Monthly Archives: November 2008

The Organization of American States (OAS) announced they have sent a mission that will observe the primary elections for the Liberal and National parties on November 30th.

The OAS general secretary, Jose Miguel Insulza, has designated the secretary of OAS Political Affairs, Raul Alconada Sempe as the head of the delegation that will start working this coming week.

During their stay in Honduras, Alconada will meet with different electoral and government authorities, as well as representatives from the international community, he will also meet with the candidates from both parties and different social groups.

OAS will distribute supervisors around different parts of Honduras; their objective is to get to know the development of the administration and electoral organization and the political campaign.

During these primary elections, the parties will choose their candidates for president, vice-president, governors and mayors for the main elections in November of 2009.

Five movements from the Liberal party and four from the National party will participate in these primary elections. Two of the three minority parties will only ratify their candidates since they have no opponents.

Tropical Storm Paloma is strengthening and becoming more organized over the Caribbean Sea, hours after forming near the coast of Nicaragua.

Paloma’s maximum sustained winds were 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour as of about 10 a.m. Miami time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site. The system was 75 miles northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the border of Nicaragua and Honduras, and moving north-northwest at 7 mph.

“Strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days and Paloma could become a hurricane tomorrow,” the center.

The storm may dump as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain over eastern Honduras, northeastern Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands before turning to the northeast on a path toward Cuba, the center said.

The government of the Cayman Islands issued a hurricane watch, which means winds of at least 74 mph are expected in the next 36 hours. Nicaragua and Honduras have issued a tropical storm watch for their coastal areas.

The center’s five-day projection shows the system crossing central Cuba as a hurricane and then moving over the central Bahamas and toward the open Atlantic Ocean early next week.