Prosecutors and whistleblowers have received death threats. There is no such thing as a perfect safety guide, and this article is no different. Reconsider travel to Honduras due to crime. When more cameras arrived, men were forced to take off their shirts so the police could inspect them for gang tattoos in front of the bright lights. Check in and let people know your plans. Rights activists say young men are frequently arrested just based on their age, appearance or whether they live in a gang-dominated slum. For years, street gangs have charged protection money from bus and taxi drivers and store owners in Honduras, as in neighboring El Salvador. From 2011 to 2017, the number of killings in Honduras actually dropped, from 87 per 100,000 to 44. Wed classify it as generally hazardous. Abortionisillegalin Honduras in all circumstances. You dont know how clean the persons hands are whos been peeling and chopping the, Dont go TOO in on the food when you first arrive, especially if you get ill from food quite easily. It is not just murder, it's also the shocking numbers of rape, assault, and domestic violence cases, happening with near-total impunity. Allegations that senior politicians had been benefiting financially from the drug trade contributed to the unrest. And taxi driversprobably wont have enough change to cover a big bill, socarry small denominations. Planning a safe trip to Honduras can get quite overwhelming. And Hondurascan be a safe place for solo female travelers, but wed only recommend it after some solo travel experience. The most extensive database on organized crime in the Americas. People here live in pretty supreme poverty 60%of the population living in poverty really isa lot of people. I agree with Bukele and I want the same here. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) Honduras became the second country in Central America to declare a state of emergency to fight gang crimes like extortion. The island attracts a very different crowd indeed. If you see any outdated information in this guide, we would really appreciate it if you could reach out in the comments below. Overcrowding, inadequate nutrition, poor sanitation, beatings, intra-gang violence, and detainee killings are endemic in prisons. That means that if you book your accommodation, buy your gear, or sort your insurance through our link, we earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). According to a State Department report last year, there are up to 10,000 gang members in Honduras, a country with roughly 8 million people. Politicians are manipulated by criminals or other politicians. Category 5 hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Honduras in November 2020 and have had enduring impacts on farmersand the public generallyby destroying subsistence farms, killing livestock by the hundreds of thousands and reducing agricultural production. Police were allegedly in the area when private security forces opened fired against several families but did not help the victims, witnesses told the press. There are taxi ranks in a lot of locations. Honduras | Today's latest from Al Jazeera Honduras Peru pulls ambassador from Honduras amid regional criticism Peru has struggled with diplomatic isolation as left-wing. In these demonstrations, more than 1,500 were arrested and30 people were killed. The state of emergency, in place since Dec. 6 in 165 areas of Honduras' largest two cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, has been expanded to 235 of the country's 298 municipalities, the national police said. The groups most likely to be internally displaced or leave the country are children subjected to forced gang recruitment, professionals and business owners who face extortion, domestic violence survivors, and LGBT people and members of ethnic minorities who face violence and discrimination. Look and see where locals are eating. For now, there are 15,000 taxis who want your attention. But if youre thinking about it, here are some tips. The effort comes amid complaints by business owners, the transportation sector and ordinary Hondurans that extortion by criminals has risen in recent months. Theyre run by private companies, obviously, and aremore expensivethan public buses. As of August 2020, more than 21,000 people were detained in prisons with capacity for just under 11,000. These. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); Biodiversity is a huge part of Honduras. Youll be able to travel around here with relative ease. La Ceibaon the northern coast, with mountains, jungles, and beaches, is a chilled and adventurous area to explore. Security Minister Oscar Alvarez says police have identified two suspects among the five attackers . Were not going to say its thesafest place to travel,nor is it going to be the easiestplace to travel as a solo female. But travelers DO take these buses. Its just better to have a local driver drive you around. SafetyWing is convenient, cheap, and trouble-free Insurance was never this easy! A Honduran woman and her children manage to cross the remnants of a bridge destroyed by Hurricane Iota. Earlier this year, Honduras appeared set to follow an example set by another neighbor, Nicaragua, whose community-based policing approach was for years hailed for maintaining exceptionally low crime rates and minimal gang presence until the government turned the police into a repressive force against the people amid widespread protests in 2018. Testimony provided by drug traffickers and Honduran politicians on trial in the United States have revealed the deep-seated connection between organized crime and the governing National Party. Every year, more than 100,000 Hondurans are internally displaced, migrate, seek protection abroad, or are deported back to Honduras. The Supreme Court had upheld Romeros 10-year sentencein January 2020. In January 2020, the government shut down the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH). The