until 1812. From 1812 to 1814 it was the capital of the Province of Comayagua when it again reverted to being the capital of the Intendencia of Comayagua until 1820. In 1820, Honduras was again called the Province of Comayagua or Honduras, with Comayagua as its capital. After independence from the Spanish it was the capital of the state of Honduras in the Federal Republic of Central America. After Honduras became an independent republic, the capital alternated between Comayagua and Tegucigalpa (Comayagua being preferred by Conservative administrations, and Tegucigalpa by Liberal ones) before being permanently established at Tegucigalpa in 1880.
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Copán
Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. It was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. The city was located in the extreme southeast of the Mesoamerican cultural region, on the frontier with the Isthmo-Colombian cultural region, and was almost surrounded by non-Maya peoples. In this fertile valley now lies a city of about 3000, a small airport, and a winding road.
Copán was occupied for more than two thousand years, from the Early Preclassic period right through to the Postclassic. The city developed a distinctive sculptural style within the tradition of the lowland Maya, perhaps to emphasize the Maya ethnicity of the city's rulers.
The city has a historical record that spans the greater part of the Classic period and has been reconstructed in detail by archaeologists and epigraphers. Copán, probably called Oxwitik by the Maya, was a powerful city ruling a vast kingdom within the southern Maya area. The city suffered a major political disaster in AD 738 when Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, one of the greatest kings in Copán's dynastic history, was captured and executed by his former vassal, the king of Quiriguá. This unexpected defeat resulted in a 17-year hiatus at the city, during which time Copán may have been subject to Quiriguá in a reversal of fortunes.
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Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Costa Rica, which means "Rich Coast", constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949. It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the world's 22 older democracies. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranked 69th in the world in 2011. Also was cited by the UNDP in 2010 as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, and in 2011 was highlighted by UNDP for being a good performer on environmental sustainability, and better record on human development and inequality than the median of their region. It was also the only country to meet all five criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. The country is ranked fifth in the world, and first among the Americas, in terms of the 2012 Environmental Performance Index.
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Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.
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Curaçao
Curaçao (Dutch: Curaçao;Papiamentu: Kòrsou) is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao (Dutch: Land Curaçao, Papiamentu: Pais Kòrsou), which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao"), is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its capital is Willemstad.
Curaçao is the largest and most populous of the three ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles. It has a land area of 444 square kilometres (171 square miles). As of 1 January 2009, it had a population of 141,766.
Prior to 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved, Curaçao was administered as the Island Territory of Curaçao (Dutch: Eilandgebied Curaçao, Papiamentu: Teritorio Insular di Kòrsou), one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles. The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code CUW and the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code CW has been assigned to Curaçao.
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Dominica
Dominica ( /ˌdɒmɪˈniːkə/ DOM-i-NEE-kə;French: Dominique; Kali‘na (Carib): Wai‘tu kubuli), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of 1,447 metres (4,747 ft). The Commonwealth of Dominica had a population of 71,293 at the 2011 Census. The capital is Roseau.
Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. The island features lush mountainous rainforests, home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall can be expected inland. The Sisserou Parrot (also known as the Imperial Amazon), the island's national bird, is featured on the national flag. Dominica's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, agriculture and heavy taxation.
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Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic (i/dəˌmɪnɨkən rɨˈpʌblɪk/; Spanish: República Dominicana [reˈpuβlika ðominiˈkana]) is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries. Both by area and population, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with 48,442 square kilometres (18,704 sq mi) and an estimated 10 million people.
Taínos inhabited what is now the Dominican Republic since the 7th century. Christopher Columbus landed on it in 1492, and it became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, namely Santo Domingo, the country's capital and Spain's first capital in the New World. Santo Domingo can boast of many firsts in the Americas, including the first cathedral, and castle, both in the Ciudad Colonial area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (tiˈmɔr ˈlɛʃteɪ), commonly known as East Timori/ˌiːst ˈtiːmɔr/ (Tetum: Timór Lorosa'e, Portuguese: Timor-Leste), is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor. The small country of 15,410 km² (5,400 sq mi) is located about 640 km (400 mi) northwest of Darwin, Australia.
East Timor was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until Portugal's decolonization of the country. In late 1975, East Timor declared its independence, but later that year was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory and East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002. East Timor is one of only two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being the Philippines.
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Ecuador
Ecuador (i/ˈɛkwədɔr/ E-kwə-dawr), officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador [reˈpuβlika ðel ekwaˈðor], which literally translates to the "Republic of the Equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, (along with Chile), that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland.
The main spoken language in Ecuador is Spanish. Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 275,830 km2 (106,500 sq mi). Its capital city is Quito, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. The country's largest city is Guayaquil. The historic center of Cuenca, the third largest city in the country, was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, for being an outstanding example of a planned inland Spanish style colonial city in the Americas. Ecuador is also home—despite its size—to a great variety of species, many of them endemic, like those of the Galápagos islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.
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El Salvador
El Salvadori/ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally 'Republic of The Savior') is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country as well as Central America. El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the countries of Guatemala to the north and Honduras to the east. Its easternmost region lies on the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca, opposite Nicaragua. As of 2009, El Salvador had a population of approximately 5,744,113 people, composed predominantly of Mestizos.
The colón was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 to 2001, when it adopted the U.S. Dollar.
In 2010 El Salvador ranked in the top 10 among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index and in the top 3 in Central America (behind Costa Rica and Panama), due in part to ongoing rapid industrialization. In addition, tropical forests and overall forest cover has expanded by nearly 20 percent from the year 1992 to 2010. Making it one of the few countries experiencing reforestation.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Greenland
Greenland (Kalaallisut: Kalaallit Nunaat, "Land of the Kalaallit";Danish: Grønland) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and later Denmark) for more than a millennium. Greenland is, by area, the world's largest island. With a population of 56,615 (January 2011 estimate) it is the least densely populated dependency or country in the world.
Greenland has been inhabited, though not continuously, by Arctic peoples via Canada for 4500–5000 years. In the 10th century, Norsemen settled on the uninhabited southern part of Greenland. In the 13th century, the Inuit arrived, and in the late 15th century the Norse colonies were abandoned. In the early 18th century, contact between Scandinavia and Greenland was re-established and Denmark established rule over Greenland.
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Grenada
Grenada (
i/ɡrɨˈneɪdə/) is an island country and Commonwealth realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada Dove.
Grenada was first sighted by Europeans in 1498 during the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world. At the time the indigenous Island Caribs (Kalinago) who lived there called it Camahogne. The Spaniards did not permanently settle on Camahogne. The English failed in their attempt at settlement in 1609.
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Guadeloupe
Coordinates: 16°15′N 61°35′W / 16.25°N 61.583°W / 16.25; -61.583
Guadeloupe ( /ɡwɑːdəˈluːp/; French pronunciation: [ɡwadəlup]; Antillean Creole: Gwadloup) is a Caribbean island located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi) and a population of 400,000. It is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. Its departmental code is "971". As the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also an integral part of the Republic. Besides Guadeloupe island, the smaller islands of Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes are included in Guadeloupe.
As part of France, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; hence, as for all Eurozone countries, its currency is the euro. However, Guadeloupe is not part of the Schengen Area. The prefecture and the capital of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, in Extremadura.
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Guatemala
Guatemala (i/ˌɡwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/ GWAH-tə-MAH-lə), officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: República de Guatemala [reˈpuβlika ðe ɣwateˈmala]), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its area is 108,890 km2 (42,043 mi2) with an estimated population of 13,276,517.
A representative democracy, its capital is Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The former Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization, which continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. The Mayas live in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the southern part of Mexico and northern parts of El Salvador.
Guatemala became independent from Spain in 1821, joining the Mexican Empire. After it became an independent country in its own right, it was ruled by a series of dictators, assisted by the United Fruit Company. The late 20th century saw Guatemala embroiled in a 36-year-long civil war. Following the war, Guatemala has witnessed both economic growth and successful democratic elections. In the most recent election, held in 2011, Otto Pérez Molina of the Patriotic Party, won the presidency.
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Gulf of Fonseca
The Gulf of Fonseca (Spanish: Golfo de Fonseca), part of the Pacific Ocean, a gulf in Central America, bordering El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Fonseca Bay was discovered in 1522 by Gil Gonzalez de Avila, and named by him after his patron, Archbishop Juan Fonseca, the implacable enemy of Columbus[citation needed].
In 1849, E. G. Squier negotiated a treaty for the United States to build a canal across Honduras from the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf. Frederick Chatfield, the British commander in Central America, was afraid that American presence in Honduras would destabilize the British Mosquito Coast, and sent his fleet to occupy El Tigre Island at the entrance to the Gulf. Shortly thereafter, however, Squier demanded the British leave, since he had anticipated the occupation and negotiated the island's temporary cession to the United States. Chatfield could only comply.
All three countries—Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua—with coastline along the Gulf have been involved in a lengthy dispute over the rights to the Gulf and the islands located within. In 1992, a chamber of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided the Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute, of which the Gulf dispute was a part. The ICJ determined that El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua were to share control of the Gulf of Fonseca. El Salvador was awarded the islands of Meanguera and Meanguerita, while Honduras was awarded El Tigre island.
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Gulf of Honduras
The Gulf or Bay of Honduras is a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea, indenting the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. From north to south, it runs for approximately 200 km from Dangriga, Belize, to La Ceiba, Honduras.
The inner Gulf of Honduras is lined by the Belize Barrier Reef which forms the southern part of the 900 km long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest coral reef system in the world. The Belize Barrier Reef includes a number of small islands, called cays, and collectively known as the Pelican Cays.
The Gulf of Honduras is marked by complex dynamics of coastal and open waters, and ocean currents, which have produced a very diverse and unique ecosystem with a wide variety of coastal marine waters, including coastline estuaries, barrier beaches, lagoons, intertidal salt marshes, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, keys and barrier reefs.
The gulf receives the runoff from the watersheds of 12 rivers with an estimated discharge of 1232 m³ s-1. These rivers include the Moho, Sarstún, Río Dulce, Motagua, and Ulúa. Increased volumes of sediments drained in the Gulf of Honduras pose a threat to its marine ecosystem.
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Haiti
Haitii/ˈheɪti/ (French: Haïti [aiti]; Haitian Creole Ayiti [ajiti]), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d'Haïti; Repiblik Ayiti), is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti (land of high mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince. Haitian Creole and French are the official languages.
Haiti's regional, historical, and ethno-linguistic position is unique for several reasons. It was the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first black-led republic in the world, and the second republic in the Americas when it gained independence in 1804 as part of a successful slave revolution lasting nearly a decade. In 2012, Haiti announced its intention to seek associate membership status in the African Union. Haiti is the only predominantly Francophone independent nation in the Americas. It is one of only two independent nations in the Americas (along with Canada) to designate French as an official language; the other French-speaking areas are all overseas départements, or collectivités, of France.
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Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize. The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spain who introduced its predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.
Its size is just over 112,492 km² with an estimated population of almost eight million. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone.
It is notable for its production of minerals, tropical fruit, and recently for exportation of clothing for the international market.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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La Ceiba
La Ceiba is a port city on the northern coast of Honduras in Central America. It is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean, forming part of the south eastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With an estimated population of over 174,000 living in approximately 170 residential areas (called colonias or barrios), it is the fourth largest city in the country and the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida. La Ceiba was officially founded on August 23, 1877. The city was named after a giant ceiba tree which grew near the old dock, which itself finally fell into the sea in late 2007. The city has been officially proclaimed the "Eco-Tourism Capital of Honduras" as well as the "Entertainment Capital of Honduras". Every year, on the third or fourth Saturday of May, the city holds its famous carnival to commemorate Isidore the Laborer (Spanish San Isidro Labrador). During this time, the city is host to approximately 500,000 tourists.
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Latin Union
The Latin Union is an international organization of nations that use Romance languages, with the aim of protecting, projecting, and promoting the common cultural heritage and unifying identities of the Latin, and Latin-influenced, world. It was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain, and has existed as a functional institution since 1983. Its membership has risen from 12 to 36 states, including countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
The official names of the Latin Union are: Unió Llatina in Catalan, Union latine in French, Unione Latina in Italian, União Latina in Portuguese, Uniunea Latină in Romanian, and Unión Latina in Spanish.
According to the Latin Union's website, membership is open to any nation that meets the following criteria:
The official languages of the Latin Union are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan. Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian are used as working languages. All the texts of general diffusion are translated into these four languages, with some also going into Romanian and Catalan.
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Martinique
Martinique (French pronunciation: [maʁtinik]) is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of 1,128 km2 (436 sq mi). Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is one of the twenty-seven regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. The first European to encounter the island was Christopher Columbus in 1502.
As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, and its currency is the Euro. Its official language is French, although many of its inhabitants also speak Antillean Creole (Créole Martiniquais).
The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs. It was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. It was claimed by France in 1635 and, despite several interludes of British occupation, once during the Seven Years' War and twice during the Napoleonic Wars, has remained a French possession. In 1946, the French National Assembly voted unanimously to transform the colony into an overseas department.
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Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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Moldova
Moldovai/mɒlˈdoʊvə/, officially the Republic of Moldova (Moldovan/Romanian: Republica Moldova pronounced [reˈpublika molˈdova]) is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991 as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 29 July 1994, the new constitution of Moldova was adopted. A strip of Moldova's internationally recognized territory on the east bank of the river Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
The nation is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union, and has implemented the first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
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Monaco
Monacoi/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/, officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city state, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. Bordered by France on three sides, with one side bordering the Mediterranean Sea, its center is about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Italy, and is only 15 km (9.3 mi) north east of Nice, France. It has an area of 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi), and a population of 35,986, making Monaco the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. Monaco has a land border of only 4.4 km (2.7 mi), a coastline of 4.1 km (2.5 mi), and a width that varies between 1.7 km (1.1 mi) and 349 metres (382 yards). The highest point in the country is a narrow pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires district, which is 161 metres (528 feet) above sea level. Monaco's most populated Quartier is Monte Carlo, and the most populated Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. After a recent expansion of Port Hercules, Monaco's total area is 2.05 km2 (0.79 sq mi), with new plans to extend the district of Fontvieille, with land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea.
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Montserrat
Coordinates: 16°45′N 62°12′W / 16.75°N 62.2°W / 16.75; -62.2
Montserrat ( /mɒntsəˈræt/) is an island that is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.
Montserrat's Georgian era historic capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee because of an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on July 18, 1995. The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the area around Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and also the area around the former W. H. Bramble Airport on the eastern side of the island, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010.
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Mosquito Coast
The Caribbean Mosquito Coast (or Miskito Coast) historically comprised an area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras, and part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests. The Mosquito Coast was incorporated into Nicaragua in 1894; however, in 1860 the northern part was granted to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.
Although its name sometimes applies to the whole eastern seaboard of Nicaragua — and even to La Mosquitia in Honduras, i.e., the coast region as far west as the Río Negro or Tinto – the Mosquito Coast more accurately comprised a narrow strip of territory, fronting the Caribbean Sea, and extending from about 11°45’ to 14°10’ N. It stretched inland for an average distance of 40 miles (64 km), and measured about 225 miles (362 km) from north to south. In the north, its boundary skirted the Wawa River; in the west, it corresponded with the eastern limit of the Nicaraguan highlands; in the south, it followed the Río Rama. The chief modern towns are Bluefields or Blewfields, the largest town and capital of Nicaragua's Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur, Magdala on Pearl Cay, Prinzapolka on the river of that name, Wounta near the mouth of the Kukalaya, and Carata near the mouth of the coco River.
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Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: Moçambique or República de Moçambique, pronounced: [ʁɛˈpublikɐ di musɐ̃ˈbiki]), is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. The capital city is Maputo, formerly known as Lourenço Marques.
Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili, and later also Arab, commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonized by Portugal in 1505. Mozambique became independent in 1975, and became the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. It was the scene of an intense civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992.
Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources. The country's economy is based largely on agriculture, but with industry, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, aluminium and petroleum production, is growing fast. The country's tourism sector is also growing. South Africa is Mozambique's main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Portugal, Spain, and Belgium are also among the country's most important partners. Since 2001 Mozambique is one of the world's top ten for annual average GDP growth. However, Mozambique still has one of the lowest GDP per capita, one of the worst human development index and one of the highest inequality in the world, as well as having the world's lowest life expectancy.
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Nicaragua
Nicaragua (i/ˌnɪkəˈrɑːɡwə/ nik-ə-RAH-gwə), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua [reˈpuβlika ðe nikaˈɾaɣwa] ( listen)), is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands; wet, cooler central highlands; and the Caribbean lowlands. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.
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Oman
Oman (i/oʊˈmɑːn/ oh-MAAN; Arabic: عمان ʻUmān), officially called the Sultanate of Oman (Arabic: سلطنة عُمان Salṭanat ʻUmān), is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast. The Madha and Musandam enclaves are surrounded by the UAE on their land borders, with the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman forming Musandam's coastal boundaries.
For a period, Oman was a moderate regional power, formerly having a sultanate extending across the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, and modern day Pakistan, and far south to Zanzibar on the coat of south-east Africa. Over time, as its power declined, the sultanate came under heavy influence from the United Kingdom, though Oman was never formally part of the British Empire, or a British protectorate. The Omani royal family claim that Oman has been ruled by the Al Said dynasty since 1744, although without substantial proof. Oman has long-standing military and political ties with the United Kingdom and the United States, although it maintains an independent foreign policy.
