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Honduras Sets Stage for 3 Privately Run Cities
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:09 am
by MachineGhost
Investors can begin construction in six months on three privately run cities in Honduras that will have their own police, laws, government and tax systems now that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement approving the project.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... FqzGlEwMxQ
Re: Honduras Sets Stage for 3 Privately Run Cities
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:24 am
by dualstow
I couldn't get the link to work, but sounds interesting. Something like a city-state, like Monaco?
I've been to Honduras and I found it quite chaotic. Too many people running around with machetes, and guards with long guns at the entrance of Applebee's. Generally nice people, though.
Perhaps a private city-state would be safer. But, would it become the envy and eventually the target of the angry 99%? Will it be like a vast gated community or will it be open to the public, provided they have travel documents?
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google news search link
I read the Huffington Post article. Fascinating!
Re: Honduras Sets Stage for 3 Privately Run Cities
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:07 pm
by notsheigetz
I think the closest thing we have to this in the U.S.A. is Celebration City in Disney World. Don't know how much truth there is in it but the story I've heard is that Walt Disney was so bummed out about all of the government control that accompanied the building of Disneyland in California that he sought and gained more control over the situation in Florida. It's a wonderful city if you've never been there (and even if you have come to think of it). I believe they have their own police department and I know they have their own hospital because I've had to visit it.
P.S. - I've visited Roatan Island in the Honduras. If my plans of retiring in the Philippines don't pan out I have it in my mind to check out living there.
Re: Honduras Sets Stage for 3 Privately Run Cities
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 12:49 pm
by MachineGhost
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The constitutional chamber of Honduras’ Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that privately run cities in the Central American country would be unconstitutional, threatening a project to build “model cities”? with their own police, laws, government and tax systems.
The five-judge panel voted 4-to-1 in a ruling that goes against the Honduran government and the country’s elite.
Because the decision was not unanimous, the case now goes to the full 15-member Supreme Court, which is expected to take it up within 10 days.
The constitutional judges argued that “the foreign investment expected to be received by the state of Honduras implies transferring national territory, which is expressly prohibited in the constitution,”? according to a copy of the ruling obtained by The Associated Press.
Re: Honduras Sets Stage for 3 Privately Run Cities
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:50 pm
by MachineGhost
The Honduran Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a project to build privately-run cities, with their own police and tax system.
The "model cities" project was backed by President Porfirio Lobo, who said it would attract foreign investment and create jobs
By 13 votes to one, Supreme Court judges decided that the proposal violated the principle of sovereignty.
Demonstrators celebrated the decision outside the court in Tegucigalpa.
"This is great news for the Honduran people. This decision has prevented the country going back into a feudal system that was in place 1,000 years ago," said lawyer Fredin Funez.
The government proposal to create some 20 "special development zones - as the new cities were officially called - was approved by Congress last year.
The Supreme Court has now ruled that the law approved in Congress is unconstitutional, as it violates the territorial integrity of Honduras, as well as the sovereignty of the government.
"I am sad. All the Congress wanted was to give jobs to all Hondurans," said Congress speaker Juan Orlando Hernandez.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19999536