Caribbean & Central America - May 2007 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The agriculture minister, Héctor Hernández, said that José Segoví­a, the president of the bank, was suspended for refusing to lend to some agricultural producers. Segoví­a follows the head of the national disaster relief organisation and the head of the state telecoms company out of the government. Since Manuel Zelaya took office in January 2006 he has lost at leas 22 senior officials including three ministers. Almost all these officials, who ended up being dismissed or resigning were first suspended.  

The two most recent officials to go were Juan Carlos Elvir, who was head of the Comisión Permananente de Contingencias and Jacono Lagos who was head of the state telecoms company, Empresa Hondureña de Telecomunicaciones. Elvir went at the end of April when he contradicted a report from the presidential palace that the country was about to experience a major heatwave with temperatures of 40 degrees centigrade. Lagos went after falling out with Hondutel's deputy manager, Marcelo Chimirri Castro, who is a relation of the President Zelaya's wife, Xiomarra Castro.  

Inflation: In April inflation came to 0.6%, much the same as March's 0.7%. The rate for the first four months of the year is 2.9%. The rate for the past 12 months is 6.3%, well above the rate in 2006 which was 5.6%.