ENEE

This is an organization that has had its fair share of controversy over the past few months, mostly due to the high number of areas in San Pedro Sula that were left without power for hours many nights in August and September. For non-Hondurans it could be all too easy to forget that ENEE fired 600 employees months ago in March. That brings the total up to well over 1,000 individuals who were fired. Before taking into account that in November another 2,000 employees were fired. Doing the math reveals that with this latest batch of lay-offs brings ENEE’s total number of lay-offs in the past year (October 2014-October 2015) to over 3,500 individuals. Additionally, there was a time in November of 2014 when the Union of workers for the ENEE released a list of individuals in positions of authority in ENEE who also had parents who were influential politicians. There were 37 individuals on that list. Two note worthy names on that list, and their relatives Rina Oliva, daughter of Mauricio Oliva, who is the president of Honduras’s National Congress, and Margie Hernandez, whose uncle is none other than the president himself. While this in and of itself doesn’t mean that these individuals should be discredited, it is worth knowing that this organization which fires people every few months, according to past press reports, has among its professional administrators individuals who are basically Honduran royalty.

Part of the reason why this particular round of layoffs was so concerning lies in the fact that this time individuals who made up Honduras’s security agencies decided to show up. It is as of yet unclear why they showed up, and no media groups have reported any altercations, but given that that was part of the headlines of articles discussing this it can easily be assumed that this isn’t natural.

*Right now this is a developing story and will likely be reported on again in the future as more facts appear. Additionally this article is also the result of many different articles from Honduran sources, mainly La Prensa. If there are any questions concerning any of the sources please send the author an email*

As another 980 individuals are added to Honduras’s unemployed sector, one has to start to worry about the leadership of the ENEE. This is a deeply concerning situation, especially when coupled with an awareness of what the media says about the ENEE. But if we were to dare to hope, perhaps we’d believe that this is the final dark step needed to set the company on its way towards becoming truly financially stable and profitable, so that it can rehire laid-off workers. One can dare to hope.