POPULATION:
9,320,200
LITERACY RATE:
42%
SELF DEFENSE FORCES:
American Armed Forces, Militech International
LANGUAGES:
  Spanish, Amerindian dialects
ETHNIC GROUPS:
 mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
BORDERING COUNTRIES:
Guatemala, NorthernNicaragua, El Salvador
Honduras - Honduras is a nervous US ally, beset on all sides by hostile neighbors.  The communist countries of El Salvador and Northern Nicaragua bordering the west and the south of Honduras are merely occasional border threats, but Guatemala absolutely despises the US, and Honduras for its continued alliance with America. 

During the first Central American Conflict, The United States had established a significant military presence in Honduras, using their bases there for supporting the illegally US funded anti-Sandinista Contras fighting the Nicaraguan government, as well as supporting the El Salvador military against the FMLN guerrillas.  The US was also using Honduras to support the Guatemalen Government to crush the rebels in their 35+ year civil war.  When the war went into full swing, the US was launching air strikes and full military assaults into Northern Nicaragua.  When the US withdrew from the first Central American conflict, it left enough supplies behind to allow Honduras to equip its own military, and defend its border from Northern Nicaraguan retaliation.  Not that Nicaragua was in any shape to attack anyone at that point.  Communist influence in Northern Nicaragua and El Salvador grew in the time following the first Cent-Am Conflict, but Guatemala would prove disastrous to the world image of the United States.  After their withdrawal the rebels in Guatemala finally overthrew their government, and revealed to Tesla Johannson the US support of the Guatemalan governments regime of brutality, genocide, and state-sponsored terror against its own people.  The ensuing U.N. investigation revealed that the Guatemalan government was resposible for 90% of all human rights violation during the long civil war.  The revalation that the US was actively supporting this regime dealt a horrendous blow to an already hobbled America. 

Honduras had to soldier on for a while, dealing with its own minor Cartel insurgencies and border squables with its neighbors over the next few years, when disater struck in 1998 in the form of Hurricane Mitch. The storm practically destroyed the country, obliterating the crops, erasing roads, bridges, and railways, and laying waste to homes and cities across the country.  When the weather finally calmed it was estimated that nearly 6,000 people were dead, and another 58,000 homeless.  Honduras was crippled almost overnight, and only the timely intervention of the UInited States (who could not afford to lose one of the few allies left in the region) kept the country from being completely overtaken by its neighbors, or the general chaos of the survivors.  Aid from the US poured in, but not without a cost.  US Based corporations descended on the country, under the guise of humanitarian aid.  Militech was the first in, setting up corporate facilites to aid the beleaguered Honduran police and military, whose bases had been almost completely wiped out.  They set up large fortified compounds and set to the job of keeping peace in the region.  Multi-foods moved in next, at first bringing in food and water, then hastily setting up large corporate agri-complexes,  taking over most of the private farmlands (with Honduran government approval) and hiring locals, usually the very farmers whose land they had taken, under the auspice that the food they would be growing would be used to feed Honduras.As the rebuilding continued, more American corporations came to the region, and within six months, a totally bankrupt and desperate Honduras signed a contraxct with Militech and the US government to provide police and military service for the country.  The situation worked well for the upperclass and government officials in Honduras, who reaped the benifits of payoffs and elite positions, and even the urban lower class saw a general imporvement in quality of life.  However the urban population was not so lucky.  Entire villages and traditional famrlands were taken over, converted to growing consumer crops and cattle ranches.  The willing were given employment working what had been their own land, those who resisted were deemed insurgents and either imprisoned, or in many cases, never heard from again.

When the Second South American War began, Honduras once again served as US military staging ground.  Supporting the troops in Panama and other surrounding areas. When the war ended, and the US Military completely pulled out of South America, Honduras proved to the only relatively safe haven between Columbia and Mexico.  While in the rural areas they were infrequently set upon by Cartel forces, in the urban areas they found respite.  Militech International recruited a large number of the Walkers, but their simply wasn't enough space for them all, and so the majority, while finding brief peace, were forced to carry on north.  Militech did provide a security escort for them to the border of Guatemala, and resupplied them as best they could, but there was nothing more they could do.  It is estimated that Honduras is second only to Mexico in harboring the number of Long Walkers who chose to stay behind, many of whom were wounded and to injured to continue.

In the years after the Second South American War, Militech grew to a point where they were able to reaplce both the military and the police of Honduras, an arrangement that worked just as well for the Honduran government as it provided steady employment at a good salary to a large number of its citizens, and cost them less than maintaining a military of their own would cost.  For militech the benifits were simple, as it provided ample testing ground for their black projects without fear of media exposure.

Honduras is almost compeltely controlled by the corporations who have set up there.  The situation has not reached the extent of Brazil, and while Honduran politics are heqavily influenced by the corporations, they remain independent and self governing.

On a positive side, private eco-groups descended en masse upon Honduras buing up large tracts of rainforrest and setting them aside as natural wildlife preserves.  Covert eco-terrorist groups have also been active in trying to fight back against the logging, fishing,  and agri-corps in the region, but their impact is minimal.  Due in part to the the ecological protections, Tourism is at an all time high in Honduras, as people from around the world flock to its pristine beaches and to view its native flora and fauna.

Once again the United States have begun a military buildup in Honduras in preparation for what appears to be a Third Central and South American conflict, in October troop buildup in Honduras tripled.  The surrounding countries have also begon their own troop buildups at the Honduran borders, and the situation is getting very tense.

(Written by Deric "D" Bernier.)