measure must still be approved by Congress. Some are deprived of full legal capacity and are institutionalized in different settings, including psychiatric hospitals. Here are three reasons the International Rescue Committees Emergency Watchlist ranks Honduras among 20 countries most at risk of worsening humanitarian crisis in 2022. If you use our guide, do your own research, and practise common sense, you will have a safe trip to Honduras. We wouldnt recommend members of the LGBTQ+ community to visit Honduras unless theyre prepared to keep any sort of affection behind closed doors. So far, the state of exception in Honduras has produced some arrests and forced the gangs and other criminal groups to keep a lower profile. Alongside her husband, Sasha, she co-founded the. This Central American country actually has one of the highest murder rates in the world. We get it. The primary drivers of this violence are gangs like the Barrio 18 and MS13, which concentrate their criminal activities in urban areas and recruit young people, many of whom are suffering from widespread economic inequality and a lack of opportunity. Half of underage pregnancies result from rape. We need to address these immediate needs too.. All rights reserved. These drug trafficking gangs rule peoples lives. Inside Honduras' most dangerous gangs 127,396 views Mar 8, 2020 1.2K Dislike Share Save Sky News 5.19M subscribers Warning: this report contains blurred images of dead bodies which some viewers. Close, Is Honduras Safe for Travel? Share this via WhatsApp Call us in Washington, D.C. at 1-888-407-4747 (toll-free in the United States and Canada) or 1-202-501-4444 (from all other countries) from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). A new country, a new contract, a new piece of plastic booooring. Many people do travel to this particular part of Honduras,even with their families. Tegucigalpa. See the State Department's travel website for the Worldwide Caution and Travel Advisories. The crime rates are improving and the government is putting a lot of effort into attracting more tourists. The Newton Police Department has arrested three escaped inmates from Scott County, according to Newton police chief, Randy Patrick. Newton County Sheriff's Office was involved with . Visiting Honduras right now is as safe as it ever was:not very. These are pretty safe. Some victims of extortion said that the only thing that has changed is how the money is collected. Members of the military police of public order patrol a street during a special operation against criminal gangs in Tegucigalpa on 6 December. It provided a family, a sense of belonging. In 2018, the last year for which statistics are available, 60 percent of perpetrators were domestic partners. Dont drink the water without treating, and steer clear of ice cubes,too. San Pedro Sula (Spanish pronunciation: [sam pedo sula]) is the capital of Corts Department, Honduras.It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Corts on the Caribbean Sea.With a population of 671,460 in the central urban area (2020 calculation) and a population of 1,445,598 in its metropolitan area in 2020 . Over60% of the populationlive below the poverty line. In the streets where insecurity lurks around each corner, many ordinary Hondurans want to see extreme measures human rights be damned and believe that anything short of that is not enough. It is important to know that Utila is very much a developed backpacker hotspot. So. Get fresh updates on organized crime from across the region delivered to your inbox. Chances are, if you are arriving via a cruise ship, you will be safe. Drug trafficking gangs, corruption, and extreme poverty keep Honduras down. Its prettyextreme. Dont open the door for anyone, unless youre expecting a visit. Honduras Private Sector and Anti-Extortion Police: An Unholy Alliance? FILE - Honduras' President Xiomara Castro addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 20, 2022. Xiomara Castros crackdown on gangs is also an attempt to counter allegations the government hasnt done enough to combat crime. In Honduras, Police Accused Of Corruption, Killings Hernndez ran for reelection in 2017 a controversial move in Honduras. Honduras isnt perfectly safe for tourists, but that doesnt mean that you can travel there or have a good time. Is Honduras safe for solo female travelers? Close to 1 million migrants fled Honduras for the U.S. border over the eight-year tenure of former President Juan Orlando Hernndez, now facing drug trafficking charges after being arrested. By BRENT MAZE. This new donation is in addition to the 81,900 doses of Pfizer . So whilst its gettingsafer, its a slow process. Between 2005 and 2019, 34 percent of women who were 20-24 years old had married when they were 15-19, the UN Population Fund reported in 2020. Honduras newspaper, TV channel news, online portal news, and magazine sites are getting popularity day by day around the world. Itcan be safe as a solo female traveler in Honduras. A law prohibiting same-sex couples from adopting childrentook effect in 2019. But nongovernmental organizations have tallied several thousand human rights violations and at least 80 in-custody deaths of people arrested during the state of exception. Youre connected. Or gangs attacking Honduran citizens for not paying war tax. There are private coach servicesthat connect cities and towns that are usually moremaintained and more comfortable than the chicken buses. The violence is carried out by local drug trafficking groups, gangs, corrupt security forces and transnational criminal organizations mainly from Mexico and Colombia. A . An illegal immigrant from Honduras was sentenced to 60 years in prison Friday for the killing of a Florida man in Jacksonville in 2021, prosecutors said. With all the threats of violence, theres alow number of tourists, so oddly you can really have anauthentic experiencehere while getting to know