Monthly Archives: November 2008

A second cold front is expected to enter Honduras this Sunday according to the National Meteorological Service SMN.

The mass of cold air will be generating considerable decrease in temperatures, strong winds and heavy rains over the north coast of Honduras.

The cold front was getting close to the Gulf of Mexico accompanied by high pressure that will also affect Honduras. The cold front is coming from the Gulf of Mexico and we are expecting it to start affecting the north coast on Sunday with the decrease in temperature, some wind and rains.

The Government of Honduras hopes Congress will approve the “Hoy no Circula” measure that restricts the circulation of vehicles one day a week as a measure to reduce fuel consumption.

The energy matters adviser, Moises Starkman, informed that the Congress will be discussing the approval of this measure, even though it was rejected by the population and the Supreme Court of Justice considered it unconstitutional since it violates the right to free circulation.

According to Starkman, Congress was supposed to approve the “Hoy no Circula” last October, but delayed it for unknown reasons.

Hoy no Circula restricts the use of private and Government vehicles one day a week, except for Sundays, and the government first launched this proposal at the beginning of this year to lower the petroleum import cost.

The fuel has decreased in over 40 lempiras per gallon in Honduras, due to the drop in the price on the international market. The Government has qualified as urgent the need to control the fuel consumption.

Hoy no Circula will be controlled thru a sticker that every vehicle around Honduras will carry. This measure will not affect the public transportation service such as freighters, buses, taxi cabs, ambulances, military units among others.

The ambassador of the United States in Honduras, Hugo Lorens, donated a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber to the sanitary authorities in Puerto Lempira to protect the lives of hundreds of divers in that area.

Lorens said this donation is an example of the excellent affair between Honduras and the United States and he is happy to make this donation.

Hyperbaric Oxygenation is a medical treatment that involves the breathing of pure oxygen while in a sealed Hyperbaric Chamber that has been pressurized at 1.5 to 3 times normal atmospheric pressure.

It is estimated that over 1500 divers from La Mosquitia have been disabled as consequence from diving for lobsters and conch in the deep water of the Caribbean Sea.

Since the authorities started to register the statistics in 2006, over 315 divers have lost their lives as the result of diving deep waters without the use of proper diving equipment.

Another 55 divers have lost their lives between 2007 and 2008 for a total of 370 deaths, these divers lost their lives before they where compensated from suffering accidents during or after diving without any proper equipment.

The necessity forces the Misquitos to continue working on such dangerous work, the difference now is that the diving equipment has now improved; nevertheless, better work implements are still needed to avoid losing anymore lives in the next few years.

The divers undergo incapacity because they submerge in too deep waters without using proper diving equipment such as oxygen tanks, for this reason their lungs suffer lesions. The consequences are terrible since many of these divers are left paralyzed for life.

This situation is very difficult for the people in Puerto Lempira since they can only travel by sea or air; and round trip plane tickets to Tegucigalpa cost around 8,000 lempira’s, while traveling on boat to La Ceiba cost around 2000 and 2400 round trip.

La Mosquitia is considered the Amazon of Honduras, and even though the population in this area lack support from the government.