Honduras Reports Double-Digit Decline in Homicide Rate

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that Honduras's homicide rate declined 21.2 percent in the first six months of 2017, according to an independent report from the National Autonomous University of Honduras's Observatory of Violence.

According to the latest Observatory of Violence data, Honduras is on track for 46.5 homicides per 100,000 citizens in 2017. In the past four years, the Hernández administration's policies have helped reduce the homicide rate by 50 percent. This decrease in violence has been hailed by many in the private sector as unprecedented.

Observatory Director Migdonia Ayestas said that the drop in homicides is significant because, historically, homicide rates have increased, not decreased. She also noted that 82 municipalities had no reported homicides during the first half of this year, according to Honduran news site Nos Queda Claro. 

The Hernández administration has opened new maximum-security prisons to keep drug lords off the streets, removed one-third of its police force for various offenses, destroyed 150 landing strips used by drug traffickers, approved legislation to prosecute criminals, and worked with several countries in the hemisphere to combat transnational crime.   

The Observatory of Violence is a National Autonomous University of Honduras, or UNAH, program that collects and aggregates crime data from law enforcement, prosecutors, and citizens. The Observatory also compiles reports to inform government officials and policymakers.

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SOURCE Republic of Honduras