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Panama
Panama (i/ˈpænəmɑː/ PAN-ə-mah; Spanish: Panamá), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela, named the Republic of Gran Colombia.When Gran Colombia the dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.
With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.
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Paraguay
Paraguay (i/ˈpɛərəɡwaɪ/, PAIR-ə-gwy), officially the Republic of Paraguay (Spanish: República del Paraguay [reˈpuβlika ðel paɾaˈɣwai], Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái [teˈtã paɾaˈɣwaj]), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de América, or the Heart of America.
The Guaraní have been living in Paraguay since before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, when Paraguay became part of the Spanish colonial empire. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who followed isolationist and protectionist policies. This development was truncated by the disastrous Paraguayan War (1864–1870) in which the country lost 60% to 70% of its population and large amounts of territory. During a large part of the 20th century, Paraguay was ruled by Alfredo Stroessner, who led one of South America's longest lived military dictatorships. In 1989 Stroessner was toppled and free elections were celebrated in 1993. In 1994 Paraguay joined Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to found Mercosur.
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Peru
Perui/pəˈruː/ (Spanish: Perú; Quechua: Perú;Aymara: Piruw), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðel peˈɾu] ( listen)), is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.
Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures, spanning from the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.
Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes Mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a high Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 31%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.
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Philippines
The Philippinesi/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
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Portugal
Portugali/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
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Puerto Cortés
Puerto Cortės in a town on the north (Atlantic) coast of Honduras. Originally known as Puerto de Caballos, the present town was founded in the early colonial period. It grew rapidly in the twentieth century, thanks to railroad development and banana production.
It is on the Caribbean Sea coast, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, at 15.85° N, 87.94° W. It has a natural bay.
It is Honduras's main sea port and it is considered the most important seaport in Central America.[4] As of 2008, Puerto Cortés has a population of some 165,000.
Hernán Cortés founded the town of La Natividad in 1524, roughly where Puerto Cortés is today, and populated it with about 20 Spaniards who had been previously been living in Nito and Naco. The name Puerto de Caballos (Port of horses) is because when Hernán Cortés arrived on Honduras' coast from Mexico and started unloading horses and cargo from the ships, several horses were drowned. By 1533, a local native leader, called Çiçumba (or Çoçumba, or Socremba, or Joamba ... we don't really know since the Spanish recorded so many variants of his name) had destroyed the town, reportedly taking a woman from Sevilla, Spain captive. After Çiçumba's defeat in 1536 by Pedro de Alvarado, a new town, Puerto de Caballos was founded on the southern shore of the body of water known as the Laguna de Alvarado.
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Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (/ˌpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/ or /ˌpwɛərtə ˈriːkoʊ/), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, [esˈtaðo ˈlibɾe asoˈsjaðo ðe ˈpweɾto ˈriko]—literally, "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico (Spanish for "rich port") comprises an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area of the Greater Antilles. However, it ranks third in population amongst that group of four islands, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Jamaica. Due to its location, Puerto Rico enjoys a tropical climate and also experiences the Atlantic hurricane season.
Originally populated for centuries by indigenous aboriginal peoples known as Taínos, the island was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain during his second voyage to the Americas on November 19, 1493. Under Spanish rule, the island was colonized and the indigenous population was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to, among other things, European infectious diseases. The remaining population was emancipated by King Charles I in 1520. Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. The Spanish Crown, in an attempt to keep Puerto Rico from gaining its independence, revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. The decree was printed in three languages — Spanish, English and French — and it fostered the immigration of hundreds of non-Spanish European families.
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Romania
Romania (i/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.
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Rotary International
Rotary International (also known as the Rotary Club) is an international service club whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals.
Rotary's primary motto is "Service above Self"; an earlier motto, "One profits most who serves best".
The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
This objective is set against the "Rotary 4-way Test", used to see if a planned action is compatible with the Rotarian spirit. The test was developed by Rotarian and entrepreneur Herbert J. Taylor during the Great Depression as a set of guidelines for restoring faltering businesses and was adopted as the standard of ethics by Rotary in 1942. It is still seen as a standard for ethics in business management:
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Saba
Saba ( /ˈseɪbə/) is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality (officially public body) of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the potentially active volcano Mount Scenery (877 m), the highest point within both the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Netherlands proper.
Saba, including the islet of Green Island, became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010.
The island has a land area of 13 km² (5 sq. miles). At the 2001 Netherlands Antilles census, the population was 1,824 inhabitants, which means a population density of 140 inhabitants per km². Its current major towns and settlements include The Bottom (the capital), Windwardside, Hell's Gate and St. Johns.
As the island is part of the Netherlands, Dutch is the official language. Despite the island's Dutch affiliation, English is the principal language spoken on the island and has been used in its school system since the 19th century. English can therefore be used in communications of and to the government although there is a local dialect. Since January 1, 2011, the U.S. dollar has been the official currency, replacing the Netherlands Antillian Guilder.
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Saint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy (French: Saint-Barthélemy, French pronunciation: [sɛ̃baʁtelemi]), officially the Territorial collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (French: Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy), is an overseas collectivity of France. Often abbreviated to Saint-Barth in French, or St. Barts (also, St. Barth's) in English, the indigenous people called the island Ouanalao. The collectivity is one of four territories among the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean that comprise the French West Indies, along with Guadeloupe (200 km southeast), Martinique and Saint Martin. St. Barts lies c. 35 km southeast of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin, and north of St Kitts. Puerto Rico is 240 km to its west in the Lesser Antilles.
Saint Barthélemy, a volcanic island fully encircled by shallow reefs, has an area of 21 km² and a population of 8,823 (census 2008). Its capital is Gustavia, which also contains the main harbour to the island. It is the only Caribbean island which was a Swedish colony for any significant length of time; Guadeloupe was under Swedish rule only briefly, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Symbolism from the Swedish national arms, the Three Crowns, still appears in the island's coat of arms. The language, cuisine and culture, however, are distinctly French. The island is a popular tourist destination during the winter holiday season, especially the rich and famous during the Christmas and New Year period.
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Saint Lucia
Saint Luciai/seɪnt ˈluːʃə/ (French: Sainte-Lucie) is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 (238.23 sq mi) and has a population of 174,000 (2010). Its capital is Castries. Two Nobel laureates, Arthur Lewis, an economist, and Derek Walcott, a poet and playwright, have come from the island. It is the nation with the second most such honorees per capita after the Faroe Islands.
One of the Windward Islands, it was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the first European colonizers. They signed a treaty with the native Carib people in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667; in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times and rule of the island changed frequently (it was seven times each ruled by the French and British). In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West Indies".
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San Marino
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino (i/sæn məˈriːnoʊ/ san-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Repubblica di San Marino) and also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino. San Marino has the smallest population of all the members of the Council of Europe.
San Marino is the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded on 3 September 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. Legend has it that Marinus left Rab, then the Roman colony of Arba, in 257 when the future emperor, Diocletian, issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city walls of Rimini, which had been destroyed by Liburnian pirates.
The constitution of San Marino, enacted in 1600, is the world's oldest constitution still in effect. The country's economy mainly relies on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to some of the more developed Italian regions, such as Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.
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San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula is a city in Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country, in the Valle de Sula (Sula Valley), about 60 km south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean. With an estimated population of 873,824 people in the main municipality, and 1,245,598 in its metro area (2010), it is the second largest city, after the capital Tegucigalpa. It is considered the industrial center of Honduras. It is the capital of the Cortés Department. The city serves as a major transportation hub for the rest of the country, while economically maintaining its base in light industry and the commercial production of coffee, bananas, beef, sugar cane, tobacco, and forestry. According to The Economist, San Pedro Sula generates two-thirds of country's Gross domestic product (GDP).
San Pedro Sula has a museum of archeology and history, which includes both Pre-Columbian artifacts and expositions detailing the evolution of the city. The cigar making business is important, as are garment assembly plants, known as maquiladoras. Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport (SAP) is one of the most important airports in Honduras due to its local and international connections. The first private university in Honduras was founded in San Pedro Sula in 1978, Universidad de San Pedro Sula (The accredited private university).
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Senegal
Senegali/ˌsɛnɨˈɡɔːl/ (French: le Sénégal), officially the Republic of Senegal (République du Sénégal, IPA: [ʁepyblik dy seneɡal]), is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north. Senegal is externally bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south; internally it almost completely surrounds The Gambia, namely on the north, east and south, exempting Gambia's short Atlantic Ocean coastline. Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres (76,000 sq mi), and has an estimated population of about 13 million. The climate is tropical with two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season.
Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, is located at the westernmost tip of the country on the Cap-Vert peninsula. About 500 kilometres (300 mi) off the coast, in the Atlantic Ocean, lie the Cape Verde Islands. During the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous trading posts, belonging to various colonial empires, were established along the coast. The town of St. Louis became the capital of French West Africa (Afrique occidentale française, or AOF) before it was moved to Dakar in 1902. Dakar later became its capital in 1960 at the time of independence from France.
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Sint Eustatius
Sint Eustatius, also known affectionately to the locals as Statia/ˈsteɪʃə/ or Statius, is a Caribbean island and a special municipality (officially public body) of the Netherlands.
It lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands and immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts and Nevis and to the southeast of Saba, at 17°30′N 62°58′W / 17.5°N 62.967°W / 17.5; -62.967. The island is named after the legendary Christian martyr Saint Eustace. The regional capital is Oranjestad.
The island has an area of 21 km² (8.1 sq. miles). In the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, equating to a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. The official language is Dutch, however English is also recognised as an administrative language. A local English-based creole is also spoken informally. Travel to the island by air is through F.D. Roosevelt Airport.
Formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010.
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Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten (Dutch pronunciation: [sɪnt ˈmaːrtə(n)]) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It encompasses the southern half of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, while the northern half of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin. Its capital is Philipsburg.
Before 10 October 2010, Sint Maarten was known as the Island Territory of Sint Maarten (Dutch: Eilandgebied Sint Maarten), and was one of five island territories (Eilandgebieden) that constituted the Netherlands Antilles.
In 1493, during Christopher Columbus' second voyages to the West Indies, upon first sighting the island he named it Isla de San Martín after Saint Martin of Tours because it was 11 November, St. Martin Day. However, though he claimed it as a Spanish territory, Columbus never landed there, and Spain made the settlement of the island a low priority.
The French and Dutch, on the other hand, both coveted the island. While the French wanted to colonize the islands between Trinidad and Bermuda, the Dutch found San Martín a convenient halfway point between their colonies in New Amsterdam (present day New York) and Brazil. With few people inhabiting the island, the Dutch easily founded a settlement there in 1631, erecting Fort Amsterdam as protection from invaders. Jan Claeszen Van Campen became its first governor, and soon thereafter the Dutch East India Company began their salt mining operations. French and British settlements sprang up on the island as well. Taking note of these successful colonies and wanting to maintain their control of the salt trade, the Spanish now found St. Martin much more appealing. The Eighty Years' War which had been raging between Spain and the Netherlands provided further incentive to attack.
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Southampton
Southamptoni/saʊθˈhæmptən/ is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-west of London and 30 kilometres (19 mi) north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the River Test and River Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south of the urban area. The local authority is Southampton City Council, which is a unitary authority.
The city represents the core of the Greater Southampton region, and the city itself has an estimated population of 239,700 Southampton combines with Portsmouth to form a single metropolitan area; with a population of over a million this makes the region one of the United Kingdom's most populous metropolitan areas. The city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing to "So'ton" or "Soton", and a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian.
Significant employers in Southampton include the University of Southampton, Southampton Airport, the Ford Transit factory, Ordnance Survey, BBC South, the NHS, ABP and Carnival. Southampton is noted for its association with the RMS Titanic, the Spitfire and more recently a number of the largest cruise ships in the world.
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Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Talanga
Talanga is a municipality in the Honduran department of Francisco Morazán. It lies on the highway connecting Tegucigalpa with the department of Olancho. Talanga is a medium-sized municipality relying heavily on agriculture. Its most important crops include corn, sugar cane and livestock fodder.
Perhaps the most notable feature of Talanga is that the streets are all dirt. In most towns of its size in Honduras, the primary streets are paved. The town is just finishing installing a sewer system (as of 2006) and paving is an upcoming project. For now, the town is the epitome of "wild, wild west," with ox carts, cowboys on horseback, stray dogs, untended livestock, and minimal law enforcement. Talanga has a very good indoor market with produce, meat, pots and pans, and other household goods. There are about seven well-stocked hardware stores, as well as two internet cafes. The town square was recently built with concrete fixtures and a basketball court. There is a hill with a cross near the town center with an excellent view of the town and surrounding area. The people of Talanga are very friendly and one would be hardpressed to walk the main street without having people say "buenas" and starting conversations.
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Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa (Spanish pronunciation: [teɣusiˈɣalpa], formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District Spanish: Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.), and commonly referred as Tegus, is the capital of Honduras and seat of government of the Republic, along with its twin sister Comayagüela. Founded on September 29, 1578 by the Spanish, it became the country's capital on October 30, 1880 under President Marco Aurelio Soto. The current Constitution of Honduras, enacted in 1982, names the sister cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela as a Central District to serve as the permanent national capital, under articles 8 and 295.
During the short-lived Constitution of the Republic of Central America of 1921, Tegucigalpa served as a Federal District and capital of then-newly formed as one nation: the states of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. After this failed attempt to maintain a Central American republic, Honduras returned to become an individual sovereign nation and on January 30, 1937, Article 179 of the 1936 Honduran Constitution was reformed under Decree 53 to established Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela as a Central District.
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The Bahamas
The Bahamasi/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
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Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (i/ˌtrɪnɨdæd/ & /tɵˈbeɪɡoʊ/) officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west.
The country covers an area 5,128 square kilometres (1,980 sq mi) and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous smaller landforms. Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands, comprising about 94% of the total area and 96% of the total population of the country. The nation lies outside the hurricane belt.
The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the capitulation of the Spanish Governor, Don José Maria Chacón, on the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on 18 February 1797. During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands between Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers. Trinidad and Tobago was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. The country obtained independence in 1962, becoming a republic in 1976. Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is primarily industrial, with an emphasis on petroleum and petrochemicals.
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Uruguay
Uruguayi/ˈjʊərəɡwaɪ/, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay pronounced: [re̞ˈpuβ̞lika o̞ɾje̞n̪ˈt̪al̪ d̪e̞l uɾuˈɰwai̯]) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.3 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88% of the population are of European ancestry.
Except for the recent union of Timoteo Domínguez Island and Argentina's Martín García Island, Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lies the Uruguay River and the estuary of the Río de la Plata to the southwest. To the southeast lies the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. With an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi), Uruguay is the second-smallest nation in South America by area, after Suriname.
Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest European settlements in the country, was founded by the Portuguese in 1680. Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Uruguay won its independence in 1811–28 following a three-way struggle between the claims of Spain, Argentina and Brazil. It is a constitutional democracy, with a president who is both the head of state and the head of government.
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Venezuela
Venezuela (i/ˌvɛnɨˈzweɪlə/ VEN-ə-ZWAY-lə), officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela [repuˈβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela]), is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its northern coastline of roughly 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) includes numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders the northern Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba and the Leeward Antilles lie near the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 square kilometres (353,841 sq mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a state with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.
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Afro Honduran
Afro-Honduran are Hondurans of African descent. They are estimated to be a population of 150,000, or 2% of the country. The percentage of the population might be higher. Some Afro-Honduran might be classed as mestizo.The National Assembly of Afro-Honduran Organizations and Communities put the population at 10%.
Afro-descendant in Honduras come in three flavors. Those brought during colonial times and mixed with Indians and Spanish, the Garifuna, and the Bay Islands Creoles.
The first African slaves were brought into Honduras in 1540, to replace the dwindling indian labor population. They were mainly used in silver mines. By the 1600s most had run-away and cohabited with the native population, poor Spanish, and freed black population.
In 1797, 5,000 Garifuna from the island of St. Vincent were shipped by the British to the Honduran island of Roatan. Garifuna eventually migrated to the mainland, where they allied themselves with Spain. During the war of independence, Garifunas fought on the side of Spain. Come independence they were marginalized.
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Al Giordano
Al Giordano (born December 31, 1959) is a journalist who operates the Narco News Bulletin, reporting on the War on Drugs, the political blog The Field, reporting on American politics, and the School of Authentic Journalism. Giordano was born in the Bronx and attended Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck, New York.
In 1976, when he was sixteen, he went to Albany and testified before a legislative commission in the state senate against nuclear power, felt completely ignored and concluded that the tactic of lobbying the government was futile. He was arrested for what would be the first of twenty-seven times on May 1st, 1977. When he was twenty and living in a cabin in Rowe, Massachusetts, running the Rowe Nuclear Conversion Campaign, which ended in the first-ever shutdown of an operating nuclear power plant in America, he met Abbie Hoffman, who called him "the best political organizer of his generation." The two worked together until Hoffman's death in 1989, opposing U.S. intervention in Nicaragua and fighting to save the Delaware and St. Lawrence rivers. Giordano was for a time a prominent media figure in Western Massachusetts. He sometimes worked on political campaigns, notably for senator John Kerry and for the legalization of marijuana. Al Giordano is a musician who has performed with numerous bands[.]
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Carlos Roberto Reina
Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez (March 13, 1926 - August 19, 2003) was a politician of the Liberal Party of Honduras, and President of Honduras from January 27, 1994 to January 27, 1998.
He was born in the city of Comayagüela, Honduras. His wife, Bessy Watson, was an American citizen with whom he had two daughters. He completed university studies in the National Autonomous University of Honduras where he earned a bachelor's degree in Juridical and Social Sciences. Later, Reina continued his postgraduate studies in the cities of London and Paris.
