Honduras

Honduras is located in Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea between Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean) between El Salvador and Nicaragua. It is 43,278 square miles (112,090 sq. km), consisting of mountains in the interior and narrow coastal plains. It has a population of 8,893,259, and a high percentage of Hondurans live in the two major western cities of San Pedro Sula and Tegu-cigalpa, the capital city (CIA 2016). Ninety percent of the Honduran population is mestizo, or mixed Amerindian and European descent. The remaining inhabitants are 7 percent Amerindian, 2 percent black, and 1 percent white. Spanish is the nation’s official language. Several indig-enous Amerindian languages, including Garifuna and Miskita, are also spoken (Westmoreland 2016). There are many indigenous populations: the Lenca, Pech, Tawahka, Xicaque, Maya Chorti, Misquito, and Garifuna. “The Gar-ifuna are of mixed, Afro-Carib origin and were moved to the area during the colonial period. There is also an Afro-Honduran Creole English-speaking minority group of around twenty thousand who live mainly in the Hondu-ran Bay Islands” (Minority Rights 2017)