Honduran Congress Delays Energy Reform as Liberal Party Demands Guarantees

The Honduran National Congress has postponed the vote on the energy sector reform aimed at rescuing the financially troubled state utility ENEE, waiting for opposition proposals. Although it holds the required 65 votes, the leadership chose to seek broader consensus, extending the debate.

The Liberal Party, a key opposition bloc holding 13 decisive votes, has conditioned its support on explicit guarantees that ENEE will not be privatized and that any future split of the utility will not place state assets as collateral for financing. Liberal deputy Marlon Lara emphasized protecting public assets while allowing private investment under state control.

Civil society groups such as Defensores de Honduras called for responsible, consensus‑based reform and warned against using the process to divide Congress. The union representing ENEE workers, STENEE, demanded a tribunal investigation into past procurement that it says wasted billions of lempiras and urged immediate use of usable equipment.

The pause and conditions underscore the political sensitivities surrounding the reform, which seeks to curb ENEE’s daily losses of about 50 million lempiras and restructure its administration without privatization.