Choluteca : ville hondurienne du système Monde ?

The economic choices in Honduras have an influence on Choluteca, a city wedged between the Salvadorian and Nicaraguan borders. The dynamics which characterize Choluteca can be explained by the involvement of urban actors who have played off the local environment (mangrove, spacious plains, climatic conditions), national legislation (the prohibition of foreigners settling within forty kilometres of the terrestrial and maritime borders) and the markets of rich countries to carry out development of the countryside, transforming it into an agro-export enclave (shrimp, melons). The agricultural sector is thus the motor of urban development. Its repercussions are especially felt in Choluteca, a city classified as “rural”, with the reactivation of the Panamerican road, which is the backbone of access to distant (mainly American) markets, situating the city within the economic practices of the world system. The populations of the countryside, just like the urban populations of the rest of the country, are attracted by the possibilities offered by Choluteca. Thus, in Choluteca one can find “rural urban fieldworkers”, members of the traditional elite, and highly specialized technicians who have come to work in the agro-industrial enclave. This analysis highlights how and to what extent the practices of these urban operators arrange the spaces of the region of Choluteca and profoundly modify the city, except the power