El Paraíso () is one of the 18 departments ''(departamentos)'' into which

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

is divided. The territory of El Paraíso was initially part of the departments of

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

(renamed Francisco Morazán in 1943) and

Olancho Olancho is the largest of all the 18 departments into which Honduras is divided. The department covers a total surface area of 24,057 km² and has an estimated 2015 population of 537,306 inhabitants. The departmental capital is Juticalpa, w ...

after Central America gained its independence in 1825. The department of El Paraíso was created with municipalities taken from the departments of Tegucigalpa and Olancho on 28 May 1869 by congressional decree in the third political division of Honduras, during the presidential term of

José María Medina José María Medina Castejón (8 September 1826 – 1878) served as the President of Honduras three times during the 1860s and 1870s. Medina was born in Sensenti. While his father is not known, his mother's name was Antonia Medina Castejón. ...

. Initially El Paraíso included the jurisdictions of Danlí, Yuscarán and Texiguat, along with the town of Guinope. On December 28, 1878, Texiguat was moved to the department of Tegucigalpa, but subsequently moved back into El Paraíso on October 28, 1886. The departmental capital is Yuscarán. El Paraíso is bordered to the north by the department of Olancho, to the south by the department of de Choluteca, to the east by the

Republic of Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

, and to the west by the department of Francisco Morazán. El Paraíso department covers a total surface area of 7489 km² and, in 2015, had an estimated population of 458,742.

Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

# Alauca # Danlí # El Paraíso # Guinope #

Jacaleapa Jacaleapa is a municipality in the Honduran department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a ...

# Liure #

Morocelí Morocelí () is a municipality in the Honduran department of El Paraíso. The town houses a cigar factory operated by Nestor Plasencia Nestor Plasencia Sr. (born circa 1950) is a tobacco grower and cigar maker of Cuban descent whose factories ...

# Oropolí # Potrerillos #

San Antonio de Flores San Antonio de Flores is a municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. ...

# San Lucas # San Matías # Soledad # Teupasenti # Texiguat # Trojes # Vado Ancho # Yauyupe # Yuscarán

References

Departments of Honduras States and territories established in 1869 {{Honduras-geo-stub