ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by tracing Honduras’ nineteenth-century failure to become a coffee exporter and its later development of a foreign-dominated banana industry. The poor had access to land and elites lacked a wealth-generating export that drove inequality in neighboring nations. Strongman rule in the nineteenth century evolved into Liberal and National party competition by the 1920s. By the mid-twentieth century labor unions proliferated among banana workers, boosting the Liberal Party but intensifying political conflict. Despite industrialization and the growth of commodity exports in the 1960s, poverty remained persistent. Civilian rule resumed in 1982, though the military remained independent and powerful. Honduras served as a base for anti-Sandinista Contra forces and expanded its military cooperation with the US throughout the 1980s. Despite the emergence of some insurgents in the 1980s, repression was lower than in neighboring countries which contributed to its relative stability. Honduras’ military came under civilian rule in 1998. Honduras’ democracy was undermined by a 2009 coup that removed President Zelaya from power. Post-coup Honduras was experienced flawed elections, soaring corruption, gang activity, drug trafficking, and violent crime.
