The National Defense and Security Council led by President Xiomara Castro of Honduras has taken a significant step to curb rampant gang violence plaguing the nation. In a national broadcast on Friday, President Castro announced a comprehensive crime solution plan aimed at addressing issues related to gang-related offenses, including assassination, drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, arms trafficking, and money laundering.
The new plan tasks the Security and Defense secretaries, the Armed Forces, and the Military Police with immediate intervention in municipalities that experience the highest levels of major gang-related crimes. This coordinated approach is expected to enhance national security and significantly reduce crime rates in affected areas.
A key element of the plan is the construction of an Emergency Detention Center, which will have the capacity to house 20,000 inmates. This facility will be dedicated to individuals processed for major gang-related crimes currently within the national prison system. The plan mandates the immediate transfer of such inmates to this new detention facility, aiming to alleviate overcrowding and improve management within Honduras’s existing penitentiaries.
Further legislative changes are also part of the strategy. The national congress is directed to reform the Penal Code to classify individuals committing major gang-related crimes as terrorists. Additionally, the Criminal Procedural Code will be modified to allow for pretrial detention for those accused of such crimes.
These latest measures follow previous attempts by President Castro to address violence, including training more prison guards, establishing a national curfew, and expanding the intervening powers of the Armed Forces. These efforts were initially introduced in response to severe incidents, such as gang-related murders. The urgency of these initiatives is underscored by Honduras’s standing as one of the countries with the highest homicide rates in Latin America.
For more detailed information on this development, you can access the original article on JURIST here.