On the night of March 6, nine bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped in the Honduran community of El Portillo de la Mora. Only one person survived. Police said the victims were ambushed and executed by criminals.
That was the ninth massacre of the year in Honduras and the trigger for President Xiomara Castro to explode against the Secretary of Security.
“I have resolved everything that they have asked me for. National Control of Penitentiary Centers, transfer of the Anti-Maras Force, Directorate of Investigation and Intelligence, State of emergency and expansions in more than 60% of the national territory… It is not It is possible that we are under attack by organized crime in constant massacres and femicides,” he wrote on Twitter.
Secretary of Security: It is not possible that we are under attack by organized crime in constant massacres and femicides, among others.
I demand forceful actions and results in the next 72 hours!
The waiting time is over!
2/2— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) March 7, 2023
Honduras has been experiencing a state of exception since December 6 that covers more than half of its territory and that restricts the rights of citizens to confront crime.
Analysts consulted by BBC Mundo assure that it is a measure that is a consequence of the “Bukele effect”, a product of the Salvadoran president’s war against the gangs.
El Salvador has been in an emergency regime for a year, questioned by human rights organizations but applauded by many Salvadorans for reducing crime and homicides, according to government data.
In neighboring Honduras, violence has been one of Castro’s challenges since he took office.
The country registered in 2022 the lowest homicide rate in 16 years with 35 per 100,000 inhabitants, but human rights groups and analysts question whether the constitutional restrictions are sustainable and warn about the consequences of the Salvadoran experience.
extended state of exception
Honduras has extended the state of emergency up to two times, prompting a call to action at the end of February from the United Nations, which asked to avoid its “prolonged use.”
The state of exception is in force until April 20 and covers 235 of the country’s 298 municipalities, including the capital, Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro Sula, the most populous cities.
The Washington Office for Latin American Affairs (Wola, for its acronym in English) recalls that this regime suspends constitutional rights such as freedom of movement, the right of association and assembly, and the inviolability of the home.
The Police say that these measures have allowed “hitting criminal structures that have profited from the Honduran population through extortion.”
This last crime has increased in Honduras in recent years, causing hundreds of deaths and putting small and medium-sized businesses against the wall.
According to the authorities, the state of emergency has also made it possible to identify and capture gang members who profit from other crimes such as arms and drug trafficking, vehicle theft, femicides, and money laundering.
Police data put more than 4,200 people arrested for multiple crimes. They also report the seizure of more than 800 firearms, 80 kilos of cocaine and 1,300 kilos of marijuana.
Eugenio Sosa, from the National Institute of Statistics of Honduras, asks “to see if other academic and civil society organizations do alternative monitoring.”
“It is healthy that there are other sources for official data,” he tells BBC Mundo.
The National Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (CONADEH) has pointed out “inconsistencies in the data presented by the Government” and has recommended that the state of emergency not be extended for not meeting “international human rights standards.”
The “Bukele effect”
El Salvador and Honduras share a border and challenges. They have some of the highest murder rates in the world and their inhabitants suffer from endemic insecurity.
Now they also share this “Bukele model” of fighting crime.
“The reduction in homicides and extortions” reported by the Salvadoran government “has made governments like Honduras try to imitate Bukele,” Leonardo Pineda, an analyst and social researcher, told BBC Mundo.
It is an observation shared by centers such as WOLA, warning of the “normalization” of this method that employs the public force and limits rights.
“In these populations that are weary of violence, the Bukele model generates sympathy and can become a trend that politicians are enthusiastic about applying it,” says Sosa.
Honduran analysts point to a difference in how it is applied in both countries.
Sosa believes that the extensions of the state of emergency in Honduras are a symptom that the violence has not been controlled.
“I also perceive an attempt to balance the maintenance of these states of exception and respect for human rights,” says the expert.
“It is not being a land devastated by the police in neighborhoods and houses like in El Salvador,” adds Sosa, although Honduran media report alleged arbitrary arrests and irregularities in judicial proceedings.
Pineda warns that many measures seem “more propaganda than action” and that many communities do not feel their effects.
“The extortion has not stopped, with the exception of some communities in which apparently the same gangs have decided to stop so as not to heat up the territories any more,” Pineda affirms.
Both analysts point out that the police are “weaker” and do not have as open support from the army as in El Salvador.
Collateral damage
Pineda says that Bukele’s heavy hand is causing a “migration of gang members from El Salvador to other countries in the region and it is beginning to be noticed in Honduras.”
“Most criminologists agree that when a country attacks like Bukele and the other neighbors have more flexibility, they can become a refuge and expansion” of criminal groups, explains Sosa.
The Honduran authorities have also observed “a mutation” of criminal structures, moving from urban to rural areas in municipalities without a state of emergency.
Although the authorities speak of a decrease in homicides, Honduras is experiencing bloody weeks. In the first two months of 2023 there have been nine massacres whose motives are unclear.
After the last one that occurred at the beginning of March, Castro issued an ultimatum to the Secretary of Security to stop this latest escalation of violence despite the state of emergency.
The challenge of attacking the root
The great criticism of the “Bukele model” is the absence of a plan beyond the emergency measures.
“What will happen when these repressive actions against human rights are suspended if the roots are not attacked?” asks Pineda.
Ana María Méndez-Dardón, director for Central America at Wola, recalls that “limiting constitutional rights poses an enormous risk of human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests and abuses of authority.”
These are precisely some of the criticisms of Bukele’s measures, in addition to the fact that overcrowding in Salvadoran prisons has not been resolved, not even with the recent construction of a mega-prison.
In Honduras, Sosa mentions that these measures must be combined with “the reduction of inequality, poverty and the recomposition of institutions to cut organized crime at a very high level.”
“And the latter cannot be resolved simply by extraditing the former president,” says Sosa, referring to Juan Orlando Hernández, Castro’s predecessor and extradited to the United States, where he will be tried for alleged drug trafficking and possession of firearms.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64908729, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-03-13 15:20:07
Jose Carlos Cueto
BBC News World
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