Transformemos Honduras Uncovers $65 Million Education Scandal

May 7, 2010

It’s been an awesome week for Transformemos Honduras (“Let’s Transform Honduras”), the ASJ (formerly known as AJS)-supportedmovement bringing Hondurans of all stripes together to hold the government officials accountable to improving the country instead of just looking out for their own interests.

On Thursday, May 6, TH held a press conference kicking off its initiative to weed out corruption in Honduras’ public education system that is ruining kids’ chances for a brighter future. The situation is so severe that UNESCO reports Honduras is 100 years behind neighboring Costa Rica and Panama in terms of educational development.

Reporters from 20 different news media attended the conference. So did representatives of USAID, the UNDP, the GTZ, and other international donor organizations interested in learning how Honduras’ Ministry of Education was using (or misusing) the funds they donated. During the conference TH president, Carlos Hernandez, handed reams of evidence of corruption in the Ministry of Education to Osvaldo Canales (left), head of the National Anti-Corruption Council (a semi-autonomous government agency), publicly urging him to take action.

The press conference highlighted three big problems:

Illegally Inflated Salaries: Since 2003, Honduras has lost an estimated $65 million in illegally inflated salaries paid to about 10,000 of Honduras’ 60,000 public school teachers. With all the money wrongly spent on these inflated salaries, Honduras instead could have hired 1,400 additional teachers. TH has obtained and posted the names of thousands of illegally overpaid teachers on its website.
Mass Firings and Political Favors: One of the first things Pepe Lobo’s administration did after taking power was to fire 163 staff members (in other words, almost everyone) of an alternative education program that has helped 80,000 Hondurans graduate from sixth grade and that USAID has poured millions of dollars into. The staff were replaced with National Party activists who were unqualified for the job but expected to be rewarded for campaigning for the party last fall. Until TH publicized this important story yesterday, it had been mostly ignored by the major Honduran media.
“Phantom” Teachers: TH members have been going from school to school checking official payroll lists against reality. At one school they found that of 55 teachers on payroll, only 33 actually show up to work. The other 22 seem to be “phantoms”–they get paid, but no one knows who or where they are. TH has set up a website where parents can easily locate their childrens’ schools, download a list of the teachers on the official payroll, check with school administrators how the list lines up with reality, and report the results back to TH.

Read more (in Spanish) about TH’s work to root out corruption and improve education at the TH website.

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ASJ-US and ASJ-Canada Joint Statement on Honduran Elections

December 2, 2025

ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US Congratulate the Honduran People, Call for Full and Transparent Results As sister organizations committed to justice, peace and hope in Honduras, ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US extend our deepest congratulations to the people of Honduras on the peaceful conduct of their national elections on November 30, 2025. With the initial tally showing an extraordinarily close vote, we call on election authorities to do what is necessary to ensure a transparent count of the remaining ballots in order to guarantee public trust in the final outcome. We commend the Honduran voters for their dedication to democratic participation and their commitment to shaping the future of their country through civic engagement. We also recognize the efforts of electoral authorities, civil society organizations, the international community and the thousands of volunteer observers who worked to ensure a transparent, orderly, and secure process. We are especially proud of our sister organization, ASJ-Honduras, for their unwavering commitment to democracy demonstrated through their electoral observation efforts, their analysis activities, and their consistent call for a fair and orderly process. Now that such a process has been achieved, the work turns to counting the votes with accuracy and transparency. The results remain close, increasing the possibility of a contested result. We support the work of the election officials at the National Electoral Council to give Hondurans confidence in the final results by conducting their count with rigor and transparency. We remain hopeful that the spirit of peaceful participation in the democratic process embraced by the electorate will carry forward into the post-election period to come. We look forward to continued collaboration with ASJ-Honduras as we all work together toward a just and hopeful future for all Hondurans. Matthew Van Geest President, Board of Directors ASJ-Canada Russ Jacobs President, Board of Directors ASJ-US

Artisans of Fraternity, Guardians of Hope

November 28, 2025

A call to action for Honduras

November 2025 ASJ-US Statement about Honduran Elections

By Elizabeth Hickel • November 25, 2025

The Association for a More Justice Society-US Supports the Network to Defend Democracy; Calls for Free and Fair Elections in Honduras November 25, 2025

Context Updates on the 2025 Elections in Honduras

November 13, 2025

Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections

HOPE

By Elizabeth Hickel • November 12, 2025

Dear friend, I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. Of course, there had been plenty of inspiring photos from this summer’s Prayer Walk for Peace and Democracy. The sea of blue and white rising and falling as hundreds of thousands walked the Honduran hills through Tegucigalpa, flowing like a never-ending stream. Catholic nuns praying their rosaries alongside Pentecostals dancing in the streets. But the picture that still knocks me flat is the closeup. The one of the two men standing side by side (picture enclosed). They are exhausted, and the shorter collapses into the taller. The tears mostly hold joy and relief, but they are mingled with something darker. After all, there had been threats—promises of harm done to themselves and their loved ones if they led their followers through the streets of Honduras in prayer. Despite the fear and intimidation, Pastor Gerardo Irías and Monsignor José Vicente Nácher forged ahead. They knew Honduras needed unity and, above all, prayer before the looming November 2025 presidential elections. As an ASJ supporter, you know that these kinds of threats aren’t out of the ordinary, and your support has helped slow and reverse violence in Honduras. Today, I am writing to share a way you can continue standing with brave Hondurans like Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José in hope. The Evangelical pastor and the Catholic archbishop put the word out as widely as they could to their churches, hoping to mobilize 20,000 to walk and pray. Instead, an estimated 230,000 walked in the capital of Tegucigalpa alone. It was a historic moment. And without your past support for ASJ, it may have never happened. After all, two years prior, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José didn’t even know each other’s names. They first met in 2023 at ASJ’s offices. They were two of many civil society leaders convened by ASJ to discuss safeguarding democracy– especially before the election in 2025. It was at that meeting that they shook each other’s hand and learned each other’s name. It was at that meeting–and many subsequent meetings–where old religious prejudices began to be replaced by trust and mutual affection. So, when the moment came this summer to act, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José knew what they had to do. And they knew that they had to do it together.