Throughout his long political career Reina held a number of political governmental and international jobs, including judge in the court of Tegucigalpa, peace member of the international court of The Hague, Ambassador of Honduras to France, and president of the Central Executive Council (CCE) of the Liberal Party, among other important positions.
Reina was arrested several times for his political activities in opposition to the military governments during his younger years. The first time was in 1944 for protesting against dictator Tiburcio Carías. Later in the 1960s he was sent to prison twice by General Oswaldo López, who had taken over the Honduran government through the use of military force. This led Reina to become a fierce defender of human rights throughout the rest of his life. In 1979 he was nominated president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States.
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Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (before 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements in the island of Hispaniola, initiated the process of Spanish colonization, which foreshadowed the general European colonization of what became known as the "New World".
In the context of emerging western imperialism and economic competition between European kingdoms seeking wealth through the establishment of trade routes and colonies, Columbus's speculative proposal to reach the East Indies by sailing westward received the support of the Spanish crown, which saw in it a promise, however remote, of gaining the upper hand over rival powers in the contest for the lucrative spice trade with Asia. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for the Spanish Empire.
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Cristóbal de Olid
Cristóbal de Olid (1487–1524) was a Spanish adventurer, conquistador and rebel who played a part in the conquest of Mexico and Honduras.
Born in Zaragoza, Olid grew up in the household of the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. In 1518 Velázquez sent Olid to relieve Juan de Grijalva, but en route a hurricane destroyed Olid's ship and he returned to Cuba. On January 10, 1519, Olid sailed with Hernán Cortés' fleet, and took an active part in the conquest of Mexico. He fought at the Battle of Otumba on July 8, and also took part in the campaign against the Tarascans, who proved difficult foes due to their use of iron weapons, which the Aztecs lacked.
During the siege of Tenochtitlán, Olid squabbled with Pedro de Alvarado, and refused to assist him in an assault on the causeways leading into the city. This refusal lead to a resounding Spanish defeat, and Olid fled to Coyohuacan. While in Mexico, he married a Tlaxcalan woman.
In 1522, Olid led Spanish soldiers with Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of Jalisco and Colima in West Mexico .
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Eduardo Bähr
Eduardo Bähr (b. 1940, Tela, Honduras) is a Honduran writer, scriptwriter and actor.
In 1996, along with Mexico's Octavio Paz, Spain's Rafael Alberti, and Nicaragua's Ernesto Cardenal, he was one of 50 intellectuals awarded the Gabriela Mistral Medal by the government of Chile. For many years he taught Honduran and Latin-American Literature at the National University of Honduras, where he also directed the University Theater Company.
Segments of his novel El cuento de la guerra (the war story) have been translated into English, French and German. The book's theme is the armed conflict between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969.
Bähr is a member of "Artistas de la Gente", a collective of five artists of different generations and disciplines who develop critical political art.
He is currently living in Tegucigalpa, where he runs a non-profit editorial service to promote publication among low-income Honduran and Central American artists and students.
1969, Fotografía del Peñasco.
1971, El Cuento de la Guerra.
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Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 94 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines.
There are around 180 languages spoken in the Philippines, most of them belonging to the Austronesian language family, with Tagalog and Cebuano having the greatest number of native speakers. The official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English and most Filipinos are bilingual or trilingual.
Most Filipinos refer to themselves colloquially as "Pinoy" (feminine: "Pinay"), which is a slang word formed by taking the last four letters of "Pilipino" and adding the diminutive suffix "-y". The lack of the letter "F" in the pre-1987 Philippine alphabet, Abakada, had caused the letter "F" to be substituted with "P". This is why, when the 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet was made official in 1987, the name Filipino was preferred over Pilipino. The name Filipino was chosen by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who named the islands "las Islas Filipinas" ("the Philippine Islands") after Philip II of Spain.
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Florencio Xatruch
Florencio Xatruch (October 21, 1811 – February 15, 1893), was a General who led the Honduran expeditionary force against William Walker in Nicaragua in 1856.
Florencio Xatruch was born in San Antonio de Oriente, Honduras. His father, Ramón Xatruch, was of Catalan background, and his mother, Eugenia Villagra, was part of Choluteca's upper class, and whose family owned mines.
In 1824, Xatruch was sent to León, Nicaragua to continue with his studies.
In 1826, as he returned to Honduras, he joined the armed forces of Domingo Sarmiento and Santos Sánchez, who were against the government of Diego Vigil. He then participated in Francisco Morazán's armed forces, on March 14, 1832, along with his friend José Santos Guardiola, in the war in Jocoro, El Salvador. He was promoted to Sergeant, and this promotion was signed by Morazan himself. In 1841 he was again promoted to Captain by General Julian Tercero and he served under the leadership of Francisco Ferrera.
When Juan Lindo was president, Xatruch was elected representative to the National Congress and participated in the approval of the third Constitution of Honduras in 1848. In 1850 he participated in an armed engagement supporting José Santos Guardiola. He moved to Nicaragua, along with his brother Pedro, who was eventually promoted to General also. In Granada, they offered their services to the "legitimates", and their troops were called "Xatruches", and then "Catruches", and finally "Catrachos", term (nickname) that Hondurans are known for, especially in Nicaragua.
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Francisco Morazán
General Francisco Morazán (Central American pronunciation: moɾaˈsan; October 3, 1792 – September 15, 1842) was a Honduran general and a politician who ruled several Central American states at different times during the turbulent period from 1827 to 1842. He rose to prominence at the legendary Battle of La Trinidad on November 11, 1827. Since then, and until his execution in 1842, Morazán dominated the political and military scene of Central America.
In the political arena, Francisco Morazán was recognized as a visionary and great thinker, as he attempted to transform Central America into one large and progressive nation. He enacted liberal reforms in the new Federal Republic of Central America, including freedom of the press, speech and religion. Morazán also limited church power by making marriage secular and abolishing government-aided tithing.
These reforms made him some powerful enemies, and his period of rule was marked by bitter infighting between liberals and conservatives. But through his military skills, Morazán was able to keep a firm grip on power until 1837, when the Federal Republic became irrevocably fractured. This was exploited by the conservative leaders, who rallied around the leadership of Rafael Carrera and in order to protect their own interests, ended up dividing Central America into five nations.
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Hondurans
Hondurans (Spanish: Hondureños; also Catrachos) are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world. There are also people living in Honduras who are not Hondurans because they were not born or raised in Honduras nor have they gained citizenship.
Central Americans refer to a person from Honduras as a Catracho. The term was coined by Nicaraguans in the mid-19th century when Honduran General Florencio Xatruch returned from battle with his soldiers after defeating American freebooters commanded by William Walker, whose purpose was to re-establish slavery and take over all of Central America. As the general and his soldiers returned, some Nicaraguans yelled out ¡Vienen los xatruches!, meaning "Here come Xatruch's boys!" However, Nicaraguans had so much trouble pronouncing the general's last name that they altered the phrase to los catruches and ultimately settled on los catrachos.
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José Azcona del Hoyo
José Simón Azcona del Hoyo (26 January 1927 – 24 October 2005) was President of Honduras from 27 January 1986 to 27 January 1990 for the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH). He was born in La Ceiba in Honduras.
Azcona spent the years from 1935 to 1949 living in Cantabria, Spain with his maternal grandparents. He grew up there during the Spanish Civil War. He returned to Honduras in 1949, working in his family's trading company. He then went to study in the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) graduating in civil engineering, with postgraduate studies from the University of Monterrey in Mexico.
As the PLH were unable to decide on a single candidate they ended up fielding four candidates, including Azcona, against the one National Party of Honduras (PNH) candidate Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero. Because the PLH candidates gained 51.5% of the vote between them, and as Azcona gained the highest of the 4, he gained the presidency with only 27.5% of the vote, even though Callejas gained 42.6% of the vote. This was the first transfer of power from one constitutional, elected president to another since 1948, and the first time it happened democratically since 1932.
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List of Hondurans
This is a list of Honduran people: Politicians
Sports
Authors
Uncatergorized
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Manuel Bonilla
General Manuel Bonilla Chirinos (7 June 1849 – 21 March 1913) was President of Honduras from 13 April 1903 to 25 February 1907, and again from 1 February 1912 to 21 March 1913. He previously served as Vice President of Honduras from 1895 to 1899.
He was born in Juticalpa, Olancho, Honduras. He started out as a liberal, and then became a conservative, and he is considered the founder of the ideas that led to the creation of the National Party of Honduras. He was involved in various military actions as a young man. As president he gave generous concessions to the banana companies along the north coast, namely to Sam Zemurray's Cuyamel Fruit Company.
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Manuel Zelaya
José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952) is a politician who was President of Honduras from January 27, 2006 until June 28, 2009. The eldest son of a wealthy businessman, he inherited his father's nickname "Mel", and, before entering politics, was involved in his family's logging and timber businesses.
Elected as a conservative, Zelaya shifted to the political left during his presidency, forging an alliance with the ALBA. On 28 June 2009, in the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, he was seized by the military and secreted to Costa Rica in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. On 21 September 2009 he returned to Honduras clandestinely and resurfaced in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. In 2010 he left Honduras for exile in the Dominican Republic, an exile which lasted more than a year.
He is now a deputy of the Central American Parliament representing Honduras.
The surname 'Zelaya' (pronounced 'zelaja' in Latin American Spanish) is a word from the Basque language, meaning 'field.' Zelaya was born the first of four children in Juticalpa, Olancho.[citation needed] Two of his brothers remain alive: one is Carlos Armando and the other is Marco Antonio. Zelaya's mother, Ortensia Rosales de Zelaya, has been described as his best campaigner. His family first lived in Copán, then they moved east to Catacamas, Olancho.
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Nicaraguans
Nicaraguans (Spanish: Nicaragüense; also Nicaragüense, Nica, Nicoya and Pinolero) are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Nicaragua. Most Nicaraguans live in Nicaragua, although there is also a significant Nicaraguan diaspora, particularly in Costa Rica and the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world. There are also people living in Nicaragua who are not Nicaraguans because they were not born or raised in Nicaragua nor have they gained citizenship.
The most populous city in Nicaragua is the capital city, Managua, with a population of 1.8 million (2005). As of 2009, over 6.9 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions, 5.1 in the Pacific region alone, while inhabitants in the Caribbean region only reached an estimated 300,000.
According to the UN, Nicaragua has a population of 7,243,000 (July 1, 2009) with a population growth rate of 1.31% (during the period 2005-210) and a birth rate of 24.9/1,000 population (2005–2010), third highest in the region. The life expectancy for Nicaraguans at birth is (2005–2010) 74.45 years; 70.9 for males and 78.0 for females.
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Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī) also referred to as Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون, al-Filasṭīniyyūn), are descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries. Today, Palestinians are largely culturally and linguistically Arab. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel. In this combined area, as of 2004, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (1.6 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2.3 million versus close to 500,000 Jewish Israeli citizens which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem), and 16.5% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel.
Throughout the aforementioned combined area, many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip, three-quarters of a million in the West Bank,, and about a quarter of a million in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, making up what is known as the Palestinian diaspora, more than half of these are stateless refugees lacking citizenship in any country. About 2.6 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan where they make up approximately half the population, 1.5 million live between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter of a million in Saudi Arabia, with Chile's half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
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Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Porfirio Lobo Sosa (born 22 December 1947), known as Pepe Lobo, is the President of Honduras, a politician and agricultural landowner. A member of the National Party (a center-right conservative political party) and a former deputy in the National Congress of Honduras from 1990, he was President of the National Congress of Honduras from 2002 to 2006. He came second to Manuel Zelaya with 46% of the vote in the 2005 general election. He was elected president in the 2009 presidential election and took office on 27 January 2010.
Lobo was born in Trujillo and grew up on the ranch of La Empalizada near Juticalpa, Olancho. His parents are Porfirio José Lobo López and Rosa Sosa Hernández de Lobo, both deceased. His father served as deputy in the National Congress in 1957 and was a known political leader in the department of Olancho. His brother Ramón Rosa Lobo Sosa is a deputy in the National Congress for the department of Colón.
After attending a Catholic school in Juticalpa, he furthered his studies at the San Francisco Institute of Tegucigalpa and then at the University of Miami in the United States. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Miami, he returned to Honduras to work in the family's agricultural business, and to teach political economics and English at the La Fraternidad Institute in Juticalpa for 11 years. He was granted a doctorate by Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. Porfirio Lobo Sosa holds a black belt in taekwondo.
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Ramón Amaya Amador
Ramón Amaya Amador (April 29, 1916 – November 24, 1966) was a Honduran author.
Amaya was born in Olanchito in the department of Yoro. After being educated in La Ceiba, he worked on the banana plantations along the Northern Caribbean coast of Honduras. He published his first work in 1939. He became a journalist in 1941 for El Atlántico (The Atlantic), a La Ceiba newspaper. In October 1943 he founded a weekly magazine in Olanchito called Alerta (Alert).
A leading Honduran communist fleeing political persecution, he moved to Guatemala in 1944, where he worked on the Nuestro Diario (Our Daily) newspaper and was very supportive of the left-wing government of Jacobo Arbenz. In his 10 years in Guatemala he also worked for the Diario de Centro América (Central American Daily), El Popular Progresista (The Popular Progressive) and Medioía (Midday).
When the Arbenz regime fell in June 1954, Amador sought refuge in the Argentine embassy before being granted asylum in that country. In Argentina, he worked for Sarmiento, a popular educational newspaper. While there, he married an Argentine woman, Regina Arminda Funes, and returned to Honduras with her in May 1957. He began working for El Cronista (The Chronicle), and founded the magazine Vistazo (View) in Tegucigalpa. Soon afterwards, he left Honduras with his family, including his two small children, to move to Prague, Czechoslovakia where he worked on a magazine called Problems of Peace and Socialism until he died at 50 years of age in a plane crash in 1966 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. In September 1977 his remains were returned to Tegucigalpa, but it was not until 1991 that his books were published in Honduras.
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Ricardo Maduro
Ricardo Rodolfo Maduro Joest (born 20 April 1946 in Panama) is a former President of Honduras and Bank of Honduras chairman. Maduro graduated from The Lawrenceville School (where he was awarded the Lawrenceville Medal, Lawrenceville's highest award to alumni) and later Stanford University. He was President between 27 January 2002, and 27 January 2006, representing the National Party of Honduras (PNH).
Maduro's first marriage to Miriam Andréu produced three daughters and a son, Ricardo Ernesto, who was kidnapped at age 25 on 23 April 1997. Ricardo Ernesto's body was discovered two days later. His death inspired Maduro to aspire to the presidency and gave him the popularity that allowed him to first register and then be elected as a presidential candidate, in spite of a constitutional ban on those not born in Honduras from becoming President. This constitutional ban created great controversy before the 2001 elections. Having been chosen as the PNH candidate, he was eventually allowed to stand. In his campaign he promised to tackle crime and the gang (maras), and immediately brought troops out on to the streets of the large cities to accompany the local police. The PNH held National Congress passed laws making illicit association a crime, which have seen hundreds of gang members put behind bars.
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Roberto Micheletti
Roberto Micheletti Baín (born 13 August 1943) is a former interim de facto president of Honduras who served as a result of the 2009 coup d'état. The Honduran military was ordered by the Supreme Court to forcefully detain President Manuel Zelaya once the Court stated he was violating the Honduran constitution;[citation needed] Zelaya was exiled rather than arrested. Micheletti, constitutionally next in line for the presidency, was sworn in as president by the National Congress a few hours after Zelaya was sent into exile by the Honduran military. He wasn't acknowledged as de jure president by any government or international organization. Before serving as President, Micheletti was the President of Honduras' National Congress. A deputy in Congress since 1982, Micheletti is a member of the Liberal Party of Honduras.
Born in El Progreso, Yoro Department, Micheletti was the eighth of nine siblings (6 boys, 3 girls). Micheletti's father was Umberto Micheletti, who immigrated from the Bergamo province of Lombardy, Italy. His mother was Donatella Bain Moya, also born in El Progreso.
wn.com/Roberto_Micheletti -
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people (Vietnamese: người Việt or người Kinh) are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam. The earliest recorded name for the ancient Vietnamese people appears as "Lạc".
Although geographically and linguistically labeled as Southeast Asians, long periods of Chinese domination and influence have placed the Vietnamese culturally closer to East Asians, or more specifically their immediate northern neighbours, the Southern Chinese and other tribes within the South China. The word Việt is shortened from Bách Việt, a name used in ancient times. Nam means "south".
If regarded as a single ethnic group, the Vietnamese constitute one of the world's largest."CIA World Factbook". May 8th, 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
wn.com/Vietnamese_people -
Wilson Palacios
Wilson Roberto Palacios Suazo (Spanish pronunciation: [wilˈsom paˈlasjos]; born 29 July 1984) is a Honduran footballer who plays in the Premier League for Stoke City.
Born in La Ceiba, he played for Victoria and Olimpia in Honduras before moving to England where he played for Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic. In 2009 he joined Tottenham Hotspur, generally playing central defensive midfield as he did for previous club Wigan. He has occasionally been used for Tottenham Hotspur as a right midfielder. He has been a regular player for Honduras since 2003, helping them qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals for only the second time in their history. In August 2011 Palacios joined Stoke City for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £6 million.
Palacios, along with brothers Milton, Jerry, Johnny and Edwin, started his career as a footballer with Club Deportivo Victoria, from which all five players were later transferred to Olimpia.
