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This article analyses mining policy as an indicator of a larger question: are some Third World governments starting to steer away from plunder ‘extractivism’ towards a paradigm that prioritises the environment? We begin with the cases of El Salvador and Costa Rica, which have major mining bans in place. We then present the results of our research in which we find five other countries with noteworthy mining-policy shifts: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. A sixth country, Honduras under President Zelaya, stands as a recent historical case of how sensitive such a policy change can be. A key take-away from our article is that critical development scholars and practitioners need to look more closely at the mining sector – not simply to analyse case studies of specific mining protests and resistances to extractivism, although these are of course important. Rather, there is a need to investigate policy changes that just might be indications that the era of unquestioning extractivism has ended and that at least some governments are initiating policies to incorporate environmental externalities, policies that suggest a changing development paradigm in the direction of environmental – and concomitant social and economic – ‘well-being’ as envisioned in buen vivir. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the socio-political state of Honduras since its transition to democracy in 1980. According to the author, the Honduran military asserted its brand of authoritarianism for nearly two decades by marginalizing political parties and fragmenting social movements and protests. In 1980, Honduras' first transitional democratic government was elected into office in open elections.

This article examines the complicated histories of two competing development tropes in postwar Honduras: food security and food sovereignty. Food security emerged as a construct intertwined with land security and national food self-sufficiency soon after the militant, peasant-led movement for national agrarian reform in the 1970s. The transnational coalition, La Via Campesina, launched their global food sovereignty campaign in the 1990s, in part to counter the global corporate industrial agro-food system. Cultural and political analysis reveals challenges for each trope. Food security resonates with deeply held peasant understandings of seguridad for their continued social reproduction in insecure social and natural conditions. In contrast, the word sovereignty, generally understood as powers of nation states, faces semantic confusion and distance from rural actors' lives. Moreover, Honduras's national peasant unions, weakened by funding cuts and neoliberal assaults on agrarian reform, diverted by their own efforts to help establish the transnational La Via Campesina, have been unable and, in some cases, unwilling to campaign effectively for food sovereignty. In addition, a parallel network of NGO-supported sustainable agriculture centres has largely embraced the peasant understandings of food security, while remaining skeptical of 'mismanaged, modernist' agrarian reform and the food sovereignty campaign. Attention turns to structural analysis of the steady decline of agriculture, economy and social life in the Honduran countryside, while also identifying potentially hopeful local-national solidarities between peasant union and sustainable agriculture leaders within the popular resistance movement to the recent military coup. This article finds that transnational agrarian movements and food campaigns tend to ignore local peasant understandings, needs, and organisations at their own peril. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a campaign by the U.S. government to legitimize the June 28, 2009 Honduran military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and to recognize the government of Roberto Micheletti and his successor Porfirio Lobo. The author states that the U.S. State Department remained silent on the well documented human rights violations committed by the police and military of the de facto government and repeatedly expressed support for the amnesty of all involved in the coup and the de facto government.

The article reports on the legitimacy of the November 29, 2009 presidential election in Honduras. Porfirio Lobo of the right-wing Nationalist Party defeated Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos in the election held during the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti who came to power after a military coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya. The United Nations and the Organization of American States reportedly condemned the coup and majority of South American powers refused to recognize the election.

In the early 1980s, support for trade unions was a significant component of Oxfam GB's programmes in various parts of the world, most notably Central America and South Africa. In Central America, this was motivated both because organised labour played an important role in popular movements that were pressing for equitable political settlements to the wars ravaging the region, and because unions as such, as well as their members and leaders, were the targets of repression and political violence. This article explores the background to the rise in funding for unions in Honduras, reflects on this experience, and discusses some of the factors that might change a potentially awkward donor-recipient relationship to one of dialogue and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that findings in existing literature concerning the policy priorities of women legislators in Nordic countries, the United States, and Argentina may also be generalized to less developed countries where support for women in politics is minimal. Past studies in countries where women have achieved comparatively high levels of representation report that women legislators show a higher legislative priority on issues concerning women's rights and children and families. Using data on bill initiation, this paper analyzes gender differences in the Honduran Congress from the 1990-93 and 1994-97 terms. Findings are similar to previous studies in that women appear to place a higher priority on women's rights issues; however, we find that women do not have a higher priority than men on children's and family issues. Examination of bill debate shows that women are more frequent participants in debates of bills involving women's rights and children's and family issues than of bills concerning issues that have traditionally concerned men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probes into the political implications of the 1998 Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Views of Noemi Espinoza, president of the Christian Commission for the Development on Hurricane Mitch; Effect of Hurricane Mitch on the military institution of Honduras; Controversy on the repeal of Article 107 of the Honduran Constitution concerning landownership of foreigners.

The article criticizes the sincerity of the government of newly elected Honduran President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo toward national reconciliation. It cites that the administration has come to power after an election that is viewed as illegitimate by the international community and remains unrecognized by the United Nations, the Organization of American States and most Latin American states. It mentions the failure of the November 2009 election to eliminate the coup and its effect from public memory.