from envio, september 1997:
This exploitation is possible because of the high national unemployment level together with the competition among businesses and countries to produce more at a lower cost. This combines with the state's compliance toward foreign maquila investment as an immediate solution to social problems, ideological defense of the maquilas by the national owners of the industrial parks and the constant threat by the foreign investors that they will fly with their business to more favorable countries—which is why they are called "swallows."
(...) Despite the obvious exploitation, the people who benefit from the workers' wages, and the workers themselves, are satisfied with this source of work. In Christian reflection groups it is not rare to hear prayers thanking God for the arrival of a new factory, and even the greatest critics recognize that it is better to be exploited than unemployed.

[note: not very critical article in general, and exclusively about honduras]