Central America - US Department of State

Central America


Dr. Howard Smith hugs a young Honduran boy in the clinic after surgery. (Photo courtesy Howard Smith)

Honduran Children, Doctors Reap Generosity of Two U.S. Surgeons

American professors of medicine at Columbia University in New York quietly have been repairing facial deformities in Honduran children for nearly two decades, giving thousands of youngsters a chance to lead normal lives. Dr. Howard Smith, 88, and Dr. Joseph Haddad, 50, go beyond performing the delicate procedures of repairing cleft lips and cleft palates. Largely at their own expense, the two humanitarians also are training Honduran doctors to do the operations and providing them with financial support during apprenticeships. (complete text)

U.S. Still Top Financial Contributor to Humanitarian Mine Action

Casualties from land mines worldwide have dropped from around 26,000 a year four years ago to a little more than 3,000 a year today, counting both land mines and other target-activated explosives. The United States long has been the largest financial contributor to humanitarian mine action -- a broad category that covers clearance, funding for prosthetics, training of mine removers, mine risk education, and research and development for better mine removal equipment and techniques -- and since 1993 has provided more than $1.2 billion to some 50 countries in this effort. (complete text)

Better Education for Youth Cuts Crime in Central America

A comprehensive approach that includes better education for at-risk young people is needed to cut high crime rates in Central America and the Caribbean, according to experts, who say crime in Central America and the Caribbean has become worse, despite anti-crime programs by the region’s governments. Attendees at a conference in Miami share information and strategies for addressing income inequality, easy access to guns and a young underemployed or unemployed population -- all triggers to the region’s increasing crime rates. (complete text)