Palacios made 102 appearances and scored 32 goals for Olimpia. He became one of the idols of the team and quickly started to attract international attention after winning five league titles with Olimpia in the 2002–03 Apertura tournament, as well as the 2003–04 Clausura, 2004–05 Clasura, 2005–06 Apertura and the 2005–06 Clausura tournaments. He is especially remembered for scoring a goal from the half-way line against Marathón in the final minutes of a game in 2006 to win the 2005–2006 Clausura tournament to become champions of Honduras.
wn.com/Wilson_Palacios
karaoke
In honduras cotton smoked and burned for days
To be outdone by guatamala
To be outdone by texas
With a pitchfork and a bell
Grubby little runners bring her news of me second hand
I won't tell her roaches eat my clay sculpture
I wanna tell her I am headless I am headless
She's walking on the great bloody dirt down there
Sleeping in the soft brown ring down there
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Fault Lines - The US and Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:31
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Honduras has become the newest front in the US war on drugs in Latin America. The US has provided financial support for both the police and the military there in spite of its deep corruption issues. Furthermore, members of both institutions have been linked to a range of killings. Political dissidents, human rights workers and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have all been killed at alarming rates. In May, a mission in the Moskitia region, which was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), left four innocent civilians killed and four others wounded. It was followed by two more incidents where a US DEA agent shot and killed an alleged drug trafficker. Local communities have demanded a thorough investigation but so far nothing has been done. The US has a long and controversial history in Honduras. In the 1980s, the US built a base there and trained an elite Honduran military unit. That unit went on to carry out tortures, kidnappings and killings. Who is responsible? What should be the role of the US in Honduras? And what happened that night in the Moskitia when a US raid ended up leaving innocent people dead? Fault Lines travels to Honduras, the country with the highest homicide rate in the world, to find out. Follow on Twitter: twitter.com Follow on Facebook: facebook.com Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com See all episodes of Fault Lines: www.youtube.com Meet the Fault Lines Team: aje.me
http://wn.com/Fault_Lines_The_US_and_Honduras
Honduras has become the newest front in the US war on drugs in Latin America. The US has provided financial support for both the police and the military there in spite of its deep corruption issues. Furthermore, members of both institutions have been linked to a range of killings. Political dissidents, human rights workers and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have all been killed at alarming rates. In May, a mission in the Moskitia region, which was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), left four innocent civilians killed and four others wounded. It was followed by two more incidents where a US DEA agent shot and killed an alleged drug trafficker. Local communities have demanded a thorough investigation but so far nothing has been done. The US has a long and controversial history in Honduras. In the 1980s, the US built a base there and trained an elite Honduran military unit. That unit went on to carry out tortures, kidnappings and killings. Who is responsible? What should be the role of the US in Honduras? And what happened that night in the Moskitia when a US raid ended up leaving innocent people dead? Fault Lines travels to Honduras, the country with the highest homicide rate in the world, to find out. Follow on Twitter: twitter.com Follow on Facebook: facebook.com Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com See all episodes of Fault Lines: www.youtube.com Meet the Fault Lines Team: aje.me
Honduras named murder capital of the world
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:56
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Honduras has the highest rate of homicide in the world, four times higher than that of Mexico, according to the United Nations. It is estimated that there is a violent death every 74 minutes in the small Central American country with a population of just eight million people. Citizens have taken to arming themselves in self-defence, as some blame the growing number of criminals coming from abroad for the problem. Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad reports from Tegucigalpa.
http://wn.com/Honduras_named_murder_capital_of_the_world
Honduras has the highest rate of homicide in the world, four times higher than that of Mexico, according to the United Nations. It is estimated that there is a violent death every 74 minutes in the small Central American country with a population of just eight million people. Citizens have taken to arming themselves in self-defence, as some blame the growing number of criminals coming from abroad for the problem. Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad reports from Tegucigalpa.
- published: 23 Aug 2012
- views: 10758
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Best Honduras Video !
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:36
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
Trip to Honduras November 2009... for dentist visit.
http://wn.com/Best_Honduras_Video_!
Trip to Honduras November 2009... for dentist visit.
- published: 13 Apr 2010
- views: 132035
- author: ptuheim
Instability in Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 37:07
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Honduras is the world's new murder capital but who is driving the violence and how can it be stopped?
http://wn.com/Instability_in_Honduras
Honduras is the world's new murder capital but who is driving the violence and how can it be stopped?
- published: 09 Feb 2012
- views: 12079
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Discover Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:01
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
Honduras is located in the heart of Central America, just a 2-3 hour flight from the United States. Its diverse landscape offers a multitude of activity options for visitors, from Caribbean white sand beaches and lush rain forests to rugged mountains and calm lakes. This video showcases that diversity and includes footage from: Roatán, La Ceiba, Cayos Cochinos, Tela, Omoa, Copán Ruinas, Gracias, La Campa, Lake Yojoa, Comayagua, Tegucigalpa, Santa Lucía and Valle de Ángeles. (This video was filmed in July and August 2009, in conjunction with the Honduras Institute of Tourism.)
http://wn.com/Discover_Honduras
Honduras is located in the heart of Central America, just a 2-3 hour flight from the United States. Its diverse landscape offers a multitude of activity options for visitors, from Caribbean white sand beaches and lush rain forests to rugged mountains and calm lakes. This video showcases that diversity and includes footage from: Roatán, La Ceiba, Cayos Cochinos, Tela, Omoa, Copán Ruinas, Gracias, La Campa, Lake Yojoa, Comayagua, Tegucigalpa, Santa Lucía and Valle de Ángeles. (This video was filmed in July and August 2009, in conjunction with the Honduras Institute of Tourism.)
- published: 17 Sep 2009
- views: 49741
- author: LetsGoHonduras
Inside Story Americas - Honduras turns deadly
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 25:12
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Honduras has the highest per capita murder rate in the world, marked by a sharp increase in the number of drug-related deaths. But is sending troops onto streets the best possible move, or will it simply breed more violence?
http://wn.com/Inside_Story_Americas_Honduras_turns_deadly
Honduras has the highest per capita murder rate in the world, marked by a sharp increase in the number of drug-related deaths. But is sending troops onto streets the best possible move, or will it simply breed more violence?
- published: 16 Dec 2011
- views: 5948
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Marimba players Mahogany Bay Roatan Honduras.MP4
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:33
- Updated: 24 Dec 2012
The first stop of our Carnival Magic cruise was to Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan, part of Honduras. At the entrance to the Mahogany Bay complex was two marimba players, Leonardo Munoz, and Naos Simontel. They were playing the traditional marimba which is similar to and a type of the xylophone percussion family with additional set of keys in a 2nd row above the main set. The marimba was developed in southern Mexico and Guatemala and is a popular instrument in central america especially on the Caribbean side, The music is a familiar calypso sound with rhythmic melody that is repeated. In this video several passengers from the Carnival Magic try there hand to play with the two musicians. One young man clearly has some experience with playing at least a similar instrument. I noticed he was encouraged to play by what I assume were his parents. Notice how Leonardo (the older gentleman on the right) and Naos increase the tempo once he starts to match his beat. I enjoyed the festive music and it definitely added the fun spirit of the island. Please enjoy! Recorded on my Sony Bloggie.
http://wn.com/Marimba_players_Mahogany_Bay_Roatan_HondurasMP4
The first stop of our Carnival Magic cruise was to Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan, part of Honduras. At the entrance to the Mahogany Bay complex was two marimba players, Leonardo Munoz, and Naos Simontel. They were playing the traditional marimba which is similar to and a type of the xylophone percussion family with additional set of keys in a 2nd row above the main set. The marimba was developed in southern Mexico and Guatemala and is a popular instrument in central america especially on the Caribbean side, The music is a familiar calypso sound with rhythmic melody that is repeated. In this video several passengers from the Carnival Magic try there hand to play with the two musicians. One young man clearly has some experience with playing at least a similar instrument. I noticed he was encouraged to play by what I assume were his parents. Notice how Leonardo (the older gentleman on the right) and Naos increase the tempo once he starts to match his beat. I enjoyed the festive music and it definitely added the fun spirit of the island. Please enjoy! Recorded on my Sony Bloggie.
- published: 24 Dec 2012
- views: 95
- author: tazjazzman
Honduras STS
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 30:43
- Updated: 26 Dec 2012
Medical mission trip Oct 2012 to Santa Ana, Honduras
http://wn.com/Honduras_STS
Medical mission trip Oct 2012 to Santa Ana, Honduras
- published: 26 Dec 2012
- views: 44
- author: ccoderal
"HONDURAS [8-1] CANADA" All Goals and Full Highlights Video World Cup Qualifiers [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:05
- Updated: 13 Dec 2012
"HONDURAS [8-1] CANADA" All Goals and Full Highlights Video World Cup Qualifiers [HD]
http://wn.com/HONDURAS_8-1_CANADA_All_Goals_and_Full_Highlights_Video_World_Cup_Qualifiers_HD_
"HONDURAS [8-1] CANADA" All Goals and Full Highlights Video World Cup Qualifiers [HD]
- published: 17 Oct 2012
- views: 10943
- author: GoalsAtoZ
Libertarians Creating a Feudal Paradise in Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:29
- Updated: 25 Dec 2012
Libertarian paradise? Rich libertarians are working on creating a private city in Honduras with minimal taxes and very small government. Michael Strong, CEO of the MKG Group, will build the city and set its laws... This clip from the Majority Report, live MF at 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at Majority.FM
http://wn.com/Libertarians_Creating_a_Feudal_Paradise_in_Honduras
Libertarian paradise? Rich libertarians are working on creating a private city in Honduras with minimal taxes and very small government. Michael Strong, CEO of the MKG Group, will build the city and set its laws... This clip from the Majority Report, live MF at 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at Majority.FM
- published: 10 Oct 2012
- views: 8177
- author: SamSeder
ONE Women and Girls in Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:32
- Updated: 29 Sep 2012
Actresses and ONE members America Ferrera and Alexis Bledel, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, head of social innovation at Twitter, and ONE staff visited Honduras to see how women and girls in Latin America are fighting poverty and malnutrition with help from innovative us government programs. Film by Emmy-award winning director Jesse Dylan at Wondros.
http://wn.com/ONE_Women_and_Girls_in_Honduras
Actresses and ONE members America Ferrera and Alexis Bledel, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, head of social innovation at Twitter, and ONE staff visited Honduras to see how women and girls in Latin America are fighting poverty and malnutrition with help from innovative us government programs. Film by Emmy-award winning director Jesse Dylan at Wondros.
- published: 24 Sep 2012
- views: 14926
- author: TheONECampaign
Madrileños por el Mundo - Madrileños por el mundo: Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 40:24
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Honduras es el único país de América Central que no tiene volcanes. El 40% del país es selva tropical pero también tiene 600 millas de playas extraordinarias que hemos visitado acompañados de nuestros madrileños por el mundo.
http://wn.com/Madrileños_por_el_Mundo_Madrileños_por_el_mundo_Honduras
Honduras es el único país de América Central que no tiene volcanes. El 40% del país es selva tropical pero también tiene 600 millas de playas extraordinarias que hemos visitado acompañados de nuestros madrileños por el mundo.
- published: 20 Sep 2012
- views: 1381
- author: telemadrid
Ghosts in Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:06
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
I tell the story of the night I encountered a ghost in Honduras. It was frightening.
http://wn.com/Ghosts_in_Honduras
I tell the story of the night I encountered a ghost in Honduras. It was frightening.
- published: 27 Nov 2012
- views: 292
- author: samsexperiences
Garifunas en Tela, Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:35
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
This is a clip from what some young Garifuna kids in Tela, Honduras can do. This dane is called "Punta" and is a traditional dance of the Garifuna people. This was in the beautiful Honduras Shores Plantation Club.For more info on this place, visit: www.hondshores.com For other videos, visit: Carive Productions www.facebook.com/carivepro
http://wn.com/Garifunas_en_Tela,_Honduras
This is a clip from what some young Garifuna kids in Tela, Honduras can do. This dane is called "Punta" and is a traditional dance of the Garifuna people. This was in the beautiful Honduras Shores Plantation Club.For more info on this place, visit: www.hondshores.com For other videos, visit: Carive Productions www.facebook.com/carivepro
- published: 21 Feb 2012
- views: 48179
- author: richieramone1
Brazil vs Honduras 3-2 Highlight 2012 Olympic
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:12
- Updated: 22 Dec 2012
Brazil vs Honduras 3-2 Highlight 2012 Olympic,巴西和洪都拉斯 Brésil et au Honduras Βραζιλία και την Ονδούρα ברזיל בהונדורס ब्राजील और हाण्डूरस Brasile e Honduras ブラジル、ホンジュラス 브라질과 온두라스 Бразилия против Гондураса Brasil e Honduras
http://wn.com/Brazil_vs_Honduras_3-2_Highlight_2012_Olympic
Brazil vs Honduras 3-2 Highlight 2012 Olympic,巴西和洪都拉斯 Brésil et au Honduras Βραζιλία και την Ονδούρα ברזיל בהונדורס ब्राजील और हाण्डूरस Brasile e Honduras ブラジル、ホンジュラス 브라질과 온두라스 Бразилия против Гондураса Brasil e Honduras
- published: 04 Aug 2012
- views: 14548
- author: ZazaNews1
Coffe Tours in Danli, El Paraiso Honduras!!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:31
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
When You come to Honduras, Can Not lose the Coffee Tours Trip inside El Paraiso to the Southwest near to the Nicaraguan Border!!! Join Us To Enjoy a really Coffee Process experience, in the high mounts.
http://wn.com/Coffe_Tours_in_Danli,_El_Paraiso_Honduras!!
When You come to Honduras, Can Not lose the Coffee Tours Trip inside El Paraiso to the Southwest near to the Nicaraguan Border!!! Join Us To Enjoy a really Coffee Process experience, in the high mounts.
- published: 29 Dec 2012
- author: Rafael Gaitan
Shit Hondurans Say
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:14
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Hey everyone! So I had uploaded this video about 3 days ago in my old YouTube account acalvarado7. Unfortunately, I deleted that account (by mistake) so I'm uploading a bunch of my videos. This is one of them! I usually do beauty related videos in English, but I just had to do this one for my people! I know it's in Spanish, but it wouldn't have made sense if I would have done it in English. Hope you enjoy it xoxoxo I do not own any of the songs played. Songs played: -Quien sos? by Diablos Negros -Traca Traca by Filosofia -1, 2, 3 by Kazzabe FTC: Cheerios didn't pay me to confuse them with Corn Flakes lol Follow Me on Twitter: twitter.com Follow Me on Instagram: @lipstickfables
http://wn.com/Shit_Hondurans_Say
Hey everyone! So I had uploaded this video about 3 days ago in my old YouTube account acalvarado7. Unfortunately, I deleted that account (by mistake) so I'm uploading a bunch of my videos. This is one of them! I usually do beauty related videos in English, but I just had to do this one for my people! I know it's in Spanish, but it wouldn't have made sense if I would have done it in English. Hope you enjoy it xoxoxo I do not own any of the songs played. Songs played: -Quien sos? by Diablos Negros -Traca Traca by Filosofia -1, 2, 3 by Kazzabe FTC: Cheerios didn't pay me to confuse them with Corn Flakes lol Follow Me on Twitter: twitter.com Follow Me on Instagram: @lipstickfables
- published: 25 Jan 2012
- views: 234237
- author: LipstickFables
Daddy Yankee de gira en Tegucigalpa, Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:29
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Daddy_Yankee_de_gira_en_Tegucigalpa,_Honduras
Honduras 8 Canadá 1 (Rumbo a Brasil 2014) 16-10-2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:28
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Gran triunfo de Honduras sobre Canadá
http://wn.com/Honduras_8_Canadá_1_Rumbo_a_Brasil_2014_16-10-2012
Bienvenido a Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:17
- Updated: 27 Dec 2012
Este es el video de mi Viaje a Honduras con mi familia. Pronto empiezan los nuevos programas. Enlace de Suscripcion de la Revista YOUTUBE LATINO t.co Facebook - www.facebook.com Twitter - twitter.com Google Plus - gplus.to
http://wn.com/Bienvenido_a_Honduras
Este es el video de mi Viaje a Honduras con mi familia. Pronto empiezan los nuevos programas. Enlace de Suscripcion de la Revista YOUTUBE LATINO t.co Facebook - www.facebook.com Twitter - twitter.com Google Plus - gplus.to
- published: 28 Feb 2012
- views: 25383
- author: FelipeRayTyson
American Airlines Boeing 757 Crazy Landing in Honduras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:53
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
AviationExplorer.com - An American Airlines Boeing 757 Lands in Honduras. The runway is super short and there is no direct approach path. The pilot has to come in at a 90 degree angle and at the last minute turn the aircraft into the runway plus there is a crosswind just to make it exciting.....
http://wn.com/American_Airlines_Boeing_757_Crazy_Landing_in_Honduras
AviationExplorer.com - An American Airlines Boeing 757 Lands in Honduras. The runway is super short and there is no direct approach path. The pilot has to come in at a 90 degree angle and at the last minute turn the aircraft into the runway plus there is a crosswind just to make it exciting.....
