Puerto Cortés

Puerto Cortés
Puerto Caballos
The pier of Puerto Cortés
Nickname(s): "El Puerto"
Country Honduras
Departamento Cortés
Time zone América Central (UTC-6)

Contents

Geography

It is on the Caribbean Sea coast, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, at 15.85° N, 87.94° W. It has a natural bay.

It is Honduras's main sea port and it is considered the most important seaport in Central America.[1] As of 2008, Puerto Cortés has a population of some 165,000.

History

Hernán Cortés founded the town of La Natividad in 1524, roughly where Puerto Cortés is today, and populated it with about 20 Spaniards who had been previously been living in Nito and Naco. The name Puerto de Caballos (Port of horses) is because when Hernán Cortés arrived on Honduras' coast from Mexico and started unloading horses and cargo from the ships, several horses were drowned. By 1533, a local native leader, called Çiçumba (or Çoçumba, or Socremba, or Joamba ... we don't really know since the Spanish recorded so many variants of his name) had destroyed the town, reportedly taking a woman from Sevilla, Spain captive. After Çiçumba's defeat in 1536 by Pedro de Alvarado, a new town, Puerto de Caballos was founded on the southern shore of the body of water known as the Laguna de Alvarado.

English privateeers attacked Puerto Caballos as they did other places along the Honduran coast, in 1592, Christopher Newport briefly occupied the town.[1] Because it was vulnerable to pirates until the building of the Spanish fort at Omoa in the 18th century, it had few permanent residents in the 16th and 17th centuries. People preferred to come out to the coast from San Pedro when a ship came into port. In 1869 Puerto Caballos changed its name to Puerto Cortés in honour of Hernán Cortés.

Bananas, Railroads and Development in the twentieth century

The proposal to construct an "Inter-oceanic Railway" (Ferrocarril Interoceánico) in 1850, a product of the demand for transport from the Atlantic to the Pacific occasioned by the US Gold Rush, took shape in 1853 when work commenced to anchor the railroad at Puerto Cortés. The rail line went slowly with many problems.[2] In 1876 President Marco Aurelio Soto nationalized the Trans-Oceanic Railroad, which only reached to San Pedro Sula In any case, once the Panama Canal was completed in 1903, the larger plan of crossing Central American was abandoned. While the projected cross American link did not happen, the railroad opened up extensive lands that were ideally suited for the growing of tropical fruit, especially bananas, in the hinterland of Puerto Cortés. As a result the region became an early center for banana growing and export, and the port was one of the leading port for the export of bananas as well, as the production of that fruit took off in the early twentieth century.

The early banana export industry came to be dominated foreigners, among the first foreigner to obtain a government concession was William Frederick Streich of Philadelpia in 1902. His concession was in the vicinity of Omoa and both banks of the Cuyamel River. However, in 1910 Samuel Zemurray's Cuyamel Fruit Company, purchased these 5,000 acres, but soon branched out, both with more land and with political and tax concessions, especially after Zemurray installed Manuel Bonilla in office as president using mercenaries hired in the area and abroad. In addition to awarding Cuyamel additional land, Bonilla also waived the company's tax obligations. Cuyamel had built port facilities at Omoa, but also began using the facilities at Puerto Cortés and soon came to dominate them to the point that local shippers had to ask Cuyamel's permission to use the port.[3] In 1918, Cuyamel constructed a railroad spur into Puerto Cortés, and in 1920 he obtained effective control over the National Railroad, and from this and a network of clandestine railroads the company effectively controlled all transport to the port.[4] When Zemurray sold Cuyamel Fruit to United Fruit in 1929, the giant company had great influence in Puerto Cortés and in Honduras as a whole.

The city

Puerto Cortés is home of a football team known as Club Deportivo Platense, which in 1966 won its first Honduran National Football Champion. In 2001 the team won its second national championship.

In the month of August, Puerto Cortés celebrates its local or patronal festivities during two weeks. The last day (a Saturday) is known as Noche Veneciana (Venice's night). August 15 is a local holiday in honour of Virgen de la Asunción (Puerto Cortés local patroness or saint).

In September 2001, the Bridge La Laguna (The lagoon) was rebuilt and inaugurated, the old bridge (a 50 years old structure) was badly damaged in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch and was demolished. A concrete wall that surrounds and protects a portion of the coastline in the bay area, was built close to the north end of Bridge La Laguna, this wall is known as El Malecón, the Spanish word for 'jetty' or 'pier'.

The first four-lane highway in Honduras was inaugurated in 1996, connecting Puerto Cortés and the city of San Pedro Sula.

The seaport

In 1966 the Empresa Nacional Portuaria (Honduras National Port Authority) [2] was created. A Free Trade Zone was created in 1976.

Among all worldwide seaports that export containers with goods with destination to U.S.A., Puerto Cortés is the 36th in terms of volume.

Because of its proximity to U.S. seaports in the Gulf of Mexico and on the East Coast and its outstanding seaport infrastructure, Puerto Cortés was included in the U.S. Container Security Initiative (CSI), the first such port in Central America. In December 2005 the U.S. government signed an agreement with Honduras's government and opened a U.S. Customs Office in Puerto Cortés [3]. Under this agreement, all containers exported from Puerto Cortés that are destined for any U.S. seaport are checked by U.S. Customs officials in Honduras.

On December 7, 2006 the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Energy (DOE) announced the first phase of the Secure Freight Initiative, an unprecedented effort to build upon existing port security measures by enhancing the US federal government’s ability to scan containers for nuclear and radiological materials overseas and to better assess the risk of inbound containers. The initial phase of Secure Freight involves the deployment of a combination of existing technology and proven nuclear detection devices to six foreign ports: Port Qasim in Pakistan; Puerto Cortés in Honduras; Southampton in the United Kingdom; Port Salalah in Oman; Port of Singapore; and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea. Beginning in early 2007, containers from these ports will be scanned for radiation and information risk factors before they are allowed to depart for the United States. [4]

On March 2007, under the Megaport initiative, 3 RPMs (Radiation Portal Monitors) were already installed in Puerto Cortés by U.S. DOE in order to inspect all containers with destination to USA, checking for possible dangerous radioactive threats. On April 2, 2007 the RPMs became operative [5].

Notable people and natives of Puerto Cortés

Elected Mayors of Puerto Cortés

In 1982 a new constitution was approved, before that year mayors were designated "by finger" by Tegucigalpa top government officials.

Facts

Medical Services

Private and Public Hospitals

Clinical Laboratories

Pharmacies

References

  1. ^ David Marley, Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the present (ABC Clio, 2008) 1: 126.
  2. ^ Relación histórica de los contratiempos que ha sufrido la construcción de un ferrocarril á través de la República de Honduras (London: Clayton and Temple, 1875)
  3. ^ Glen Chambers, Race, Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010) pp. 28–30. Chambers cites Honduran historian Manuel Argueto, Bananas y politica: Samuel Zemurray y la Cuyamel Fruit Company en Honduras (Tegulcigalpa, 1989)
  4. ^ Vilma Laínez and Víctor Meza, "El enclave en la historia de Honruras," Anuario de Estudos Centroamericanos 1 (1974)
  5. ^ Her letters from Puerto Cortes are reproduced in Carla Kaplan, ed Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters (New York: Random House, 2003) pp. 550-68.

External links

Municipalities