Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

CAFTA-DR now has been ratified by all partners except Costa Rica

President Bush issued a proclamation March 31 to implement the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) in Honduras and Nicaragua on April 1.

“Honduras and Nicaragua are now ready to join El Salvador as countries that have fully implemented the agreement,” U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a March 31 statement.

Other countries participating in CAFTA-DR with the United States are Guatemala, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. All but Costa Rica now have ratified the trade pact.

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Director of the Land Administration Program in Honduras, Caronte Rojas Zavala, Tuesday accused Interior Minister Jorge Antonio Reina, intending to privatize the service offered by that institution, of corruption.

According to Rojas Zavala, Reina plans to appoint Luis Carlos Zelaya and Milton Buck, members of the economic group Semeh, accused of abusing power and misappropriating funds, as representatives of the administration project.

The World Bank committed to contribute 80 million dollars to the land program and officials of that institution have stated concerns that the fund may be controlled by a private entity, Zavala asserted.

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Military officials from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras have agreed to create a Central American peacekeeping force that would respond to any nation petitioning the United Nations for assistance, Honduran Colonel José Lobo said March 24. Lobo said the battalion would be made up of some 130-140 troops from each of the four nations and would be activated at the request of the United Nations.

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U.S. actor Richard Gere hid under a straw hat as he toured Mayan ruins before hitting the beach with his wife and son in this Central American country, local news media reported Friday.

Gere and wife Carey Lowell and son Homer arrived by private plane Wednesday in San Pedro Sula, 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of the capital of Tegucigalpa, newspapers El Heraldo and La Prensa said.

They immediately took a tourist bus to the Copan ruins and stayed overnight at the Hotel Marina. The next day, Gere bought a big straw hat from local vendors to protect himself from the sun and from fans who recognize him from movies like “Chicago,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “American Gigolo” and “Pretty Woman.”

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