Honduran women, too. Individuals and state agents continute to threaten and attack journalists, press freedom groups report. So no. Honduras, long one of the poorest countries in Latin America, is now also among the most violent and crime-ridden. The IRC is calling for stronger international cooperation to address the humanitarian crisis that displaces hundreds of thousands from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala every year. Honduras crime rate & statistics for 2017 was 40.98, a 26.23% decline from 2016. Violence has long ruled here. Honduras became the second country in Central America to declare a state of emergency to fight gang crimes like extortion. Most who can access the internet do so on their phones. Living in Honduras means youll have to adjust your life to the way of life here. It submitted the case to the court in April 2019 due to Honduras lack of compliance with its recommendations, such as introducing comprehensive policies to map and prevent anti-LGBT violence and designing training programs on anti-LGBT violence for state security bodies. The code also includes poorly constructed provisions that could lead to violations of the rights to assemble and protest and an overly broad definition of association to engage in terrorism, which could be used to criminalize and disproportionately punish behaviors that fall far short of what most reasonable observers would consider terrorism. Gang violence and organized crime are leading causes of displacement from Honduras. Lots of travelers stick to bottled water,but please dont. Even if they graduate high school, they can't get a job." According to Hugo Maldonado, president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras, this year has seen 116 femicides and 23 group murders, along with more than 1,356 violent. But before arriving, the car stopped and the caravan split. Honduras declared the state of exception for 30 days in 162 neighborhoods, some politicians have already called for it to be extended in duration and territory. The men remained missing at time of writing. At the same time, traveling alone can be stressful, boring, lonely, anddangerous in varying quantities. Women, children, the LGBTQ+ community, and returnees face ever growing conflict and risks, from the effects of climate change to the impacts of COVID-19 and violenceat home and on the streets.. That measure has proved popular among the public in El Salvador, and has resulted in the arrest of more than 56,000 people for alleged gang ties. It wont be down to the wire cutting edge info on the most current events, but it is layered in the expertise of veteran travellers. This perception has grown despite a slight reduction in homicides this year, according to preliminary data, and a significant drop over the past decade since Honduras held the ignominious title of the worlds most violent country. But its clear that extortion is occurring in areas where it didnt in the past, and there is no disagreement, among experts or others, on the gravity of the problem. 2023, The Broke Backpacker. But its pretty damn special too. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Certain routes that these take have been the target ofarmed attacks. 18th Street, also known as Calle 18, Barrio 18, Mara 18, or simply La 18 in Central America, is a multi-ethnic (largely Central American and Mexican) transnational criminal organization that started as a street gang in Los Angeles.It is one of the largest transnational criminal gangs in Los Angeles, with 65,000 members between the United States, Mexico, and Central America and is also allied . Until his life grew increasingly violent. The poverty resulting from all this is what youll have to watch out for. The mission in early December was ostensibly to raid a casa loca, an abandoned home used by gang members. It was focused on the security, or lack of security in Honduras. Because of human rights, crime has gone on so long, because human rights defend the criminal, and it shouldnt be like that, she said. And for transparencys sake, please know that some of the links in our content are affiliate links. Honduras. Honduras deploys soldiers on anti-crime patrols - 1 hr 50 mins ago TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The Honduran government has deployed soldiers to perform anti-crime patrols in some of the Central American country's most violent cities, following the massacre of 18 people in a shoe factory this week. In January 2020, the OHCHR released a report saying that the armed forces and military police had used excessiveeven lethalforce in response to the protests that followed the 2017 election. Gangs kill, disappear, rape, or displace those who resist. This helps keep everyone in poverty. We can't put up any longer with workers being killed and paying extortion, Lanza said. The new code also includes alternatives to detention for low-level crimes, including partial prison sentences and penalties that allow for conditional release. Home to the second biggest barrier reef in the world, beaches, and sparkling turquoise sea, as well as a whole host of Mayan ruins, amazing coffee, and the second largest rainforest in the Americas, Honduras is extremely biodiverse: there are 770 bird species alone. TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Honduran government on Saturday extended a state of emergency declaration for 45 days, expanding it to additional areas of the country in an effort to fight criminal gangs amid high levels of violence. This has a pretty good expat community too. Heres how to not get ill whilst trying local delights. Honduras may have one of the highest murder rates in the world, and as a solo female traveler, that doesnt sound very inviting as a destination. If we didnt have Bukeles example, we could probably look for some control and security responses based on strengthening institutions..
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