View this email in your browser 💻 October 25, 2020

Though Hondurans continue to stay at home in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the country has struggled to reduce the number of daily infections. All states in the center of the country are now impacted by the pandemic.

Here at Contracorriente, we talked to various health specialists in order to understand what is going on. They report that doctors and patients have been denied care at both private and public hospitals.

As with violence, Cortes state also tops the list for the number of Covid-19 deaths. On the other hand, the largest number of deaths of healthcare workers has been in rural areas.

Meanwhile, national holidays set for October have been moved to November, in the hope of being able to benefit from tourism next month, and the money that is spent.

This week, day six of the matches was suspended because a trainer and five players from Club Deportivo Vida from La Ceiba, in the north, got Covid-19. This coincides with some alarm at the increase in cases in the center of the country.

Read more on this at El Faro’s translation of our article. 

 🎶 Using music to protest
This month, women in Guatemala took to the streets in various cities to demonstrate their rejection of violence against women. The women used musical instruments, handkerchiefs, posters, and masks to reject the high number of femicides in the country. 

Read more on this at Global Voices.

 🔎 Recent Honduran and Central American News
In news this past week, over 2,000 children have been deported back to Honduras during the pandemic. Some 1,137 of those were travelling alone, and 58% of them were deported from Mexico, with 37% deported from the U.S. 

These deportations take place in a context where the U.S. continues to close its land border, refusing migrants and refugees due process or their right to asylum, turning most adults back at the border within two hours.

As Donald Trump and Joe Biden vie for the presidency, the topic has come up in their recent debates. Trump claims that children are being “well taken care of” on the border, while refusing to provide more details. Court-appointed lawyers there are still unable to find the parents of 545 children in detention. Trump pointed at Biden, blaming his previous administration for originally building the cages, while Biden responded that parents had brought their children across the border, and then were separated. Trump has moved to dismantle the Dreamers program, while Biden has said he would secure it. Given Biden’s record while vice-president, and Trump’s record currently as president, migrant activists are still discussing what can really be hoped for from either of them.

Some 138 women in Honduras have been killed during the pandemic. The number is not very different to past years, despite the fact that most people are staying at home. Women like Migdonia Ayestas, who protested the lack of public policies to eradicate sexism in the country, said the femicides were a “question of public health.”

And locals have denounced corruption and climate change as being behind the disappearance of lakes in Honduras. They say local authorities have collaborated with criminal groups to build in the area, and droughts have also seen the lakes dry up. Previously a source of tourism and local drinking water, and providing homes for animals, farmers are now growing some basic crops on the dry land.

Despite the current difficulties in the region, Nestlé has managed to open up a new distribution center in Central America. The building is 12,000 square meters.