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Constitution of Honduras

fundamental law of Honduras; most recent version promulgated in 1982

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ4352829 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras (Spanish: Constitución Política de la República de Honduras) was approved on 11 January 1982, published on 20 January 1982, amended by the National Congress of Honduras 26 times from 1984 to 2005, and 10 interpretations by Congress were made from 1982 to 2005. It is Honduras' twelfth constitution since independence in 1838. Previous charters were adopted in 1839, 1848, 1865, 1873, 1880, 1894, 1906, 1924, 1936, 1957 and 1965.

The Constitution of Honduras gained notoriety because of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis that removed President Manuel Zelaya and saw Roberto Micheletti take his place. In 2009, Óscar Arias, then President of Costa Rica, who had been asked by the US State Department to help arbitrate the crisis, termed the Honduran constitution the "worst in the entire world" and an "invitation to coups."

Early history

1838–1981

Honduras broke away from the Central American Federation in October 1838 and became an independent sovereign state. However, in the 1840s and 1850s Honduras participated in several conferences Central American Union, which did not work, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate (1846) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852). It later adopted the name of Republic of Honduras.

In 1847 the National Autonomous University of Honduras (public) was founded during the administration of President-elect John Lindo; it taught civil law, philosophy and literature, among others.

In 1860, after his defeat in Nicaragua, Trujillo came to the U.S. (former president of Nicaragua) William Walker influenced by the ambiguous Monroe Doctrine ( "America for Americans"). After deviating from his initial goal was the Bay Islands and the Mosquito, which previously belonged to Britain, barricaded himself in the Fortress of San Fernando in Omoa and was shot in Trujillo on 12 September 1860, during the presidential General Jose Santos Guardiola, who was assassinated two years later, before the end of his term.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Constitution of Honduras” is fundamental law of Honduras; most recent version promulgated in 1982. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Constitution, Honduras and fundamental, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1984, 2005, 1838—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982-01-20. For this dossier, Constitution, Honduras and fundamental is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “fundamental law of Honduras; most recent version promulgated in 1982” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4352829. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1984, 2005 and 1838.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Constitution of Honduras”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Constitution of Honduras primary sources, Constitution of Honduras archive and Constitution research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Constitution of Honduras”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Constitution of Honduras” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.