Editing Honduras (section)

===War and upheaval (1969–1999)===
In 1969, Honduras and [[El Salvador]] fought what became known as the [[Football War]].<ref name="football war">{{cite news |title=Honduras v El Salvador: The football match that kicked off a war |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48673853 |work=BBC News |date=27 June 2019 |access-date=20 August 2019 |archive-date=3 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203003816/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48673853 |url-status=live }}</ref> Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after [[Oswaldo López Arellano]], the president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating Honduran economy on immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match preliminary to the [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]].<ref name="FW">{{cite news
|title=Wars of the World: Soccer War 1969
|url=https://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr60/fsoccer1969.htm
|publisher=OnWar.com
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425075043/https://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr60/fsoccer1969.htm
|archive-date=25 April 2016
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

Tensions escalated and on 14 July 1969, the Salvadoran army invaded Honduras.<ref name="football war"/> The [[Organization of American States]] (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on 20 July and brought about a withdrawal of Salvadoran troops in early August.<ref name="FW"/> Contributing factors to the conflict were a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long war, as many as 130,000 Salvadoran immigrants were expelled.<ref name="LOC">{{cite book
|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/22.htm
|title=Honduras
|chapter=War with El Salvador
|editor-last=Merrill
|editor-first=Tim
|publisher=Library of Congress Country Studies
|year=1995
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-date=5 March 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305001807/http://countrystudies.us/honduras/22.htm
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

[[Hurricane Fifi]] caused severe damage when it skimmed the northern coast of Honduras on 18 and 19 September 1974. [[Juan Alberto Melgar Castro|Melgar Castro]] (1975–78) and Paz Garcia (1978–82) largely built the current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras.<ref name="DOS-Honduras">{{cite web
|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm
|title=U.S. Relations With Honduras
|publisher=United States Department of State
|date=9 April 2015
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-date=4 June 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190604184805/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

[[File:Mitch-Tegucigalpa Damage.JPG|thumb|Part of the massive damage caused by [[Hurricane Mitch]] in Tegucigalpa, 1998]]
In 1979, the country returned to civilian rule<!-- for the first time since 1963? -->. A [[constituent assembly]] was popularly elected in April 1980 to write a new constitution, and general elections were held in November 1981. The constitution was approved in 1982 and the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] government of [[Roberto Suazo Córdova|Roberto Suazo]] won the election with a promise to carry out an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle the recession in which Honduras found itself. He launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest [[Peace Corps]] mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated. The Peace Corps withdrew its volunteers in 2012, citing safety concerns.<ref name=CSM>{{cite news
|title=Peace Corps Honduras: Why are all the US volunteers leaving?
|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0118/Peace-Corps-Honduras-Why-are-all-the-US-volunteers-leaving
|first1=Freddy
|last1=Cuevas
|first2=Adriana
|last2=Gomez
|agency=[[Associated Press]]
|work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]
|date=18 January 2012
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-date=3 February 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203005216/https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0118/Peace-Corps-Honduras-Why-are-all-the-US-volunteers-leaving
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

During the early 1980s, the United States established a continuing military presence in Honduras to support El Salvador, the [[Contra (guerrillas)|Contra]] guerrillas fighting the [[Nicaragua]]n government, and also develop an airstrip and modern port in Honduras. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the [[Honduran Army]] quietly waged campaigns against [[Marxist–Leninist]] militias such as the [[People's Liberation Movement-Chinchoneros|Cinchoneros]] Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings,<ref>{{cite web
|title=Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement
|url=http://www.start.umd.edu/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3987
|publisher=[[University of Maryland]]
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-date=26 February 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160226192117/http://www.start.umd.edu/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3987
|url-status=live
}}</ref> and against many non-militants as well. The operation included a campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained [[Battalion 3-16 (Honduras)|Battalion 316]].<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story
|title=A survivor tells her story
|first1=Gary
|last1=Cohn
|first2=Ginger
|last2=Thompson
|work=[[The Baltimore Sun]]
|date=15 June 1995
|access-date=9 February 2016
|archive-date=31 March 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070331135918/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story
|url-status=live
}}</ref> Honduras was found internationally liable for a series of [[enforced disappearance]]s during this time period, culminating in [[Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Witten |first=Samuel M. |date=April 1989 |title=Velásquez Rodríguez Case |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/velasquez-rodriguez-case/6A85F6193511E1BAA894E4CB50611AF4 |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=361–367 |doi=10.2307/2202751 |jstor=2202751 |issn=0002-9300}}</ref>

In 1998, [[Hurricane Mitch]] caused massive and widespread destruction. Honduran President [[Carlos Roberto Flores]] said that fifty years of progress in the country had been reversed. Mitch destroyed about 70% of the country's crops and an estimated 70–80% of the transportation infrastructure, including nearly all bridges and secondary roads. Across Honduras 33,000 houses were destroyed, and an additional 50,000 damaged. Some 5,000 people killed, and 12,000 more injured. Total losses were estimated at US$3 billion.<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://mitchnts1.cr.usgs.gov/country/honduras.html |title=USGS Hurricane Mitch |access-date=5 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316024027/http://mitchnts1.cr.usgs.gov/country/honduras.html |archive-date=16 March 2006}}</ref>