Remember that in late June there was political unrest in Honduras? Here is the latest, and it is good news:
World Bank Restores Aid – 11 February 0900

The World Bank said yesterday that it will restore $270 million in development aid that had been frozen after then-president Manuel Zelaya was ousted in June. Also, it will furnish a new credit of $120 million.

The announcement is another important step in Honduras’s rehabilitation, and will give a critical boost to efforts by newly inaugurated president Porfirio Lobo to resurrect the moribund economy. By some estimates, Honduras, already one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, lost as many as 500,000 jobs due to reductions in foreign investment and aid caused by Zelaya’s ouster. The increased unemployment has brought about a sharp increase in crime, especially robbery, extortion and kidnapping.

The conservative Lobo was inaugurated as president 27 January after a landslide win in a November election, and soon thereafter escorted Zelaya to the airport to depart for Santo Domingo, ending a seven-month political crisis. Two days earlier, the Honduran Congress followed Lobo’s lead in approving an amnesty for both Zelaya and the six military leaders who sent him into exile on 28 June.

Lobo’s efforts at reconciliation have paved the way for broader recognition of his government. On 26 January, Mauricio Funes, the left-leaning president of El Salvador, indicated that his country would normalize relations with Honduras after the inauguration. The United States also has said that it will normalize relations, as will Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Peru. Latin American leftist regimes, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, remain on the fence, while Venezuela and its allies, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua, are not expected to recognize the new administration.