- published: 25 Mar 2011
- views: 1032161
- author: AviationExplorer
TVDX: Honduras HRJS Analog TV-2 via Sporadic-e
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:54
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
GACTVDX Friday, December 28, 2012 2051 UTC Two line superimposed white text showing date and time in upper left corner but unable to read it as text size is to small. New ID logo upper right- Looks like HD added to top right of the "V". Analog CH-2 VTV HRJS Tu-Canal San Pedro Sula, Honduras 926 air miles distance Received in Tampa, Florida
http://wn.com/TVDX_Honduras_HRJS_Analog_TV-2_via_Sporadic-e
GACTVDX Friday, December 28, 2012 2051 UTC Two line superimposed white text showing date and time in upper left corner but unable to read it as text size is to small. New ID logo upper right- Looks like HD added to top right of the "V". Analog CH-2 VTV HRJS Tu-Canal San Pedro Sula, Honduras 926 air miles distance Received in Tampa, Florida
- published: 29 Dec 2012
- views: 1
- author: GACTVDX
photo: AP / Altaf Qadri
29 Dec 2012
Police in India have sealed off much of the capital, Delhi, and issued an appeal for calm after the death of a woman who was gang-raped in the city. The 23-year old woman, who has not been identified, died early on Saturday at a hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for specialist treatment. Her body is to be flown back to India for burial ... Gatherings of more than five people have been banned in the city centre ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: US Navy / HMC Josh Ives
27 Dec 2012
Imperial adventures are nothing new in the Middle East. Neither is their glorification, as Peter O’Toole’s pained Lawrence of Arabia eternally reminds us. But for a decade or so now, things have been heating up, as if to coincide with climate change and fears of declining petroleum reserves ... The Belly for Belligerence? ... The question loomed over beltway intelligentsia like an ephemeral Gordian knot ... We’re All Hawks Now ... While George W ... ....(size: 9.3Kb)
photo: AP / Ben Curtis
28 Dec 2012
The president of Central African Republic (CAR) has urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital. Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Francois Bozize on Thursday pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler ... 516 Share ... News ... ....(size: 19.5Kb)
photo: AP / Itsuo Inouye
29 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. A millennium before the English statesmen Edmund Burke, regarded as the father of Western Conservatism and who wrote, "good order is the foundation of all things," Japan's Seventeen-Article Constitution began with this conservative principle. "Harmony is to be cherished, and opposition for opposition's sake must be avoided as a matter of principle." ... militarism, those protesting U.S....(size: 9.7Kb)
photo: WN / Janice Sabnal
27 Dec 2012
Washington. Six people, including two young children, were left dead in weather-related accidents, as winter snowstorms complicated travel for many Americans in the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. Snow totals in parts of Indiana ranged from 6 to 12 inches, CNN reported. About 350 snowploughs were clearing roads throughout the city. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told residents they should avoid nonessential travel ... IANS ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)
The Daily Beast
30 Dec 2012
The Miami Herald
30 Dec 2012
The U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for all U.S. military activities in Latin America and is headquartered in Doral, recently transitioned its leadership to Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly from Gen. Douglas Fraser, who is retiring after a distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Air Force ... 1 ... Gen ... In particular, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Paraguay and Chile deserve more attention from the Department of Defense (DoD) ... The U.S....(size: 3.5Kb)
New York Daily News
30 Dec 2012
As we snaked through the village of Pisté, illuminated by the dawn’s early rays, the procession was already underway ... With hundreds of archeological sites throughout Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and to the south in neighboring Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, the human tide may have dispersed across El Mundo Maya, but legendary Chichen Itza, dating from around 800 A.D ... The U.S ... ....(size: 3.2Kb)
Taipei Times
29 Dec 2012
In a four-point statement published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Honduras on Friday, the Central American country, whose diplomatic ties with the Republic of China date back to 1941, said its relationship with China has been developing for some months ... In Taipei, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday that the ministry remained confident that Taiwan retains normal and solid diplomatic ties Honduras....(size: 3.1Kb)
NZ Herald
29 Dec 2012
HONDURAS ... Like the All Whites with Ryan Nelsen and Winston Reid, Honduras rely heavily on a couple of players who appear at the highest level of the sport, significantly above many of their team-mates ... Bengston, who scored a hat-trick in the surprise 8-1 win over Canada which gave Honduras a passage to stage three, was also a star at the London Olympics, as Honduras reached the last eight....(size: 8.7Kb)
The Examiner
29 Dec 2012
noodls
29 Dec 2012
(Source. Seattle Sounders FC). Posted by.Dave Clark, Special from SounderAtHeart.com. 12/28/2012. Four players joined Seattle Sounders FC late in the 2012 season ... A two-time Olympian with Honduras Martinez missed practice and playing time due to multiple national team calls ... He also needed to adapt to a more firm role than the free roaming forward he is for Honduras, with Seattle he is a more traditional midfielder ... distributed by ... (noodl....(size: 6.8Kb)
noodls
29 Dec 2012
(Source. Dundee Corporation) DUNDEE CORPORATION ACQUIRES FURTHER INTEREST IN BREAKWATER RESOURCES LTD. Toronto, December 31, 2007 - Dundee Corporation (TSX. DC.A and DC.PR.A) announced today that it has indirectly acquired through a wholly owned subsidiary 6,122,449 flow through common shares of Breakwater Resources Ltd ... It's concentrate production is derived from four mines located in Canada, Chile and Honduras ... (noodl. 17080953) ....(size: 2.9Kb)
MSNBC
29 Dec 2012
Digital snapshots may make cute holiday memories for all to share, but now a similar technology may soon help create superb Syrahs or marvelous Merlots ... Science news from NBCNews.com. NBC News ... Explainer ... New World's first fermented drink Honduras ... ... Honduras ... The earliest evidence for this cacao-based wine comes from chemical analysis of pottery fragments recovered at the Puerto Escondido site in Honduras dating to as early as 1400 B.C ... ....(size: 17.3Kb)
MSNBC
29 Dec 2012
Digital snapshots may make cute holiday memories for all to share, but now a similar technology may soon help create superb Syrahs or marvelous Merlots ... Science news from NBCNews.com. NBC News ... Explainer ... New World's first fermented drink Honduras ... ... Honduras ... The earliest evidence for this cacao-based wine comes from chemical analysis of pottery fragments recovered at the Puerto Escondido site in Honduras dating to as early as 1400 B.C ... ....(size: 17.3Kb)
Forbes
29 Dec 2012
Manchester United needs two goals in the final five minutes from Robin van Persie to beat newly promoted Southampton 3-2 in the Premier League. Another expensive summer acquisition Zlatan Ibrahimovic also scores twice as PSG defeats Lille 2-1. Bayern Munich stuffs Stuttgart 6-1 with all the goals coming in the first 51 minutes ... They beat Granada 3-0 ... Second place is between Canada and Honduras ... Spain leaves it late to beat Georgia 1-0 ... ....(size: 2.7Kb)
my SA
29 Dec 2012
HAVERHILL, Mass. (AP) — Even after retiring from ministry, the Rev. Jim Gustafson is looking for ways to make the word of God accessible to people. Gustafson, 78, recently published, "psalms/tweets ... He said it did not take him long to rewrite the psalms, usually 10 to 20 minutes ... Gustafson said he uses the psalms as a devotion ... In addition to West Congregational, he has been conducting short-term missions to the Rus-Rus tribe in Honduras ... ....(size: 4.1Kb)
Al Jazeera
29 Dec 2012
An unprecedented number of children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are migrating to the US. They risk being kidnapped and forced to work for drug cartels or being killed. But violence and poverty in their countries of birth still forces thousands of children to risk their lives to reach the US every year ... It is a harrowing, dangerous journey, but what happens to them once they arrive in the United States? ... [it] would be" ... ....(size: 8.4Kb)
| Republic of Honduras
República de Honduras
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| Motto: "Libre, Soberana e Independiente" (Spanish) "Free, Sovereign and Independent" |
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| Anthem:
National Anthem of Honduras  |
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.svg) |
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| Capital (and largest city) |
Tegucigalpa 14°6′N 87°13′W / 14.1°N 87.217°W / 14.1; -87.217 |
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| Official language(s) | Spanish | |||||
| Recognised regional languages | English, Garifuna, Miskito,and other indigenous languages. | |||||
| Ethnic groups | 90% Mestizo mixture of European and American Indian 7% Amerindian 2% Black 1% White[1] |
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| Demonym | Honduran, Catracho | |||||
| Government | Constitutional republic | |||||
| - | President | Porfirio Lobo Sosa | ||||
| - | Vice President | María Antonieta de Bográn | ||||
| - | President of the National Congress | Juan Orlando Hernández | ||||
| - | President of the Supreme Court | Jorge Rivera Avilés | ||||
| Legislature | National Congress | |||||
| Independence | from Spain, First Mexican Empire, and the Federal Republic of Central America | |||||
| - | Declared | 15 September 1821 (as part of Federal Republic of Central America) | ||||
| - | from the First Mexican Empire | 1 July 1823 | ||||
| - | Declared | 5 November 1838 (as Honduras) | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 112,492 km2 (102nd) 43,278 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | 2010 estimate | 8,249,574 (94th) | ||||
| - | 2007 census | 7,529,403 | ||||
| - | Density | 64/km2 (128th) 166/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $35.697 billion[2] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $4,345[2] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $17.381 billion[2] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $2,115[2] | ||||
| Gini (1992–2007) | 55.3[3] (high) | |||||
| HDI (2010) |  0.604[4] (medium) (106th) |
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| Currency | Lempira (HNL) |
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| Time zone | CST (UTC−6) | |||||
| Drives on the | Right | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | HN | |||||
| Internet TLD | .hn | |||||
| Calling code | 504 | |||||
| 1 | "Libre, soberana e independiente" is the official motto, by congressional order, and was put on the coat of arms. | |||||
| 2 | Estimates explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected, as of July 2007. | |||||
Honduras[5] is a republic in Central America. It was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize.[6] The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spain who introduced its predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.
Its size is just over 112,492 km² with an estimated population of almost eight million.[7] Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone.
It is notable for its production of minerals, tropical fruit, and recently for exportation of clothing for the international market.
Contents |
Etymology[link]
- Higueras – a reference to the gourds that come from the Jicaro tree, many of which were found floating in the waters off the northwest coast of Honduras.
- Honduras – literally "depths" in Spanish. Columbus is traditionally quoted as having written "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras" (English: "Thank God we have come out of those depths") while along the northeastern coast.[8] However, William Davidson notes that there is no form of this quotation in the primary documents of Columbus's voyage, and that it in fact comes from accounts over a century later.[9][10]
- Honduras from fondura, a Leonese language word meaning anchorage which is one of the first words for the region to appear on a map in the second decade of the 16th century applied to the bay of Trujillo. It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province. Prior to 1580, Honduras referred to the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part.[10]
- Another early name is Guaymuras, revived as the name for the political dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica.
History[link]
Main article: History of Honduras
Pre-colonial period[link]
In pre-Columbian times, modern Honduras was part of the Mesoamerican cultural area. In the west, the Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant state within Honduras's borders was that based in Copán. Copán fell with the other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic, the early 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as the Ch'orti', isolated from their Choltian linguistic peers to the west.
Remains of other Pre-Columbian cultures are found throughout the country. Archaeologists have studied sites such as Naco and La Sierra in the Naco Valley, Los Naranjos on Lake Yojoa, Yarumela in the Comayagua Valley, La Ceiba and Salitron Viejo (both now under the Cajon Dam reservoir), Selin Farm and Cuyamel in the Aguan valley, Cerro Palenque, Travesia, Curruste, Ticamaya, Despoloncal in the lower Ulua river valley, and many others.
Conquest period[link]
On his fourth and the final voyage to the New World in 1502, Christopher Columbus became the first European to visit the Bay Islands on the coast of Honduras.[11] Columbus landed near the modern town of Trujillo, in the vicinity of the Guaimoreto Lagoon.
In 1524 the Spanish arrived on Honduras led by Hernan Cortes, bringing forces down from Mexico. Much of the conquest was done in the following two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid, and then by those loyal of Francisco Montejo but most particularly by those following Alvarado. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily armed forces from Mexico—Tlaxcalans and Mexica armies of thousands who lived on in the region as garrisons. Resistance to conquest was led in particularly by Lempira,and many regions in the north never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom. After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala. Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals. The Spanish ruled the region for approximately three centuries.
Colonial period[link]
Honduras was organized as a province of the "Kingdom of Guatemala" and the capital was fixed, first at Trujillo on the Atlantic coast, and later at Comayagua, and finally at Tegucigalpa in the central part of the country.
Silver mining was a key factor in the Spanish conquest and settlement of Honduras.[12] Initially the mines were worked by local people through the encomienda system, but as disease and resistance made this less available, slaves from other parts of Central America were brought in, and following the end of the local slave trading period at the end of the sixteenth century, African slaves, mostly from Angola were obtained.[13] After about 1650, very few slaves or other outside workers arrived in Honduras.
Although the Spanish conquered the southern or Pacific portion of Honduras fairly quickly they were less successful in the northern or Atlantic side. They managed to found a few towns along the coast, at Puerto Caballos and Trujillo in particular, but failed to conquer the eastern portion of the region and many pockets of independent indigenous people as well. The Miskito Kingdom, located in the northeast was particularly effective in resisting conquest. The Miskitos, in turn found support from northern European privateers, pirates and especially the English colony of Jamaica, which placed much of it under their protection after 1740.
Independence and the nineteenth century[link]
Honduras became independent from Spain in 1821 and was for a time under the Mexican Empire. After 1838 it was an independent republic and held regular elections.
Comayagua was the capital of Honduras until 1880, when it was transferred to Tegucigalpa.
In the decades of 1840 and 1850 Honduras participated in several failed attempts to restore Central American unity, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate ( 1846), the Diet of Nacaome (1847) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852).
Although Honduras eventually adopted the name Republic of Honduras, the unionist ideal never waned, and Honduras was one of the Central American countries that pushed hardest for the policy of regional unity.
Since independence, nearly 300 small internal rebellions and civil wars have occurred in the country, including some changes of government.
Liberal policies favoring international trade and investment began in the 1870s, and soon foreign interests became involved first in shipping, especially tropical fruit (most notably bananas) from the north coast, and then in railway building. In 1888, a projected railroad line from the Caribbean coast to the capital, Tegucigalpa, ran out of money when it reached San Pedro Sula, resulting in its growth into the nation's main industrial center and second largest city.
International influence in the 20th century[link]
In the late nineteenth century United States-based infrastructure and fruit growing companies were granted substantial land and exemptions to develop the northern regions. As a result, thousands of workers came to the north coast to work in the banana plantations and the other industries that grew up around the export industry. The banana exporting companies, dominated by Cuyamel Fruit Company (until 1930), United Fruit Company, and Standard Fruit Company, built an enclave economy in northern Honduras, controlling infrastructure and creating self-sufficient, tax exempt sectors that contributed relatively little to economic growth. In addition to drawing many Central American workers to the north, the fruit companies also encouraged immigration of workers from the English-speaking Caribbean, notably Jamaica and Belize, who introduced an African descended, English speaking and largely Protestant population into the country, though many left after changes in the immigration law in 1939.[14]
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Honduras joined the Allied Nations on 8 December 1941. Along with twenty-five other governments, Honduras signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942.
Constitutional crises in the 1940s led to reforms in the 1950s, and as a result of one such reform, workers were given permission to organize, which led to a general strike in 1954 that paralyzed the northern part of the country for more than two months, but which led to more general reforms.
In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought what would become known as the Football War.[15] There had been border tensions between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, a former president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating economy on the large number of immigrants from El Salvador. From that point on, the relationship between the two countries grew acrimonious and reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match as a preliminary to the World Cup. Tensions escalated, and on 14 March 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack on the Honduras army. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire, which took effect on 20 July and brought about a withdrawal of Salvadoran troops in early August.[15] Contributing factors to the conflict were a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long football war, as many as 130,000 Salvadoran immigrants were expelled.[16] El Salvador had agreed on a truce to settle the boundary issue, but Honduras later paid war damage costs for expelled refugees.[15]
Hurricane Fifi caused severe damage while skimming the northern coast of Honduras on 18 and 19 September 1974. Melgar Castro (1975–78) and Paz Garcia (1978–82) largely built the current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras.[17]
In 1979, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 and general elections were held in November 1981. A new constitution was approved in 1982 and the PLH government of Roberto Suazo assumed power. Roberto Suazo won the elections with a promise to carry out an ambitious program of economic and social development in Honduras in order to tackle the country's recession. President Roberto Suazo Cordoba launched ambitious social and economic development projects, sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.[17]
During the early 1980s, the United States established a continuing military presence in Honduras with the purpose of supporting the Contra guerillas fighting the Nicaraguan government and also developed an air strip and a modern port in Honduras. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against Marxist-Leninist militias such as Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings,[18] and many non-militants. The operation included a CIA-backed campaign of extrajudicial killings by government-backed units, most notably Battalion 316.[19]
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused such massive and widespread destruction that former Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores claimed that fifty years of progress in the country were reversed. Mitch obliterated about 70% of the crops and an estimated 70–80% of the transportation infrastructure, including nearly all bridges and secondary roads. Across the country, 33,000 houses were destroyed, an additional 50,000 damaged, some 5,000 people killed, 12,000 injured – for a total loss estimated at $3 billion USD.[20]
21st century[link]
The 2008 Honduran floods were severe and around half the country's roads were damaged or destroyed as a result.[21]
In 2009, a constitutional crisis[22][23] culminated in a transfer of power from the president to the head of Congress.[24] Countries all over the world, the OAS, and the UN formally and unanimously condemned the action as a coup d'état[22] and refused to recognize the de facto[25] government, though a document submitted to the United States Congress declared the ouster to be legal according to the opinion of the lawyers consulted by the Library of Congress.[26] In any event the Honduran Supreme Court also ruled the proceedings to be legal.
