By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Honduran authorities introduced a slate of measures on Friday supposed to chop down on organized crime, together with the development of a brand new jail, collective trials and terrorist designations for gang members.
President Xiomara Castro stated in a late-night tv deal with that safety forces must be deployed to “urgently execute interventions throughout elements of the nation with the best incidences of gang crimes, comparable to murders for rent, drug and firearm trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and cash laundering.”
The measures echo the mass trials and “mega-prison” pioneered by President Nayib Bukele in neighboring El Salvador, measures which have drawn ire from rights teams alleging abuses however which have lowered the nation’s homicide charges and received him widespread recognition.
Honduran authorities leaders introduced plans to right away construct a jail to carry some 20,000 within the sparsely populated space between the jap departments of Olancha and Gracias a Dios. This may massively broaden the nation’s present jail capability, which holds some 20,000 inmates throughout 25 prisons in overcrowded situations.
The authorities additionally stated the Honduran Congress should reform the penal code in order that drug traffickers and members of prison gangs who commit particular crimes, comparable to these listed by Castro, are designated as “terrorists” and face collective trials.
Hector Gustavo Sanchez, who heads the nationwide police pressure, stated an inventory of “mental authors, leaders and gang members” was being distributed and that the instant arrest of these on the listing was being ordered.
Operations will even be launched to find and destroy plantations rising marijuana and coca leaf – the important thing ingredient in cocaine – in addition to facilities getting used to course of unlawful medication.
Honduras declared a state of emergency in December 2022, suspending elements of the structure because it sought to crack down on an increase in crime it attributed to gangs.
(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Sarah Morland; Modifying by Kylie Madry and William Mallard)
