Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

Jose Manuel Zelaya meets with President Bush in Oval Office of White House

Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya says President Bush has assured him that he is committed to an immigration bill that treats foreigners with respect while upholding U.S. laws.

Mr. Zelaya Tuesday told VOA Spanish Service he had a candid discussion with Mr. Bush in Washington Monday about finding solutions to common problems facing the Western Hemisphere.

The Honduran leader said he was satisfied with the frankness of the discussion.

Mr. Bush has said he supports a comprehensive immigration bill that will protect U.S. borders and allow people to come to the country to work on a temporary basis.

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Leo Valladares, a high-ranking human rights official in Honduras, criticized police inactivity in the country´s prisons as more than 70 percent of escapees remain free.

According to Valladares, only 134 of the 436 fugitives who escaped from prisons between 1999 and 2004 were returned to jail which proves the inefficiency of the institution.

Honduran newspapers headlined the declarations of the human rights representative Thursday on the growing insecurity, uncertainty and police corruption in the penitentiary centers.

He stated that most prisoners possess firearms, knives and other types of weapons, the main cause of the deaths of 155 individuals in 2004.

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A leader of a violent kidnapping gang that abducted and killed the son of a former Honduran president was among four inmates who escaped from a prison outside the capital on Tuesday.

The prisoners used makeshift saws to cut through the bars of their cells at the National Penitentiary outside Tegucigalpa. A rainstorm muffled the sound of the escape, but guards may also have been involved, prison director Rafael Castro told reporters.

“These are dangerous fugitives,” he said. “And also 10 guards from the prison are being investigated in the case.”

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The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) formed a new partnership with the Department of Defense to begin offering classes at the Enrique Soto Cano Air Force Base in Honduras.

The private, Catholic university will begin offering educational programs to U.S. military personnel and Honduran civilians who work at the base this month. They will be able to earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees from American and Honduran faculty members.

“You’ve got service members who don’t have the opportunity to take advantage of education while in Honduras,” says Vince Porter, dean of UIW’s Adult Degree Completion Program. “We are taking on-location and online opportunities to them.”

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