Why Is Nicaragua 7 Times Less Violent Than Honduras?

A newspaper in violence-plagued Honduras investigated why Nicaragua enjoyed a much lower homicide rate and credited its neighbor’s relatively professional and efficient police force for keeping the peace. But the answer isn’t that simple.

El Heraldo recently traveled to Nicaragua to find out why the homicide rate there is just 8 per 100,000 inhabitants, while Honduras has only recently shed its dubious title as the world’s murder capital. Despite a decline in homicides in recent years, at 57 per 100,000 inhabitants Honduras remains one of the most violent countries in Latin America.

The newspaper attributes Nicaragua‘s low levels of violence to the purging and modernization of its police force, which began in the 1990s and continued until 2007. Following the lengthy reform process, Nicaragua implemented a policy that emphasized community policing and violence prevention.

«It is estimated that the [homicide] rate is just 8 per 100,000,» a video accompanying the article reads. «That is thanks to the ‘Preventive, Proactive and Community’ police model.»

Origen: Why Is Nicaragua 7 Times Less Violent Than Honduras?

Honduras Security Agreement with Israel Raises Human Rights Concerns

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that he is requesting congressional approval for a new military cooperation agreement with Israel, raising human rights concerns given past experiences of Latin American countries receiving security assistance from the Mediterranean nation.

Origen: Honduras Security Agreement with Israel Raises Human Rights Concerns

Honduras Officials Investigated by Anti-Corruption Body

An internationally supported anti-corruption body in Honduras is reportedly assisting authorities there with investigations of high-level officials linked to one of the country’s most prominent corruption cases — a massive embezzlement scandal involving the social security system.

Origen: Honduras Officials Investigated by Anti-Corruption Body

80% of Homicides in Honduras Result of Gun Violence: Report

Firearms are reportedly used in more than 80 percent of all homicides in Honduras, almost double the global average, an epidemic fueled in large part by the ease with which criminals can obtain weapons and ammunition.

Origen: 80% of Homicides in Honduras Result of Gun Violence: Report

Honduras Drug Trade Reorganizing After Judicial Assault: Minister

Honduran Security Minister Julián Pacheco says the country’s drug trafficking groups have begun a process of reorganization following recent arrests and extraditions of powerful underworld players, mirroring a pattern observed in other countries across the region.

n an interview with La Prensa, the minister said the 2014 capture and extradition to the United States of top members of the Valle Valle family, along with the 2015 surrender of the alleged leader of the Cachiros group, set in motion a realignment of Honduras‘ criminal landscape and its relationship to the legal world.

«The capture of the Cachiros and the Valles was a blow that hit the country’s economy, agriculture, banking and institutions like the National Police,» Pacheco said. «It was a crushing blow, but as drug trafficking is a profitable business, they are seeking to rebuild the structures anew. They are rehabilitating themselves.»

At the same time, Pacheco indicated that the Honduran security forces are prepared for this development.

«We can confront, deter and capture,» he said. «Three or four years ago, we couldn’t confront, deter, or capture. The state is stronger [now].»

Pacheco also discussed ongoing efforts aimed at combatting corruption within the police force, including the recent extradition to the United States of several officers accused of involvement in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy with the son of a former Honduran president.

Pacheco said the extradition of the officers validated the work of a special police reform commission established earlier this year, which he heads.

«That the United States asked to extradite these six police is an accolade for the commission,» the security minister said. «It is tacit support, because the six were questioned through reports from the police and from other agencies that have been supporting us. That tells us that it was justified that these officials left the police.»

At the time the United States announced charges against the officers, only one of them had been removed from the force. After the US announcement, the commission quickly moved to fire the remaining suspects.

Origen: Honduras Drug Trade Reorganizing After Judicial Assault: Minister

Honduras Police Wanted for Cocaine Trafficking Extradited to US

Five of the six Honduran National Police officers indicted by the US government for cocaine trafficking in a scheme involving the son of an ex-president have turned themselves in and been extradited to the United States for trial.

Origen: Honduras Police Wanted for Cocaine Trafficking Extradited to US

Report Says Justice System Facilitates Corruption in Honduras

Corruption cases in Honduras rarely target high-level officials or result in prison sentences, indicating an ineffective and overly bureaucratic system that allows corrupt officials to act with relative impunity, a new report shows.

Corruption cases in Honduras rarely target high-level officials or result in prison sentences, indicating an ineffective and overly bureaucratic system that allows corrupt officials to act with relative impunity, a new report shows.

The report released June 28 by the Association for a More Just Society (Asociación para Una Sociedad Más Justa – ASJ) says that the Honduran Attorney General’s Office received 3,471 corruption complaints between 2008 and 2015, but only 283 were presented to the court.

ASJ analyzed 110 of those cases and found only one conviction that entailed a jail term; a police officer sentenced to seven years and six months for bribery.