Presidents of Honduras[link]
Main article: List of Presidents of Honduras
Honduras has had many leaders from several parties since gaining its independence from Spain and from Mexico; nineteen have served as president during the period when Honduras was a part of the Federal Republic of Central America. Sixty-seven men have served as president of the Republic of Honduras. The current Honduras president is President Porfirio Lobo. In addition there have been several joint governments.
Contemporary politics[link]
![[icon]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121230112231/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion with: information on 2010 election of new president and 2011 government situation. |
Main article: Politics of Honduras
Honduras has five registered political parties: National Party (Partido Nacional de Honduras: PNH); Liberal Party (Partido Liberal de Honduras: PLH); Social Democrats (Partido Innovación y Unidad-Social Demócrata: PINU-SD), Social Christians (Partido Demócrata-Cristiano de Honduras: DCH); and Democratic Unification (Partido Unificación Democrática: UD). PNH and PLH have ruled the country for decades. In the last years, Honduras has had six Liberal presidents: Roberto Suazo Córdova, José Azcona del Hoyo, Carlos Roberto Reina, Carlos Roberto Flores, Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, and three Nationalists: Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, Ricardo Maduro and Porfirio Lobo Sosa. The elections have been full of controversies, including questions about whether Azcona was born in Spain, and whether Maduro should have been able to stand, given he was born in Panama.
In 1963, a military coup was mounted against the democratically elected president Ramón Villeda Morales. This event started a string of Military Governments which held power almost uninterrupted until 1981 when Suazo Córdova (LPH) was elected president and Honduras changed from a military authoritarian regime.
In 1986, there were five Liberal candidates and four Nationalists running for president. Because no one candidate obtained a clear majority, the so-called "Formula B" was invoked and Azcona del Hoyo became president. In 1990, Callejas won the election under the slogan "Llegó el momento del Cambio" (English: "The time for change has arrived"), which was heavily criticized for resembling El Salvador's "ARENAs" political campaign.[citation needed] Once in office, Callejas Romero gained a reputation for illicit enrichment, and has been the subject of several scandals and accusations.[citation needed] It was during Flores Facusse's mandate that Hurricane Mitch hit the country and decades of economic growth were eradicated in less than a week.[citation needed]
Government ministries are often incapable of carrying out their mandate due to budgetary constraints.[citation needed] In an interview with Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, Minister of Sports & Culture and one of three 'super ministers' responsible for coordinating the ministries related to public services (security and economic being the other two), published in Honduras This Week on 31 July 2006, it was related that 94% of the department budget was spent on bureaucracy and only 6% went to support activities and organizations covered by the mandate. Wages within that ministry were identified as the largest budget consumer.
President Maduro's administration "de-nationalized" the telecommunications sector in a move to promote the rapid diffusion of these services to the Honduran population. As of November 2005, there were around 10 private-sector telecommunications companies in the Honduran market, including two mobile phone companies. As of mid 2007, the issue of tele-communications continues to be very damaging to the current government.[27] The country's main newspapers are La Prensa, El Heraldo, La Tribuna and Diario Tiempo. The official newspaper is La Gaceta.
A Presidential and General Election was held on 27 November 2005. Manuel Zelaya of the Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras: PLH) won, with Porfirio Pepe Lobo of the National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras: PNH) coming in second. The PNH challenged the election results, and Lobo Sosa did not concede until 7 December. Towards the end of December, the government finally released the total ballot count, giving Zelaya the official victory. Zelaya was inaugurated as Honduras' new president on 27 January 2006.
Zelaya precipitated a national crisis by trying to hold a non-binding national referendum to ask the Honduran people: "Do you agree that, during the general elections of November 2009 there should be a fourth ballot to decide whether to hold a Constituent National Assembly that will approve a new political constitution?"[28] This possible Assembly then might not or more likely might have proposed constitutional changes to term-limits – as the military and the Supreme Court deemed possible – and other more likely, unrelated and legal constitutional changes.[29]
2009 Honduran constitutional crisis[link]
Main article: 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis
The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis[30] resulted in an event the international community almost universally refers to as a coup d'état. The coup lasted from 28 June 2009 to 27 January 2010. President Manuel Zelaya attempted to hold a "non-binding referendum" on 28 June asking voters if the upcoming November elections should include an additional ballot box. The ballot box would ask if the Honduran people wished to form a Constitutional Assembly in the term of the newly elected president.[31] The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that found a prior referendum based on the same issue unconstitutional and prohibited it.[32][33]
Referendum[link]
Zelaya ignored the Supreme Court and decided to proceed on the referendum, basing his decision on the Law of Citizen Participation, passed in 2006. Zelaya dismissed the head of the military command, General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, for disobeying an order to hold the poll, but the Supreme Court ordered his reinstatement. The Supreme Court then ordered the military (who as a non-civilian force had no jurisdiction over the matter) to detain Zelaya. The vote on the referendum was scheduled for 28 June 2009. In the early morning on that day, the army[34] arrested Zelaya at his home.
Zelaya was held in a U.S. airbase outside Tegucigalpa[35] before being forcibly sent to San José, Costa Rica.[36] Zelaya attempted reentry into the country on several occasions. According to the constitution, it is illegal to expatriate any Honduran citizen.[37] Roberto Micheletti, the former President of the Honduran Congress and a member of the same party as Zelaya, was sworn in as President by the National Congress on the afternoon of Sunday 28 June[38] for a term that ended on 27 January 2010.[39]
No country recognised the de facto government as legitimate; all members of the UN condemned the removal of Zelaya as a coup d'état. Some Republican Party members of the U.S. Congress voiced support at the time for the new government.[40][41] On 21 September 2009, Zelaya returned to Honduras and entered the Brazilian embassy. From its roof, he attempted to incite his supporters in a rebellion. The government disrupted utility services to the embassy and imposed a curfew in an attempt to maintain order in the area when Zelaya's supporters protested around the embassy.
The following day, in Decree PCM-M-016-2009, the government suspended five Constitutional rights: personal liberty (Article 69), freedom of expression (Article 72), freedom of movement (Article 81), habeas corpus (Article 84) and freedom of association and assembly.[42][43] It closed a leftist radio and a television station.[44] The decree suspending human rights was officially revoked on 19 October 2009 in La Gaceta.[45]
The 2009 election[link]
The general election for President of the Republic of Honduras was won by the candidate of the National Party of Honduras, Mr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa,under a tense state of political turmoil and ongoing coup, the 29 November 2009, beating his opponent the candidate of the Liberal Party of Honduras, civil engineer, Mr. Elvin Ernesto Santos Ordoñez. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, was sworn in office as president in 2010 and declared its tasks to be to bring order to the country and reapply for acceptance of Honduras within the OAS.
Departments and municipalities[link]
See also: Departments of Honduras and Municipalities of Honduras
Honduras is divided into 18 departments. The capital city is Tegucigalpa in the Central District within the department of Francisco Morazán.
- Atlántida
- Choluteca
- Colón
- Comayagua
- Copán
- Cortés
- El Paraíso
- Francisco Morazán
- Gracias a Dios
- Intibucá
- Islas de la Bahía
- La Paz
- Lempira
- Ocotepeque
- Olancho
- Santa Bárbara
- Valle
- Yoro
Geography[link]
Main article: Geography of Honduras
See also: List of rivers of Honduras
Honduras borders the Caribbean Sea on the north coast and the Pacific Ocean on the south through the Gulf of Fonseca. It mostly lies between latitudes 13° and 17°N (a small area lies south of 13°, and the Swan Islands are north of 17°), and longitudes 83° and 90°W.
The climate varies from tropical in the lowlands to temperate in the mountains. The central and southern regions are relatively hotter and less humid than the northern coast.
The Honduran territory consists mainly of mountains, but there are narrow plains along the coasts, a large undeveloped lowland jungle La Mosquitia region in the northeast, and the heavily populated lowland Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia, lies the UNESCO world-heritage site Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, with the Coco River which divides the country from Nicaragua.
The Islas de la Bahía and the Swan Islands (all off the north coast) are part of Honduras. Misteriosa Bank and Rosario Bank, 130 to 150 km (80–93 miles) north of the Swan Islands, fall within the EEZ of Honduras.
Natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, shrimp, and hydropower.
Ecology[link]
See also: List of birds of Honduras
The region is considered a biodiversity hotspot because of the numerous plant and animal species that can be found there. Like other countries in the region, Honduras contains vast biological resources. The country hosts more than 6,000 species of vascular plants, of which 630 (described so far) are orchids; around 250 reptiles and amphibians, more than 700 bird species, and 110 mammal species, half of them being bats.[46]
In the northeastern region of La Mosquitia lies the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a lowland rainforest which is home to a great diversity of life. The reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1982.
Honduras has rain forests, cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges with pine and oak trees, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands there are bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrot fish, schools of blue tang and whale shark.
Economy[link]
See also: Economy of Honduras
The economy has continued to grow slowly, but the distribution of wealth remains very polarized with average wages remaining low. Economic growth in the last few years has averaged 7% a year, one of the highest rates in Latin America, but 50% of the population, approximately 3.7 million people, still remains below the poverty line.[47] It is estimated that there are more than 1.2 million people who are unemployed, the rate of unemployment standing at 27.9%. According to the Human Development Index, Honduras is the sixth poorest/least developed country in Latin America, after Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Guyana, and Bolivia.
Honduras was declared one of the heavily indebted poor countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and was made eligible for debt relief in 2005.
The government operates both the electricity (ENEE) and land-line telephone services (HONDUTEL), as ENEE receives heavy subsidies for its chronic financial problems. HONDUTEL, however, is no longer a monopoly, as the telecommunication sector was opened to private sector on 25 December 2005, as was required under the CAFTA. The price of petroleum is controlled, and the Congress often ratifies temporary price regulations for basic commodities.
Gold, silver, lead and zinc are produced at mines owned by foreign companies.[48]
After years of decline against the U.S. dollar, lempira recently stabilized at around 19 lempiras per dollar. In June 2008, the exchange rate between U.S. dollar and lempira was approximately 1 to 18.85.
In 2005, Honduras signed the CAFTA, the free trade agreement with the United States. In December 2005, Puerto Cortes, the main seaport in Honduras, was included in the U.S. Container Security Initiative.[49]
On 7 December 2006, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy announced the first phase of the Secure Freight Initiative, an unprecedented effort to build upon existing port security measures by enhancing the U.S. government’s authority to scan containers from overseas for nuclear and radiological materials to better assess the risk of inbound containers. The initial phase of Secure Freight involves the deployment of nuclear detection and other devices to six foreign ports: Port Qasim in Pakistan; Puerto Cortes in Honduras; Southampton in the United Kingdom; Port Salalah in Oman; Port of Singapore; and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea. Since early 2007, containers from these ports have been scanned for radiation and other risk factors before they are allowed to depart for the United States.[50]
Social conditions[link]
Main article: Social Conditions in Honduras
Over the centuries, the territory of Honduras has known a number of social systems, ranging from ancient forager groups through early complex societies to more elaborated ones, such as those of the Maya and Lenca. Spanish conquest built on these, and their traditions carried over into the post independence period. Honduras' emergence in the late nineteenth century as a cash crop producing exporter and then its limited industrialization through the maquiladora system have brought about the conditions of today.
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of Honduras
See also: Hondurans
According to the CIA World Factbook, relying on national census data, Honduras has a population of 8,143,564 as at July 2011; the CIA World Factbook states that the population makeup is: "mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%".[51] However, in Honduras as in Latin American countries in general, racial breakdowns of population conform to local perceptions of race, and also social status which may tend to over represent some groups and under represent others, and thus such statistics must be understood in that light.
File:Copan.JPG
Village in Copán
Ninety percent of the Honduran population is Mestizo and white[52] (a mixture of Amerindian and European ancestry). About 7% of the Honduran population are members of one of the seven recognized indigenous groups.
About 2% of Honduras's population is black,[52] or Afro-Honduran, and mainly reside on the country's Caribbean coast. Most are the descendants of the slaves and indentured servants from the West Indian islands brought to Honduras. Another large group (about 150,000 today) are the Garifuna, descendants of an Afro-Carib population which revolted against British authorities on the island of St. Vincent and were forcibly moved to Belize and Honduras during the 18th century. Garífunas are part of Honduran identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu[citation needed]. A final group are workers brought in from the English-speaking Caribbean, primarily Jamaica and Barbados, to work on the fruit plantations started by mostly North American companies such as United Fruit Company in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Honduras hosts a significant Palestinian community (the vast majority of whom are Christian Arabs).[53] The Palestinians arrived in the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, establishing themselves especially in the city of San Pedro Sula. The Palestinian community, well integrated in Honduras, is prominent in business, commerce, banking, industry, and politics. There is also an East Asian community that is primarily Chinese descent, and to a lesser extent Japanese. Some Korean, Ryukyuan, Vietnamese and Filipino peoples also make up a small percentage due to their arrival to Honduras as contract laborers in the 1980s and 1990s. There are also an estimated 1000 Sumos (or Mayangnas) that live in Honduras, the majority of whom reside on the Caribbean coast[citation needed].
Since 1975, emigration from Honduras has accelerated as job-seekers and political refugees sought a better life elsewhere. Although many Hondurans have relatives in Nicaragua, Spain, Mexico, El Salvador and Canada, the majority of Hondurans living abroad are in the United States[citation needed].
Religion[link]
Main article: Religion in Honduras
Although most Hondurans are nominally Roman Catholic (which would be considered the main religion), according to one report, membership in the Roman Catholic Church is declining while membership in Protestant churches is increasing. The International Religious Freedom Report, 2008, notes that a CID Gallup poll reported that 47% of the population identified themselves as Catholic, 36% as evangelical Protestant, and 17% provided no answer or considered themselves "other." Customary Catholic church tallies and membership estimates 81% Catholic where the priest (in more than 185 parishes) is required to fill out a pastoral account of the parish each year.[54][55]
The CIA Factbook has Honduras listed as 97% Catholic and 3% Protestant.[56] Commenting on statistical variations everywhere, John Green of Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life notes that: "It isn't that ... numbers are more right than [someone else's] numbers ... but how one conceptualizes the group.[57] Often people attend one church without giving up their "home" church. Many who attend evangelical megachurches in the US, for example, attend more than one church.[58] This shifting and fluidity is common in Brazil where two-fifths of those who were raised evangelical are no longer evangelical and Catholics seem to shift in and out of various churches, often while still remaining Catholic.[59]
Most pollsters suggest an annual poll taken over a number of years would provide the best method of knowing religious demographics and variations in any single country. Still, in Honduras are thriving Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, Lutheran, Latter-day Saint (Mormon) and Pentecostal churches. There are Protestant seminaries. The Catholic Church, still the only "church" that is recognized, is also thriving in the number of schools, hospitals, and pastoral institutions (including its own medical school) that it operates. It archbishop, Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, is also very popular, both with the government, other churches, and in his own church. Practitioners of the Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Bahá'í, Rastafari and indigenous denominations and religions exist.[60]
Health[link]
The fertility rate is approximately 3.7 per woman.[61] The under-five mortality rate is at 40 per 1,000 live births.[61] The health expenditure was US$ (PPP) 197 per person in 2004.[61] There are about 57 physicians per 100,000 people.[61]
Culture[link]
Main article: Culture of Honduras
The most renowned Honduran painter is Jose Antonio Velásquez. Other important painters include Carlos Garay, and Roque Zelaya. Two of Honduras' most notable writers are Froylan Turcios and Ramón Amaya Amador. Others include Marco Antonio Rosa, Roberto Sosa, Lucila Gamero de Medina, Eduardo Bähr, Amanda Castro, Javier Abril Espinoza, Teófilo Trejo, and Roberto Quesada. Some of Honduras' notable musicians include Rafael Coello Ramos, Lidia Handal, Victoriano Lopez, Guillermo Anderson, Victor Donaire, Matilde Quan, Moises Canelo,Julio Quan Francisco Carranza and Camilo Rivera Guevara.
Hondurans are often referred to as Catracho or Catracha (fem) in Spanish. The word was coined by Nicaraguans and derives from the last name of the Spanish Honduran General Florencio Xatruch, who, in 1857, led Honduran armed forces against an attempted invasion by North American adventurer William Walker. The nickname is considered complimentary, not derogatory. The main language is Spanish, spoken by 94% as first language. Minority languages are spoken by less than 4%. These are Amerindian languages such as Garifuna, Miskito, and Pech; Honduras Sign Language; and English on the Bay Islands off the north coast.
Honduras This Week is a weekly English-language newspaper that has been published for seventeen years in Tegucigalpa. On the islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja, the Bay Islands Voice has been a source of monthly news since 2003.
Honduran cuisine makes extensive use of coconut, in both sweet and savory foods, and even in soups.
The José Francisco Saybe theater in San Pedro Sula is home to the Círculo Teatral Sampedrano (Theatrical Circle of San Pedro Sula)
Celebrations[link]
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Some of Honduras' national holidays include Honduras Independence Day on 15 September and Children's Day or Día del Niño, which is celebrated in homes, schools and churches on 10 September; on this day, children receive presents and have parties similar to Christmas or birthday celebrations. Some neighborhoods have piñatas on the street. Other holidays are Easter, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Day of the Soldier (3 October to celebrate the birth of Francisco Morazán), Christmas, El Dia de Lempira on 20 July,[62] and New Year's Eve.
