- Title: HONDURAS: Honduran migrants flee violence, poverty to U.S. border
- Date: 24th June 2014
- Summary: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (RECENT) (REUTERS) NATIONAL POLICE TROOPS SURVEILLING STREETS IN 14TH OF MARCH COLONY ABANDONED HOUSES POLICE WALKING STREETS ABANDONED ACCOMMODATION POLICE PATROLLING STREETS GRAFFITI BY GANGS INSIDE ABANDONED HOUSE POLICE INSIDE ABANDONED HOUSE MORE OF POLICE SURVEILLING STREETS DESTROYED AND ABANDONED HOUSES POLICE CARRYING OUT AN INSPECTION ON YOU
- Embargoed: 9th July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Honduras
- Country: Honduras
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9ASM07GDCSEE7JP23EOO9N2SX
- Story Text: In areas of violence-stricken Honduras, there are areas which seem like ghost towns due to families fleeing to escape danger and extortion in the Central American country.
Many residents in the dusty suburb of 14 de Marzo on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa have fled their homes, adding to the tens of thousands of Hondurans that are fleeing drugs violence and gang warfare back home.
Empty streets reveal abandoned shops marked with the tag of the ultra-violent Mara 18 gang, silent witnesses to a wave of violence and poverty sweeping across Honduras.
Scarred by street warfare, those who remain live amongst shelled-out houses with no roofs or windows that are now used by soldiers as makeshift barracks.
The public transport system is also now facing many problems with extortion.
"What is certain is that they (extortionists) appear everywhere, they even appear in the bus. Owners everywhere and we don't know. Suddenly, the same driver doesn't know who he has to give the money to. Whether it is to the owner, or to the person who appears in the street asking for it," commented Urban Transport Trade Union Spokesperson, Jorge Lanza.
Suburbs have become war zones as rival gangs Mara 18, the Mara Salvatrucha and Los Chirizos fight for control of territory to push drugs or collect tributes from local residents who have not yet left their homes.
"This is a forced displacement phenomenon caused by the activities of organised crime and other violent situations such as, for example, gangs in certain neighborhoods. This is forced displacement, because it doesn't give you any choice. To save your life, your only option is to move," said the Regional Deputy Representative of the UNHCR (United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees) for Central America, Cuba and Mexico, Jose Xavier Samaniego.
According to the UNHCR, some 29,400 people have been forced to migrate internally in Honduras due to insecurity in a country infamous for the world's highest homicide rate, of more than 85 people per 100,000.
"As protection, the only mechanism that people can employ is to move. Within the country, keeping a low profile, or crossing borders," added Samaniego.
With seven out of every ten citizens estimated to live in poverty, many others are fleeing abject poverty back home for the United States with the promise of a better life north and fuelled by rumors of a loosening of immigration restrictions.
NGOs estimate that some 100,000 Honduras travel illegally to the United States overland through Mexico annually, risking theft, drug cartels, human trafficking and murder.
According to the Centre for Returned Migrants, some 73,000 Hondurans were deported home from the United States and Mexico last year. The first half of this year alone has seen 33,500 Honduran citizens deported.
The flood of Central American migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras has set off talk of a humanitarian crisis on the U.S. border and in Mexico, as an influx of child migrants join adults in the dangerous trek north.
In the last seven months, U.S. officials reported that some 47,000 minors have crossed the American border unaccompanied.
Officials in the United States have reported that human traffickers are spreading rumors that illegal migrants will be offered amnesty when they reach the United States.
The Chamber of Commerce in Tegucigalpa estimated 4,700 businesses that employed some 20,000 people had closed in six months in 2012 in extortion rackets.
One of these extortion victims was trader, Federico Aguila Colindres.
"In seeing that I wouldn't (give them the money), they (the extortionists) shot me first in the leg and so I began to give in. I started to give them the money," said Aguila.
Police and military operations deployed throughout Honduras have so far failed to tackle the wave of violence that is sweeping across the nation, intensified by invading Mexican cartels setting up business in Central America's drug corridor from South America.
"Take note that an extortionist does more damage than a drug addict. If you have a drug addict in the family, they can recover, but if you have an extortionist, they hurt the whole family," added Aguila.
Last year, Congress authorised the creation the new force made up of 5,000 officers with military training. At the start of the year, the government had put 4,000 soldiers on the streets, but they have failed to end the killing.
Honduras has suffered a wave of violence in recent years, as Mexican drug cartels have expanded into the country, enlisting local street gangs and using the country's often lawless Caribbean coastline as a pit stop for U.S.-bound cocaine from South America.
According to Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, the increased military and police are managing to make some arrests.
"They also found on a hitman (arrested) in Choluteca; 11 mobile phones and three firearms. He had two arrest warrants for murder and he had a list of 22 taxis to go and hassle them for money. Honduras is changing," commented President Hernandez.
A crackdown on gang members charging the "war tax" has had little effect on the ground, with gangs continuing to rule the streets amidst weak and ineffective judicial and police systems in Honduras.
Violence has also extended beyond Tegucigalpa to the industrial city of San Pedro Sula, infamous worldwide for its high levels of crime. In agricultural areas, farmers and ranchers have reportedly sacrificed their land for drug labs and clandestine runways used to transport drugs.
Honduras, a country of some 8.5 million people, suffered an average of 19 murders each day in 2013. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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