It's the economy, stupid

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." I feel somewhat similarly about the Honduran economy. On the one hand, many financial indexes rate Honduras as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It scores much higher than many African nations, but lags behind many of its neighbors. But I don't need the numbers to tell me that. I see evidence of poverty and a depressed economy everywhere I go here.
  However, there is another side. The other day I was at Toncontin International Airport here in Tegucigalpa and it was absolutely mobbed with people. Now obviously many were there to send off or receive family and friends, but the lines for check-in were busy too. Flying costs money. Flying out of Tegus costs even more because of the unique challenges of take-off and landing. And it can't be possible that ALL or even MOST of these passengers are foreign visitors going to and fro. Some of these must be Hondurans that are departing and arriving.
  I then went to one of Tegucigalpa's malls, the one with Walmart (Mall Cascadas). It, too, was lousy with people. Some of the traffic was doubtless attributable to the holiday but I have been in that mall at other times when it has been similarly crowded. From this mall one can actually see another of the city's malls (Metromall), and nearer the church there are two more more sharp, clean malls with upscale stores (Mall Mutiplaza and Mall Novacentro). The food court at one of them is constantly busy. On top of that, they are building another mall near the airport. (All that and I haven't even mentioned StuffMart, I mean, PriceSmart.)
  What gives?
  Latin American economies are notorious for having a small upper class living in luxury and a large lower class, mired in poverty. As compared to the US economy, this is still probably true of Honduras. But I don't think such an imbalanced system could possibly sustain the level of commerce that one sees here in Tegucigalpa. There must be a middle class of some sort to sustain these businesses.
  That said, there is certainly poverty in the city and the economy outside the main cities is another matter altogether. But the poverty here is still different than that in places like Africa. In those places the daily effort to find food, never mind pay for it, is burdensome. As near as I can tell, there is no shortage of food here. The produce is generally plentiful and beautiful. The open air markets teem with people and the spread of seasonal fruits and vegetables is a sight to behold.
  Such is the mysterious, enigmatic riddle of the Honduran economy. I am glad that it is not mine to unravel, though perhaps, as a minister here my task is no less mysterious.