Honduras Independence Day festivities start early in the morning with marching bands. Each band wears different colors and features cheerleaders. Fiesta Catracha takes place this same day: typical Honduran foods such as beans, tamales, baleadas, cassava with chicharron, and tortillas are offered. On Christmas Eve, the people reunite with their families and close friends to have dinner, then give out presents at midnight. In some cities fireworks are seen and heard at midnight. On New Year's Eve there is food and "cohetes", fireworks and festivities. Birthdays are also great events, and include the famous “piñata” which is filled with candies and surprises for the children invited.
La Feria Isidra is celebrated in La Ceiba, a city located in the north coast, in the second half of May to celebrate the day of the city's patron saint Saint Isidore. People from all over the world come for one week of festivities. Every night there is a little carnaval (carnavalito) in a neighborhood. Finally, on Saturday there is a big parade with floats and displays with people from many countries. This celebration is also accompanied by the Milk Fair, where many Hondurans come to show off their farm products and animals.
Education[link]
Main article: Education in Honduras
See also: List of schools in Honduras
In Honduras about 83.6% of the population of the country is literate.[61] The net primary enrollment rate was 94% in 2004,[61] while in 2007 the primary school completion rate was reported to be 40%.[citation needed] Honduras has bilingual (Spanish and English) and even trilingual (Spanish, English, German/Turkish) schools[63] and numerous universities.
The university is ruled by National Autonomous University of Honduras which have centers in the most important cities in Honduras.
Infrastructure[link]
Energy[link]
About half of the electricity sector in Honduras is privately owned. The remaining generation capacity is run by ENEE (Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica). Key challenges in the sector are:
- How to finance investments in generation and transmission in the absence of either a financially healthy utility or of concessionary funds by external donors for these types of investments;
- How to re-balance tariffs, cut arrears and reduce commercial losses – including electricity theft – without fostering social unrest; and
- How to reconcile environmental concerns with the government's objective to build two new large dams and associated hydropower plants.
- How to improve access in rural areas.
Water supply and sanitation[link]
Water supply and sanitation in Honduras varies greatly from urban centers to rural villages. Larger population centers generally have modernized water treatment and distribution systems, however water quality is often poor because of lack of proper maintenance and treatment. Rural areas generally have basic drinking water systems with limited capacity for water treatment. Many urban areas have sewer systems in place for the collection of wastewater, however proper treatment of wastewater is scarce. In rural areas, sanitary facilities are generally limited to latrines and basic septic pits.
Water and sanitation services were historically provided by Servicio Autonomo de Alcantarillas y Aqueductos (SANAA). In 2003, a new "water law" was passed which called for the decentralization of water services. With the 2003 law, local communities have the right and responsibility to own, operate, and control their own drinking water and wastewater systems. Since passage of the new law, many communities have joined together to address water and sanitation issues on a regional basis.
Many national and international non-government organizations have a history of working on water and sanitation projects in Honduras. International groups include, but are not limited to, the Red Cross, Water 1st, Rotary Club, Catholic Relief Services, Water for People, EcoLogic Development Fund, CARE, CESO-SACO, Engineers Without Borders USA, Flood The Nations, SHH, Global Brigades, and Agua para el Pueblo in partnership with AguaClara at Cornell University.
In addition, many government organizations working on projects include: the European Union, USAID, the Army Corps of Engineers, Cooperacion Andalucia, the government of Japan, and many others.
Transport[link]
File:Carretera37.jpg
Highway in Honduras
Transportation in Honduras consists of the following infrastructure: 699 km of railways;[64] 13,603 km of roadways;[64] seven ports and harbors;[citation needed] and 112 airports altogether (12 Paved, 100 unpaved).[64] Responsibility for policy in the transport sector rests with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing (SOPRTRAVI after its Spanish acronym).
National symbols[link]
The flag of Honduras is composed of 3 equal horizontal stripes, with the upper and lower ones being blue and representing the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The central stripe is white. It contains five blue stars representing the five states of the Central American Union. The middle star represents Honduras, located in the center of the Central American Union.
The Coat of Arms was established in 1945. It is an equilateral triangle, at the base is a volcano between three castles, over which is a rainbow and the sun shining. The triangle is placed on an area that symbolizes being bathed by both seas. Around all of this an oval containing in golden lettering: "Republic of Honduras, Free, Sovereign and Independent".
The National Anthem of Honduras is a result of a contest carried out in 1914 during the presidency of Manuel Bonilla. In the end, it was the poet Augosto C. Coello that ended up writing the anthem, with the participation of German composer Carlos Hartling writing the music. The anthem was officially adopted on 15 November 1915, during the presidency of Alberto Membreño. The anthem is composed of a choir and seven stroonduran,that is very long.
The national flower is the famous orchid, Rhyncholaelia digbyana (formerly known as Brassavola digbyana), which replaced the rose in 1969. The change of the National Flower was carried out during the administration of general Oswaldo López Arellano, thinking that Brassavola digbiana "is an indigenous plant of Honduras; having this flower exceptional characteristics of beauty, vigor and distinction", as the decree dictates it.
The National Tree of Honduras is the Honduras Pine (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis). Also the use of the tree was regulated, "to avoid the unnecessary destructions caused by choppings or fires of forest."
The National Mammal is the White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), which was adopted as a measure to avoid excessive depredation. It is one of two species of deer that live in Honduras. The National Bird of Honduras is the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao). This bird was much valued by the pre-Columbian civilizations of Honduras.
Folklore[link]
Legends and fairy tales are paramount within the Honduras culture; Lluvia de Peces (Fish Rain) is an example of this. The legend of El Cadejo, La Llorona and La Ciguanaba (La Sucia) are also popular.
Sports[link]
Football is the most popular Sport in Honduras. Information on all other Honduran sports related articles are below:
- Football in Honduras
- Federación Nacional Autónoma de Fútbol de Honduras
- Honduras national baseball team
- Honduras national football team
- Honduras national under-20 football team
- Honduras U-17 national football team
See also[link]
- Outline of Honduras
- Index of Honduras-related articles
- International rankings of Honduras
- List of Hondurans
- List of newspapers in Honduras
- List of places in Honduras
- Military of Honduras
Notes[link]
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ho.html
- ^ a b c d "Honduras". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=69&pr.y=4&sy=2009&ey=2012&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=268&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ 1992–2007, Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme. "Human Development Report 2009 – M Economy and inequality – Gini index". Archived from the original on 17 October 2009. http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/161.html. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ "Human Development Report 2010". United Nations. 2010. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Table1.pdf. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
- ^ i/hɒnˈdʊərəs/ (Spanish: República de Honduras [reˈpuβlika ðe onˈduɾas] "Republic of Honduras".
- ^ "Archeological Investigations in the Bay Islands, Spanish Honduras". Aboututila.com. http://www.aboututila.com/UtilaInfo/William-Strong/AI-Environmental.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDI_2008_EN_Tables.pdf
- ^ "Columbus's quote". Honduras.com. http://www.honduras.com/history/. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Davidson traces it to Herrera. Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos. VI. Buernos Aires: Editorial Guarania. 1945-47. , page 24
- ^ a b Davidson, William (2006). Honduras, An Atlas of Historical Maps. Managua, Nicaragua: Fundacion UNO, Colección Cultural de Centro America Serie Historica, no. 18. p. 313. ISBN 978-99924-53-47-6.
- ^ "Honduras History". Honduras.com. http://honduras.com/history/. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Newson, Linda (October 1982). "Labour in the Colonial Mining Industry of Honduras". The Americas (Philadelphia: The Academy of American Franciscan History) 39 (2): 185. DOI:10.2307/981334. JSTOR 981334.
- ^ Linda Newsom,The Cost of Conquest: Indian Decline in Honduras Under Spanish Rule. Dellplain Latin American Studies; No. 20, Westview Press, Boulder
- ^ Glen Chambers, Race Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010)
- ^ a b c "Wars of the World: Soccer War 1969". OnWar.com. http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/soccer1969.htm. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
- ^ "Honduras – War with El Salvador". Library of Congress Country Studies.
- ^ a b "Background Note: Honduras". United States Department of State. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm.
- ^ "Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement". http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/exgi_0001_0001_0/exgi_0001_0001_0_00044.html.
- ^ "A survivor tells her story" baltimoresun.com, 15 June 1995. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ USGS Hurricane Mitch
- ^ "Aid workers say Honduran floods worse than Hurricane Mitch". Alertnet.org. 29 October 2008. http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/40453/2008/09/29-182633-1.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ a b "General Assembly condemns coup in Honduras". Un.org. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31314&Cr=honduras&Cr1. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "Oas Suspends Membership Of Honduras". Oas.org. http://www.oas.org/OASpage/press_releases/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-219/09. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "New Honduran leader sworn in". BBC News. 29 June 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8123513.stm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "De Facto government in Honduras pays Washington lobbyists $300,000 to sway U.S. opinion". Gov Monitor. 6 October 2009. http://www.thegovmonitor.com/americas_features/de-facto-government-in-honduras-pays-washington-lobbyists-300000-to-sway-u-s-opinion-8579.html. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "US Congress report argues Zelaya’s ousting was "legal and constitutional" — MercoPress". En.mercopress.com. http://en.mercopress.com/2009/09/25/us-congress-report-argues-zelayas-ousting-was-legal-and-constitutional. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ Que nadie se atreva a intentar romper el orden constitucional[dead link]
- ^ "Zelaya decide iniciar consulta popular para reformar Constitución de Honduras – Terra". Noticias.terra.com. 24 March 2009. http://noticias.terra.com/articulos/act1690222/Zelaya_decide_iniciar_consulta_popular_para_reformar_Constitucion_de_Honduras. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "Michael Fox: "The Honduran coup as overture"". Counterpunch.org. http://www.counterpunch.org/fox07312009.html. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "Timeline: The Honduran Crisis". AS/COA Online. 12 November 2009. http://www.as-coa.org/article.php?id=2008&nav=res&subid=61. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
- ^ http://media.sfexaminer.com/documents/2009-002965HNRPT.pdf
- ^ "Honduras president: Nation calm before controversial vote". CNN.com. 27 June 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/27/honduras.zelaya/index.html.
- ^ De Cordoba, José (26 June 2009). "Honduras Lurches Toward Crisis Over Election". online.wsj.com (The Wall Street Journal). Archived from the original on 26 July 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597369604957305.html. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
- ^ according to the US embassy cable of 24 July 2009: http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/07/09TEGUCIGALPA645.html
- ^ "Honduran leader forced into exile". BBC News. 28 June 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8123126.stm. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
- ^ "Honduras president detained, sent to Costa Rica, official says". CNN. 28 June 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/28/honduras.president.arrested/index.html. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
- ^ Article 102 of the Honduran Constitution. http://www.honduras.com/honduras-constitution-english.html
- ^ "Honduran military ousts president ahead of vote". The Washington Post. 28 June 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062801569.html. Retrieved 28 June 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Fernandez, Ana (29 June 2009). "Congress names new interim Honduran president". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/congress-names-new-interim-honduran-president-20090629-d1fb.html. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
- ^ By Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) (11 September 2009). "Support democracy in Honduras (Rep. Dana Rohrabacher) – The Hill's Congress Blog". Thehill.com. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/58291-support-democracy-in-honduras-rep-dana-rohrabacher. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "Pence Condemns Obama Administration’s Policies in Honduras". Mikepence.house.gov. 29 November 2009. http://mikepence.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3695&Itemid=71. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Ordaz, Pablo (28 September 2009). "Micheletti ordena el cierre de los medios de comunicación afines a Zelaya" (in Spanish). El País. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Micheletti/ordena/cierre/medios/comunicacion/afines/Zelaya/elpepuint/20090928elpepuint_2/Tes. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ^ Giordano, Al (27 September 2009). "Honduras Coup Leader Micheletti Decrees 45-Day Suspension of Constitution". Narco News. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3465/honduras-coup-leader-micheletti-decrees-45-day-suspension-constitution. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ^ "The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression condemns the suspension of guarantees in Honduras and the violations of the right to freedom of expression". Organization of American States. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. http://www.oas.org/OASpage/press_releases/press_release.asp?sCodigo=IACHR71/09. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ^ Rosenberg, Mica; Gustavo Palencia (19 October 2009). "Honduras de facto leader lifts ban on media, protests". Reuters. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE59I43L20091019?sp=true. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ^ "Honduran Biodiversity Database". Honduras Silvestre. http://www.hondurassilvestre.com. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "web.worldbank.org". web.worldbank.org. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/HONDURASEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21035522~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295071,00.html. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Dan Oancea: Mining in Central America http://magazine.mining.com/Issues/0901/MiningCentralAmerica.pdf
- ^ Ports in CSI – CBP.gov[dead link]
- ^ "DHS: DHS and DOE Launch Secure Freight Initiative". Dhs.gov. 7 December 2006. http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1165520867989.shtm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ CIA – The World Factbook – Honduras
- ^ a b "Honduras". CIA Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ho.html.
- ^ The Arabs of Honduras. Larry Luxner. Saudi Aramco World.
- ^ Annuario Pontificio, 2009.
- ^ Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Ind.: Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2008),312–13
- ^ CIA World Factbook, 2009
- ^ John Dart, "How many in mainline Categories vary in surveys," Christian Century, 16 June 2009, 13.
- ^ Associated Press, 13 June 2009, reported in several papers
- ^ Maria Celi Scalon and Andrew Greeley, "Catholics and Protestants in Brazil," America 18 August 2003,14.
- ^ "International Religious Freedom Report 2008: Honduras". State.gov. 19 September 2008. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108530.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f "Human Development Report 2009 – Honduras". Hdrstats.undp.org. http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_HND.html. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "Honduras This Week Online June 1999". Marrder.com. 9 December 1991. http://www.marrder.com/htw/jun99/cultural.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ "HondureĂąos bilingĂźes tendrĂĄn mĂĄs ventajas – Negocios" (in (Spanish)). LaPrensa.hn. 15 October 2009. http://www.laprensa.hn/Vivir/Ediciones/2009/10/15/Noticias/Hondurenos-bilinguees-tendran-mas-ventajas. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
- ^ a b c "CIA – The World Factbook – Honduras". Cia.gov. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ho.html#Trans. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
References[link]
- Adventures in Nature: Jose Elephant; James D. Gollin
- Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado; Medea Benjamin
- Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic; James Jones
- Honduras: State for Sale; Richard Lapper, Francisco Kanemoto
- Inside Honduras; Kent Norsworthy and Tom Berry
- La Mosquitia: A Guide to the Savannas, Rain Forest and Turtle Hunters; Goal
- Moon Handbooks: Honduras; Christopher Humphrey
- Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870–1972; Dario A. Euraque
- Seven Names for the Bellbird: Conservation Geography in Honduras; Mark Bonta
- Ulysses Travel Guide: Honduras; Eric Ilamovitch
- The United States in Honduras, 1980–1981: An Ambassador's Memoir; Jack R. Binns
- The War of the Dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969; Thomas P. Anderson
External links[link]
| Find more about Honduras on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
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Definitions and translations from Wiktionary |
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Images and media from Commons |
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Learning resources from Wikiversity |
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News stories from Wikinews |
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Quotations from Wikiquote |
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Source texts from Wikisource |
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Textbooks from Wikibooks |
- Utila'sWebsite
- Government of Honduras (Spanish)
- Official Site of the Tourism Institute of Honduras (English)
- Chief of State and Cabinet Members
- Honduras entry at The World Factbook
- Honduras at University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries GovPubs
- Honduras at the Open Directory Project
- Wikimedia Atlas of Honduras
- Honduras travel guide from Wikitravel
- Honduran Biodiversity Database (Spanish)
- Honduras Tips Travel Info (English)
- Honduras Weekly
- Travel and Tourism Info on Honduras (English)
- Humanitarian Aid in Honduras
- Answers.com
- CIA World Factbook
- Project Honduras
- Interactive Maps Honduras
- Key Development Forecasts for Honduras from International Futures
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| Daddy Yankee | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ramón Ayala |
| Also known as | Winchester 30-30 El Cangri El Jefe The Big Boss DY El Máximo Lider |
| Born | (1977-02-03) February 3, 1977 (age 35) |
| Origin | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Genres | Reggaeton, Latin rap, hip-hop |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | El Cartel, Interscope, Sony Music Latin |
| Website | daddyyankee.com |
Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1977), known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball, and aspired to become a Major League Baseball player. He was unable to continue this sport when he received an injury to one of his legs, leaving him unable to walk correctly. He then became involved in the underground rap movement that was in its early stages in Puerto Rico, later to be called reggaeton. After receiving lessons from several artists within the genre, he developed an independent career, first recording in a production titled Playero 37. After this he began to produce independent albums. His first solo album was No Mercy. He subsequently formed a duo with Nicky Jam, and then continued his solo career with the releases of El Cartel and El Cartel II. This led him be one of many pioneers of the reggaeton genre earning him the nickname "El Cangri".
In 2002 El Cangri.com became Ayala's first album with international success, receiving coverage in the markets of New York and Miami. Barrio Fino was released in 2004, and the album received numerous awards, including Lo Nuestro Awards and a Latin Billboard, as well as receiving nominations for the Latin Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards. Barrio Fino performed well in the sales charts of the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. On June 5, 2007, El Cartel Records released El Cartel: The Big Boss, which was ranked as the top-selling album in Latin music genres in 2007. He promoted the album with an international tour which began in the United States and continued through Latin America, breaking attendance records in Ecuador and Bolivia.
His performances have appeared on more than 70 albums, including compilations such as Mas Flow 2 and Blin Blin Vol. 1. Outside of his work as a musician, Ayala has also worked as an actor and producer. Throughout his career, he has been generally reluctant to discuss his personal life, but has publicly expressed the importance of his wife and children to him.
