“I wonder where the money of the Strategy of Poverty Reduction is, why some people do not want to live in transparency and clarity, why we have to hide things, because sometimes latent corruption is there,” said Rodriguez.

During a television interview on TV program Frente a Frente, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa said that during his visits to poor communities, he has realized that poverty increased; it is far from being reduced.

Rodriguez urged President Porfirio Lobo and all government officials to take “concrete and positive” steps against corruption and for the common good of the public during 2012. He also regretted that there are officials who accept “a government job with the primary desire to get rich by any means and then retire and spend the rest of the days without working.”

Rodriguez said it is sad to see Honduras assuming the role of “beggar” each year requesting resources to adjust its own general budget of the Republic.

The latest actions of the U.S. government represent a message to the Honduran authorities, Rodriguez said, referring to the exclusion of the resources of the Millennium Challenge Account and the withdrawal of Peace Corps volunteers…from Prensa Latina.