Honduras

LONDON -- David Beckham, Major League Soccer's best-known star, isn't playing in the Olympic tournament after being cut from the British team last month. But three of the players MLS did contribute to the field have done the league proud. Striker Jerry Bengtson of the New England Revolution has scored all three Honduras goals in the tournament, including the one that eliminated Olympic favorite Spain and sent the Central Americans on to Saturday's quarterfinal with Brazil. That makes him the second-leading scorer in the tournament, one goal behind Moussa Konaté of Senegal.

As the war on drugs has spread from Mexico to Central America, so has the U.S. role in Honduras. Pentagon contracts are helping to fund new military bases in remote regions of that country, and U.S. troops and special Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been deployed to train local security forces and assist in counter-narcotics operations. It's a delicate partnership, and one that is already causing controversy. Last week the Obama administration confirmed that DEA agents were with Honduran security forces aboard a U.S. helicopter during a botched May 11 operation.

The controversy surrounding a May 11 predawn anti-drug operation in Honduras that left four people dead is growing. And so are question about the role of American forces in that firefight. U.S. counter-narcotics efforts in Honduras now include special U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Times has reported. The DEA's role in the May 11 operation has come under scrutiny after differing accounts emerged in recent days. American and Honduran officials have said DEA agents were aboard a helicopter that was pursuing a canoe carrying drug traffickers.

After a week of surprises and upsets, the CONCACAF Olympic soccer trials finally played to form on the final day of group play Tuesday as both Honduras and Mexico advanced to the tournament semifinals with wins at the Home Depot Center The Central Americans, needing a victory to keep their Olympic hopes alive, beat Trinidad & Tobago, 2-0, while Mexico, the only unbeaten, untied team in the eight-nation tournament, beat Panama, 1-0, on Erick Torres'...

Mexico won the battle Sunday. But it may have set itself up to the lose the war. With Alan Pulido scoring three times, Mexico beat Honduras, 3-0, in the second game of a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying doubleheader, played before a soggy Home Depot Center announced crowd of 16,184. That's a good thing. With two victories in pool play and only winless Panama remaining on its schedule, Mexico is all but certain to advance to Saturday's tournament semifinal in Kansas City as the group champion.

A conclave of Central American presidents meeting in Guatemala to discuss a major overhaul of their drug laws — including legalization or decriminalization — failed to arrive at a consensus Saturday and agreed to meet again soon in Honduras. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina had invited five counterparts to discuss what he described as growing frustration with Washington's anti-drug policy, which many in the region say is exacting too high a price in crime and corruption.

The prison where more than 350 inmates died in a fire this week was packed with more than three times the number of prisoners it was built to hold, according to an official report issued in December. As Honduran officials worked Thursday to remove and identify victims of the deadly blaze, new details about how the Comayagua prison was run appeared to bolster broad criticism of the country's overcrowded and unsafe prison system. The Comayagua prison was built for 250 inmates but held 842, according to the December report on Honduras' prison system by the government-appointed National Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

Angered by a prison fire in Honduras that officials say killed more than 350 trapped inmates, rights advocates on Wednesday decried dangerous and overcrowded conditions that they say have long typified the country's neglected prison system. Officials said at least 356 people were confirmed dead by late Wednesday, after the blaze a day earlier consumed half the prison in the town of Comayagua in central Honduras. The toll is the highest from any prison fire in modern history. Rights advocates called for reforms of Honduran prisons, which for many years have been beset by chronic overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate food and ramshackle quarters.

My mother, reacting to the recent spate of alarmist headlines about "raging" violence and increased security measures affecting Peace Corps volunteers in Central America, has taken to calling me on a near-nightly basis. "Just needed to hear your voice," she says to explain the call. "I'm fine, Mom," I respond. Frankly, it's getting annoying. It's not that I don't appreciate the chance to speak with my mother. What bothers me is knowing that she is seriously worried.

Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world, according to the United Nations, and its government has long been plagued by allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. A 2009 military coup deepened political rifts and eroded public trust in democratic institutions. And a recent Human Rights Watch report found that officials have yet to bring to justice many of those allegedly responsible for violations committed after the coup. Indeed, the crisis appears to be growing more acute.