The report says 56 percent of cases resulted in alternative sentencing that entailed no jail time, little to no restitution, and allowed the offender to return to public service without any criminal record. Another 27 percent of the cases resulted in what ASJ described as «impunity,» meaning they were unresolved after more than three years. A guilty verdict was handed down in only 17 percent of the study cases, or 9 in total.

The report noted that few of the defendants were high-level officials and that prosecutions focused on petty corruption rather than more serious cases.

Jan-Michael Simon, chief advisor of the Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH), said at the report’s unveiling that he was surprised that the most serious cases — those involving embezzlement of public funds, falsification of documents, illegal enrichment and bribery — have been resolved through conciliation.

«These circumstances are unacceptable in a state of law,» Simon said. «There is a perverse logic at work here. The logic here is not to have a speedy process that is cost effective and focused on the big corruption cases, but rather one of procedural resolutions with no payment for the damage that has been done.»

Origen: Report Says Justice System Facilitates Corruption in Honduras

Appraising Violence in Honduras: How Much is ‘Gang-Related’?

Origen: http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/appraising-violence-in-honduras-how-much-is-gang-related

Fmr Honduras President’s Son Pleads Guilty to US Drug Charges

The son of former Honduras president Porfirio Lobo Sosa has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in the United States, a move that could signal his willingness to provide information to US authorities in exchange for legal benefits.

Origen: Fmr Honduras President’s Son Pleads Guilty to US Drug Charges

Élites y crimen organizado en Honduras: Los Cachiros

Como suele suceder en Honduras, las noticias comenzaron como un rumor entre los ricos: Javier Rivera Maradiaga, el mayor de los tres hermanos Rivera Maradiaga que siguen vivos y cabecilla del temido y poderoso grupo narcotraficante hondureño conocido como Los Cachiros, se había entregado a las aut

Origen: Élites y crimen organizado en Honduras: Los Cachiros

CentAm Shows Mixed Results as Leaders Discuss US Security Plan

The US Vice President has praised progress made in the multilateral security plan for Central America’s Northern Triangle countries after meeting with regional leaders, but on the ground the picture is far murkier than his diplomatic platitudes suggest.

Origen: CentAm Shows Mixed Results as Leaders Discuss US Security Plan

Honduras Officials Link Hydroelectric Company to Activist’s Murder

Honduras authorities’ captured four men for the March murder of activist Berta Cáceres — two of which have direct ties to the hydroelectric company she and others have been battling in western Honduras — and indicated there may have been a larger conspiracy at play.

Origen: Honduras Officials Link Hydroelectric Company to Activist’s Murder

Is Honduras’ MS13 a Drug Trafficking Organization? An Obscure Fugitive May Have the Answer

An obscure figure connected to the MS13 may hold the key to understanding just how much the street gang has evolved in Honduras, and whether it is really making the leap into international drug trafficking.

Origen: Is Honduras’ MS13 a Drug Trafficking Organization? An Obscure Fugitive May Have the Answer

Honduras Authorities Grapple with Social, Economic Impacts of Extortion

Honduran authorities recently mounted a new operation aimed at dismantling extortion rackets, suggesting a growing concern within the government about the crime’s devastating impact on society and the economy.

Origen: Honduras Authorities Grapple with Social, Economic Impacts of Extortion

Honduras Police Under Fire Following Drug Czar Murder Scandal

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández is taking swift action against the National Police force following an explosive report on how high-level officials were involved in the 2009 assassination of the country’s drug czar.

Origen: Honduras Police Under Fire Following Drug Czar Murder Scandal

Honduras Ex-Police Command Implicated in Drug Czar’s Murder

The Honduras National Police’s emblematic Casamata station was awash with red and blue lights and cordoned off with yellow tape on the night of April 4 as special agents backed by military police raided the facility in search of evidence that highest level officers planned and committed the assassin

Origen: Honduras Ex-Police Command Implicated in Drug Czar’s Murder

Report: Mexico Assumes Role of Turning Migrant Children Back

Human Rights Watch has chronicled violent drivers of the continuing child migration crisis, as well as how the US government has stealthily outsourced to Mexico the job of returning these kids to their often perilous homes.

Origen: Report: Mexico Assumes Role of Turning Migrant Children Back

CentAm Drug Initiative Boasts Questionable Victories in 5th Year

The US-backed anti-drug initiative Operation Martillo has been hammering away at drug traffic in Central American waters for over four years, but it is unclear how much of a dent its reported successes have made in organized crime.

Origen: CentAm Drug Initiative Boasts Questionable Victories in 5th Year

Honduras Congress Approves Anti-Impunity Commission

Honduras’ National Congress approved an international commission charged with tackling corruption that has been in the works for months, a strong show of political support for the region’s newest anti-impunity body.

Origen: Honduras Congress Approves Anti-Impunity Commission