The state of emergency implemented in Honduras in December to confront gangs was extended for 45 days and extended to more municipalities due to the “good results,” authorities reported this Saturday, January 7.
The state of emergency implemented in Honduras in December to confront the gangs was extended for 45 days and extended to more municipalities due to the “good results,” authorities reported this Saturday, January 7.
“Given good results, the government of President Xiomara Castro extends the state of emergency for 45 more days,” the Honduran Press Secretary announced on Twitter.
Castro imposed the measure last December 6 to confront gang members, mainly from Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, who terrorize the poor neighborhoods of Honduras, deploying thousands of police officers for security operations.
The “state of exception” will continue to apply in 89 neighborhoods of Tegucigalpa and 73 of San Pedro Sula, and districts of another 73 municipalities of Honduras, a country of 10 million inhabitants, will be added.
“Different patrols are carried out in different areas of the capital, all with the aim of safeguarding and preventing the commission of misdemeanors and crimes,” the Honduran National Police tweeted, noting that it was complying with the expansion of the extent.
The “state of exception” was approved by Castro “by virtue of the serious disturbance of peace and security that prevails in the main cities of the country, caused essentially by organized criminal groups” and resolved “to suspend the guarantees established in the Constitution of the Republic”.
The order authorizes the police to “arrest the people they determine and consider responsible for associating, executing, or having links in the commission of crimes and crimes.”
The President of Honduras highlighted on that occasion that the offensive is focused above all on combating extortionists, “one of the main causes of migration and the closure of small and medium-sized businesses,” especially carriers.
In a report presented on the first day of the year, the Secretary of Security pointed out that Honduras closed 2022 with a homicide rate of 35.79 per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest in 16 years in one of the most violent countries in the world.
The report, which attributes the reduction to the implementation of “new security strategies”, indicated that 1,371 gang members were captured last year, in addition to 307 disjointed criminal gangs dedicated to the sale of drugs, extortion and other crimes that affect criminal violence.
Also read: More than 54,000 Venezuelan migrants entered Honduras in 2022
Post Views: 397
