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HONDURAS BEEFS UP BORDER SECURITY TO FIGHT GANGS

HONDURAS BEEFS UP BORDER SECURITY TO FIGHT GANGS
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Avellon Williams 

HONDURAS- As part of a state of emergency declared against criminal gangs in Honduras, more than 600 military police officers moved to its borders with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua on Sunday.

/Image, BBC/

Despite its small size, the country suffers from poverty, gang violence, and drug trafficking-related violence. On Thursday, President Xiomara Castro declared an emergency because gangs have been extorting ordinary citizens.

President Xiomara Castro /Image, NI/

“Under the order issued by the President of the Republic and within the framework of the Global Security Plan, more than 600 military police left today to reinforce security operations at the border points,” military police spokesman Mario Rivera said.

A spokesman said reinforcements are intended to “prevent entry” into the country of “members of criminal organizations” from neighboring countries, particularly El Salvador.

Nayib Bukele, the president of that country, has led a “war” against gangs so far this year, with 58,000 people detained.

President Nayib Bukele /Image,RR/

Rivera said that reinforcements would remain in place “indefinitely” in the departments of Choluteca, Valle (south), La Paz, Intibuca, Ocotepeque (west), Santa Barbara, Cortes (northwest), El Paraiso and Gracias a Dios (east).”

By declaring a state of emergency, Castro is reinforcing a government strategy aimed at “immediately restoring law and order in lawless territories.”

/Image, ABCN/

Castro, who became the country’s first woman president in January, declared “war on extortion, just as we declared war on corruption, impunity, and drug trafficking.”

The murderous gangs known as “maras” that control drug trafficking and organized crime in Honduras are part of the “triangle of death” formed by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Among 100,000 residents, 37.6 homicides were recorded in 2020.

/Image, EGLL/

The high level of poverty, unemployment, gang violence, and drug trafficking force nearly 800 Hondurans a day to leave the country, mostly for the United States, where more than a million people already live, most of them undocumented.

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Avellon Williams

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