Press Memorandum: US Southern Command Struggles to Justify its Role in the War on Terror

["Council On Hemispheric Affairs" <coha at coha.org>]

Title: Gang and Government Violence Continue to Plague Honduras:

1250 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1C, Washington, D.C.  20036    Phone:  202-223-4975  Fax:  202-223-4979  Email: coha at coha.org   Website: www.coha.org
Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
Memorandum to the Press 04.59	Thursday, 9 September, 2004

Word Count: 1400

Honduras’ Response to Violence Has Made a Bad Situation Worse

• Alarming levels of gang and government violence continues to plague Honduras as President Ricardo Maduro’s superficial and crow-pleasing anti-violence rhetoric and measures are becoming increasingly counter-productive and controversial, putting youths at great risk of police brutality.

 

• Already one of the most corrupt countries in all of Latin America, and with a court system notorious for its venality, the government has failed to seek justice for the victims of vigilante authorities.

 

• NGO’s and grassroots organizations are promoting rehabilitation as the solution to the gang problem; the government favors imprisonment and the subsequent overcrowding of prisons is creating a new killing field. 

 

• Reform is needed, as Maduro shows no indication of reversing these destructive trends.

            Elected to office in November 2001, Honduran President Ricardo Maduro vowed to crackdown on the rampant gang violence that plagued his small nation. At that time, many of his countrymen believed he was the right man for the difficult job since he had personally tasted the tragic results of wanton crime in 1997, when kidnappers murdered his son. Soon after, he won the presidency, declaring, "I want to become the first crime victim to get justice for us all." 

Unfortunately, gang activity is nothing new to Honduras.  In a country of only 6.8 million, estimates project that there are over 100,000 active gang members, including children as young as eight years old. Many of them have been forcibly returned to Honduras by U.S. authorities after they had been apprehended on criminal charges in this country. In recent years, Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, two gangs originally spawned in Los Angeles, have emerged as the largest and deadliest.

Since taking office, Maduro has followed through with his pledge of “zero tolerance,” sending scores of gang members to overcrowded prisons. The decrease in violent crime that has resulted from Maduro’s heavy hand was immediately hailed as a victory by his administration. Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez recently stated, "the maras have ceased to terrorize the people, and the neighborhoods previously closed off to the police and the Red Cross have been liberated of the plague of the gangs.”  Alvarez’s claims, however, are both deceptive and misleading, as gang members and street children continue to be murdered at a horrific rate.

TO READ THE ENTIRE TEXT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE

 

This analysis was prepared by David R. Kolker, COHA Research Associate.

 

September 9 , 2004

 

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone (202) 223-4975, fax (202) 223-4979, or email coha at coha.org.