Following the incident, he became interested in the underground movement, which at the time was in an early organizational stage.[1] He also took more interest in the events that took place in the neighborhood in which he was raised, a public housing project named Villa Kennedy.[2] Early in his career he attempted to imitate the style of Vico C. He went on to emulate other artists in the genre, including DJ Playero, DJ Nelson, and DJ Goldy, taking elements from their styles in order to develop an original style.[1] In doing so, he eventually abandoned the traditional model of rap and became one of the first artists to perform reggaeton.[1] Ayala first recorded with DJ Playero as a featured artist in a production titled Playero 37, which was released in 1992.[2]
Contents |
Musical career[link]
Independent productions[link]
His first album, titled No Mercy, was produced in 1995 when Ayala was eighteen years old.[2] The production did not sell well, and he continued his work within the genre for the rest of the decade, eventually forming a duo with Nicky Jam. One of the duo's songs, "Posición", was included in the soundtrack of One Tough Cop, a movie directed by Bruno Barreto, that was released in 1998. Beginning in 2000, Ayala began concentrating more on his solo career, releasing albums produced outside studios. The first production he released was titled El Cartel, featuring elements of the mixtape style.[2] In 2001 El Cartel II was released, a direct sequel to the previous production, and influenced by similar genres.
In 2005 El Cangri.com was released, and became the first album in Ayala's career to sell well outside Puerto Rico, mostly in the United States.[2] The album was produced by VI Music, an independent recording studio in Puerto Rico, and was not supported by a major label.[2] The most successful single from the album was "Latigazo", which received significant play on radio stations in New York and Miami.[2] The album reached #43 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart.[2] Following the release of this disc, Ayala performed at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum before 12,000 fans.[3] The following year VI Music produced Los Homerun-es.[2] The album became the leader in sales in Puerto Rico during a year in which several other reggaeton artists released significant productions, including Luny Tune's Mas Flow, Don Omar's The Last Don, and Tego Calderón's El Abayarde.[2] The album's success helped Ayala receive the publicity required for a crossover to the United States market, and marked the last album he released with VI music before signing a contract with Universal
2004–2005[link]
Ayala's next album, Barrio Fino, was produced by Luny Tunes and released in July 2004 by El Cartel Records and VI Music. It was the most highly anticipated album in the reggaeton community.[4] Ayala had enjoyed Salsa music since he was young, and this led him to include music of genres besides reggaeton in the album.[4] The most prominent of these cross-genre singles was "Melao", in which he performed with Andy Montañez.[4] The album was described as his most complete, and with it he intended to introduce combinations of reggaeton and other genres to the English-speaking market.[4] Barrio Fino was followed up by an international tour with performances in numerous countries including the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Honduras, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and the United States.[4] The album has sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and has sold well throughout Latin America and worldwide.[5]
In 2005 Ayala won several international awards, making him one of the most recognized reggaeton artists within the music industry.[6] The first award of the year was Lo Nuestro Awards within the "Latin music" category, which he received for Barrio Fino.[6] In this event he performed "Gasolina" in a performance that was described as "innovative".[6] Barrio Fino also won the "Reggaeton Album of the Year" award in the Latin Billboard that took place on April 28, 2005,[6] where he performed a mix of three of his songs in a duo with P. Diddy. The album was promoted throughout Latin America, the United States, and Europe, reaching certified gold in Japan. Due to the album's success, Ayala received promotional contracts with radio stations and soda companies, including Pepsi.[7] His single "Gasolina" received the majority of votes cast for the second edition of Premios Juventud, in which it received eight nominations and won seven awards.[6] Ayala also made a live presentation during the award ceremony. "Gasolina" received nominations in the Latin Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards.[6]
The successful single, "Gasolina", was covered by artists from different music genres. This led to a controversy when Los Lagos, a Mexican banda group, did a cover with the original beat but changed the song's lyrics.[8] The group's label had solicited the copyright permission to perform the single and translate it to a different music style, but did not receive consent to change the lyrics; legal action followed.[8] Speaking for the artist, Ayala's lawyer stated that having his songs covered was an "honor, but it must be done the right way."[8]
2006–present[link]
On April 30, 2006, Ayala was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine, which cited the 2 million copies of Barrio Fino sold, Ayala's $20 million contract with Interscope Records, and his Pepsi endorsement.[9] During this period, Ayala and William Omar Landrón (more commonly known by his artistic name Don Omar) were involved in a rivalry within the genre, dubbed "tiraera". The rivalry received significant press coverage despite being denied early on by both artists. It originated with a lyrical conflict between the artists begun by Ayala's comments in a remix single, where he criticized Landron's common usage of the nickname "King of Kings".[10] Don Omar responded to this in a song titled "Ahora Son Mejor", part of his album Los Rompediscotecas.[10]
El Cartel: The Big Boss was released by Interscope on June 5, 2007. Ayala stated that the album marked a return to his hip-hop roots as opposed to being considered a strictly reggaeton album.[11] The album was produced in 2006, and included the participation of will.i.am, Scott Storch, Tainy Tunes, Neli, and personnel from Ayala's label. Singles were produced with Héctor Delgado, Fergie, Nicole Scherzinger and Akon.[11] The first single from the album was titled "Impacto", and was released prior to the completion of the album. The album was promoted by a tour throughout the United States, which continued throughout Latin America.[11] He performed in Mexico, first in Monterrey, where 10,000 attended the concert, and later at San Luis Potosí coliseum, where the concert sold out, leaving hundreds of fans outside the building.[12] Ayala performed in Chile as well, and established a record for attendance in Ecuador.[13] He also performed in Bolivia, setting another record when 50,000 fans attended his Santa Cruz de la Sierra concert.[13] This show was later described as "the best show with the biggest attendance in history" and as "somehappy that his album had sold more than those of Juan Luis Guerra and Juanes, and that this was an "official proof that reggaeton's principal exponent defeated the rest of the genres".[14] Ayala made a guest appearance in an album titled "Caribbean he loved the color reed|Inner Circle]], Bounty Killer, Elephant Man and Wayne Wonder.[15] In July 2008, Ayala announced that as part of his work, he would produce a cover version of Thalía's song, Ten Paciencia.[16] Prior to the album's release, Ayala scheduled several activities, including an in-store contract signing.[17] On February 27, 2009, he performed at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile.[18] In this event, the artists receive awards based on the public's reaction. After performing "Rompe", "Llamado de emergencia", "Tú me dejaste caer", "Gasolina", "Limpia parabrisas" and "Lo que pasó, pasó" over the course of two hours, Ayala received the "Silver Torch", "Gold Torch" and "Silver Seagull" recognitions.[18] On April 24, 2009, he received the Spirit of Hope Award as part of the Latin Billboard Music Awards ceremony.[19] The recognition is given to the artists that participate in community or social efforts throughout the year. The single "Grito Mundial" was released on October 8, 2009,[20] in order to promote his ninth album, Mundial. Despite releasing "El Ritmo No Perdona (Prende)" more than a month before, that single was not considered the first official promotional single.
Film and other career projects[link]
Ayala has negotiated promotional deals with several companies outside of the music industry, releasing merchandise under his name. In 2005, he became the first Latin artist to sign a deal with Reebok, in order to produce accessories,[21] including the licensed clothing line "DY", which was released in 2006.[22] He also teamed up with the company to have his own shoes and sporting goods made, which were first distributed on May 23, 2006.[11] Reebok continued the partnership with the introduction of the Travel Trainer collection in July 2007. In August 2007, Pepsi began an advertising campaign titled "Puertas", in which Ayala is depicted returning to his youth by opening a series of doors.[23]
In 2008, Ayala participated in a campaign to promote voting in the 2008 general elections in Puerto Rico. This initiative included a concert titled "Vota o quédate callao".[24] On August 25, 2008, Ayala endorsed John McCain's candidacy for President of the United States, stating that McCain "has been a fighter for the Hispanic community".[25] As part of this campaign, Ayala moderated a debate titled “Vota o quédate callao: los candidatos responden a los jóvenes”, which was aired on October 9, 2008.[26]
Ayala has worked in the film industry as both an actor and producer. His acting debut was the lead role of Vampiros, a film directed by Eduardo Ortiz and filmed in Puerto Rico.[27] The film premiered at the Festival of Latin American Cinema in New York, where it received a positive reaction. This led Image Entertainment to produce a DVD, internationally released in March 2005.[27] Ayala played the main role "Edgar" in Talento de Barrio, which was filmed in Puerto Rico and directed by José Iván Santiago. Ayala produced the film, which is based on his experience of growing up in a poor city neighborhood.[28] While the film is not directly a biography, Ayala has stated that it mirrors his early life.[28] Talento de Barrio's debut was scheduled for July 23, 2008, in New York's Latino Film Festival.[29] After the premier, Ayala expressed satisfaction, saying that he had been invited to audition for other producers.[30] On release, Talento de Barrio broke the record held by Maldeamores for the most tickets to a Puerto Rican movie sold in a single day in Caribbean Cinemas.[31]
Ayala has been involved in the administration of three organizations, the first being El Cartel Records which he co-owns with Andres Hernandez. He also created the Fundación Corazón Guerrero, a charitable organization in Puerto Rico which works with young incarcerated people.[32] On April 26, 2008, he was presented with a "Latino of the Year Award" by the student organization Presencia Latina of Harvard College, receiving it for his work with Puerto Rican youth and creating Corazón Guerrero.[33] On February 6, 2008, Ayala announced in a Baloncesto Superior Nacional press conference that he had bought part of the Criollos de Caguas' ownership.[34]
Personal life[link]
Ayala has kept most of his personal life private, rarely speaking about it in interviews.[35] He has said that he avoids doing so because such details are the only aspect of his life that are not public and that they are like a "little treasure".[35] He made an exception in 2006 when he spoke about his relationship with his wife and children in an interview with María Celeste Arrarás in Al Rojo Vivo.[35] He stated that his marriage is strong because he and his wife are "friends above anything", adding that he has tried to ignore other temptations because "weakness is the reason for the downfall of several artists."[35] He also described his "very close" communication with his children, in which he tries to offer advice against drugs and negative influences.[35] His first daughter was born when he was seventeen years old,[35] which he has described as confusing at first, adding that raising a daughter at that age was a hard experience.[36]
Studio albums[link]
Main article: Daddy Yankee discography
- 1995: No Mercy
- 2002: El Cangri.com
- 2004: Barrio Fino
- 2007: El Cartel: The Big Boss
- 2010: Daddy Yankee Mundial
- 2012: Prestige
Filmography[link]
- Film
| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Vampiros | Bimbo | |
| 2008 | Talento de Barrio | Edgar Dinero |
- Television
| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Cane | Daddy Yankee - Himself | |
| 2010 | The Bold and the Beautiful | Daddy Yankee - Himself | 6 episodes |
See also[link]
- Latin American music
- List of Caribbean music genres
- List of Puerto Ricans
- List of Puerto Rican songwriters
- Urban contemporary
References[link]
- ^ a b c Miguel López Ortiz. "Biografias:Daddy Yankee". http://www.prpop.org/biografias/d_bios/DaddyYankee.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Birchmeier, Jason. "Daddy Yankee Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p541678/biography. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee, Reggaetón desde Puerto Rico". Terra. http://www.terra.com/ocio/articulo/html/oci152057,2.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ a b c d e "Daddy Yankee". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/yankee_daddy/artist.jhtml?timeline=false#bio. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee Receives Five Gold And Platinum Albums". latin-artists.com. 2005-03-13. http://www.latin-artists.com/news.php?id=559&is=1. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
- ^ a b c d e f "Daddy Yankee: Biografía". Univision. http://www.univision.com/uv/music/1541678/Daddy_Yankee/biografia;jsessionid=5EXMBJUDKMDFACWIAAOCFEYKZAAB0IWC. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee". CMT.com. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/yankee_daddy/bio.jhtml. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
- ^ a b c Nathalia Morales. "Gasolina grupera". Univision. http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=606337. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ Carolina Miranda (2006-04-30). "Daddy Yankee | TIME". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187400,00.html. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
- ^ a b "Don Omar se va "calle" en tiraera a Daddy Yankee". Maleanteo.com. http://www.malianteo.com/article1163.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10. [dead link]
- ^ a b c d "The Boss is Back: Daddy Yankee Returns to his Roots". LatinRapper.com. 2007-05-22. http://www.latinrapper.com/daddy_yankee_interview.html. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ "Dadddy Yankee arrasa en conciertos en Mexico" (in Spanish). Reggaetonline.net. http://www.reggaetonline.net/daddy-yankee-concierto-10162007_news. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ a b "Apoteosico concierto de Daddy Yankee en Bolivia" (in Spanish). Reggaetonline.net. 2007-12-03. http://www.reggaetonline.net/daddy-yankee-12032007_news. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee, número uno en la lista Billboard". People en Español. 2007-12-14. http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/articles/0,22490,1694944,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ "Se juntan los "mostros"" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 2008-06-03. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/musica/espectaculos_asi/se_juntan_los_mostros/196370. Retrieved 2008-06-04. [dead link]
- ^ Sigal Ratner-Árias (2008-07-22). "Daddy Yankee hace remix de tema de Thalía" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/musica/espectaculosasi/daddy_yankee_hace_remix_de_tema_de_thalia/212831. Retrieved 2008-07-28. [dead link]
- ^ Aixa Sepúlveda Morales (2008-08-11). "Cara a Cara con su gente El Cangri" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros/espectaculosasi/cara_a_cara_con_su_gente_el_cangri/218516. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ a b Jorge Zapata (2009-02-28). "Daddy Yankee desató la locura en la Quinta Vergara" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/musica/espectaculosasi/daddy_yankee_desato_la_locura_en_la_quinta_vergara/278721. Retrieved 2009-02-28. [dead link]
- ^ Aixa Sepúlveda Morales (2009-04-25). "Con más corazón Daddy Yankee" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/diario/noticia/musica/espectaculos_asi/con_mas_corazon_daddy_yankee/292976. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
- ^ Posted by mundoSIX (2009-09-29). "Daddy Yankee Da Un "Grito Mundial"". Mundosix.com. http://www.mundosix.com/2009/10/daddy-yankee-da-un-grito-mundial.html. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee lanzará su propia línea de ropa". People en Espanol. 2005-12-06. http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/articles/0,22490,1138175,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ "Pasarela musical: Artistas que imponen moda". APL Latino. http://musica.aol.com/artistas/fotos/galerias/ropa. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ Ivan (2007-07-12). "Daddy Yankee Pepsi Puertas Commercial". Artistas del Genero. http://www.artistasdelgenero.com/daddy-yankee-pepsi-puertas. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ Aixa Sepúlveda Morales (2008-08-11). "Unen sus voces en "Vota o quédate callao"" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros_asi/espectaculos_asi/unen_sus_voces_en_vota_o_quedate_callao/218283. Retrieved 2008-08-11. [dead link]
- ^ Mike Glover. "McCain notes 'very honorable opponent'". Associated Press. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_el_pr/mccain. Retrieved 2008-08-25. [dead link]
- ^ Karol Joselyn Sepúlveda (2008-10-11). "Fue un reto total" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros_asi/espectaculos_asi/fue_un_reto_total/238128. Retrieved 2008-10-11. [dead link]
- ^ a b "Daddy Yankee debuta en el cine". Univision. http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?chid=9486&schid=9497&secid=&cid=837082. Retrieved 2008-01-10. [dead link]
- ^ a b Fabián Lira. "Cangri, todo un 'talento de barrio'". Univision Online. http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=605622. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee estrena película en Nueva York". Primera Hora. 2008-07-11. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros/espectaculosasi/daddy_yankee_estrena_pelicula_en_nueva_york/209584. Retrieved 2008-07-14. [dead link]
- ^ Aixa Sepúlveda Morales (2008-07-25). "Busca ser el "Cangri" del cine" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros_asi/espectaculos_asi/busca_ser_el_cangri_del_cine/213822. Retrieved 2008-07-28. [dead link]
- ^ ""Talento de barrio" bate récord de taquilla en un día" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 2008-08-15. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/cine/espectaculosasi/talento_de_barrio_bate_record_de_taquilla_en_un_dia___/220117. Retrieved 2008-08-17. [dead link]
- ^ "Daddy Yankee anuncia oficialmente creación de la fundación "Corazón guerrero"" (in Spanish). Terra. 2007-06-29. http://www.terra.com/ocio/articulo/html/oci179005.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ "Harvard Crimson: Latino of the year: hip-hop artist Daddy Yankee". http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2008/4/25/presencia-latina-looks-to-leave-mark/. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ Carlos González (2008-02-06). ""El Cangri"ya es Criollo" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/XStatic/primerahora/template/nota.aspx?n=155108. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
- ^ a b c d e f "Daddy Yankee rompe el silencio" (in Spanish). People en Español. 2006-04-27. http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/articles/0,22490,1188459,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ "Daddy Yankee, una padre joven y abierto" (in Spanish). entretienes.com. http://www.entretienes.com/internaCont_idc_259671_id_cat_250.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
External links[link]
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ayala, Ramón |
| Alternative names | Yankee, Daddy |
| Short description | Reggaeton artist |
| Date of birth | February 3, 1977 |
| Place of birth | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize. The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spain who introduced its predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.
Its size is just over 112,492 km² with an estimated population of almost eight million. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone.
It is notable for its production of minerals, tropical fruit, and recently for exportation of clothing for the international market.
