Tegucigalpa Overview

Tegucigalpa (pop. 897,000) and its sister city of Comayagüela (not to be confused with Comayagua) were incorporated into a “central district” constituting the official national capital in 1938. Over the past four hundred years, the city has maintained a more provincial air than that of a capital city. At 3000 ft. above sea level, Tegus (as the city is familiarly called) sprawls out across river-cut valleys and emerald mountains, scattering the rough terrain with a hodgepodge of clay roofs. While Tegus looks picturesque from afar, a closer look reveals contaminated rivers, homelessness, blaring horns, and intense gang violence. Tegus boasts gourmet restaurants, colorful fruit stands, and flashy malls.

On July 28, 2009, President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the military in the Honduran capital and placed on a plane to Costa Rica. This event—deemed a coup d’état by the international community—was the culmination of months of unease over the President’s scheduled referendum to change the Constitution of Honduras, presumably to facilitate his re-election to a second term. The first in Central America since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the coup was entirely non-violent and resulted in the succession of Roberto Micheletti, the Speaker of Parliament, to the presidency. Although the Honduran government claims that Zelaya’s arrest was constitutional, as of August 2009, no foreign government had recognized the Micheletti regime. Let’s Go’s Researchers did not generate new coverage of Teguicigalpa for 2009.