By: Staff Writer
January 10, 2023
The government of Honduras announced in December that it suspended some constitutional rights in areas of two main cities controlled by criminal groups.
The rights would be suspended under a national security emergency that would last for 30 days from December 6 and be implemented in some of the poorest areas of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the northern city of San Pedro Sula. The order is now up and very little has changed in Honduras.
The Honduran government on January 7 extended this state of emergency declaration for 45 days, expanding it to additional areas of the country in an effort to fight the criminal gangs amid high levels of violence.
Police chief Gustavo Sanchez said the decision, based on what he told journalists were good results during December, will allow continued reductions in crime and violence. This in itself is laughable because why would there be a need to extend the state of emergency?
The measure, part of leftist President Xiomara Castro’s crackdown on gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, suspends some constitutional rights and allows security forces to detain people who they consider associated with or have committed crimes.
All of this has prompted the US to accelerate their visit to the violence stricken country. Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya is leading a high-level interagency delegation to Honduras from January 9-12, 2023, to take part in the U.S.-Honduras Strategic and Human Rights Dialogues, to build on the countries’ shared bilateral agenda to support a prosperous, secure, thriving, and democratic Honduras.
The Strategic Dialogue will address governance; anti-corruption; economic prosperity; development; safe, orderly, and humane migration; and security. The Human Rights Dialogue will focus on human rights defender protections, gender-based violence, and labor rights. Following the dialogues, members of the U.S. delegation will meet with president Castro.
During the first month of the measures, 39 criminal gangs were destroyed and 652 people were arrested, while 43 kilos of cocaine and thousands of grams and rocks of crack were seized, the police said.
Human rights defenders have said they will monitor the measures.
Extortions generate annual profits of up to $737 million for gangs, nearly 3% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to data from Association for a More Just Society, a security-focused non-governmental organization.
In November, President Castro declared war on extortion – a very real problem that causes economic stagnation, fuels violence and forces countless Hondurans to flee the country.
A United Nations report indicated that three quarters of the displaced population need material support, humanitarian assistance is a pillar of a new law on internal displacement.
At the same time, 85 per cent of those displaced who have reported impacts on their health also expressed the need for mental health services.
In addition to creating an institutional framework through the National Response System to Forced Displacement, the new law establishes prevention mechanisms for forced recruitment, criminal exploitation of children and youth, and other challenges.
With 46 per cent of displaced students having suspended their education or being barred by gang violence from returning to school, the act also envisages the creation of educational reintegration protocols.
So it isn’t just round ups by President Castro, but a holistic approach to solving root causes of crime. But as we are seeing now, the suspension of constitutional rights for police raids is simply just playing whack-a-mole as one head is thumped, another head of a criminal organization pops up.