Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

Saint Peter’s was just another commercial fish farm until striking oil on its property — found in the heads and guts left over after filleting.

The 300,000 gallons of biodiesel pressed from the fish heads, skin and internal organs is enough to generate the company’s electricity, fuelling 10 trucks and the eight buses that bring the 1,500 workers in each day.

“We export two planes full of fish every day, some 55 million pounds (25 million kilograms) of fish the company ships annually,” plant manager Israel Snir told AFP said.

The leftover gurry, or fish offal, would be just garbage, creating an environmental problem all its own, if it were not made into biodiesel, he added.

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The head of the national telecommunications company Hondutel, Marcelo Chimirri, sued the dailies La Prensa and El Heraldo yesterday, demanding 26.4 million dollars in damages for reports that allegedly tarnished the company’s image. Recent articles in the two newspapers about alleged irregularities in Hondutel’s management led the United States to advise its telecom companies not to have any dealings with Hondutel.

The case was preceded by a controversy about a draft telecommunications law that would have reinforced Hondutel’s role in Honduras. It was rejected by congress. Hondutel and government officials blamed the failure on various lobbies including the owners of news media such as La Prensa and El Heraldo. The two newspapers have denied waging a campaign to discredit the company.

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The Honduran Congress urged Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to demand an apology from his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez for offending in public and calling Tegucigalpa Archbishop Oscar Andrés Rodríguez “parrot, imperialist clown.”

The petition was approved by almost all of 128 deputies, except for four representatives of leftwing political Partido Unificación Democrática.

“We urge the president, who constitutionally responsible for the foreign policy, to demand an apology from Mr. Chávez for his insult on the cardinal and the Honduran people,” stated the initiative made Tuesday night by Deputy Juan Hernández, of opposition Partido Nacional, AP quoted.

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The country’s former immigration director was sentenced to nine years in prison for letting 14 Colombian friends of a notorious drug trafficker enter the country.

Ramon Romero told a news conference he is innocent and will appeal.

Romero was found guilty of abusing his authority by allowing the May 2004 entry of a plane carrying 14 Colombian friends and relatives of Juan Ramon Matta or his Colombian wife.

Romero still faces charges he helped sell Honduran passports to hundreds of Chinese, Cubans, and Lebanese. When he was fired in April 2005, authorities discovered US$15,000 (€10,853) in cash in his desk.

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