Inside the world's deadliest country: Honduras

Abner Soul Estrada Palma, 24, recovers in a hospital ward after being recently attacked with a machete on July 19, 2012, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Honduras now has the highest per capita murder rate in the world and its capital city, Tegucigalpa, is plagued by violence, poverty, homelessness and sexual assaults. With an estimated 80 percent of the cocaine entering the United States now being trans-shipped through Honduras, the violence on the streets is a spillover from the ramped rise in narco-trafficking. / Getty Images

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras Every Saturday morning, one of my taxi drivers pays about $12 for the right to park his cab near a hospital, about two blocks from a police station.

But it's not the government that's charging.

An unidentified man pulls up in a large SUV, usually brandishing an AK-47, and accepts an envelope of cash without saying a word. Jose and nine other drivers who pay the extortionists estimate that it amounts to more than $500 a year to park on public property. During Christmas, the cabbies dish out another $500 each in holiday "bonuses."

Meanwhile, Jose pays the city $30 a year for his taxi license.

"Who do you think is really in charge here?" Jose asked me.

It is an interesting question, one I have been trying to answer since I arrived here a year ago as a correspondent for The Associated Press. Is the government in charge? The drug traffickers? The gangs? This curious capital of 1.3 million people is a lawless place, but it does seem to have its own set of unwritten rules for living with the daily dangers.

Jose, who did not want his last name used for fear of reprisals, says his extortionists are from "18th Street," a powerful gang that started in U.S. prisons. The taxi drivers don't bother to report the crime, he says, because they suspect police are involved in the racket. In the first six months of 2012, 51 taxi drivers were killed in Tegucigalpa — most of them, Jose's colleagues believe, for failing to pay extortionists.

When I moved to Tegucigalpa last March several friends back home in Spain wanted to know why. The big story was in Egypt, Libya and Syria; what was I planning to do on the other side of the globe? "Bear witness," I said, "to the most violent place in the world, to a country in crisis."

I am the only foreign correspondent here, with no press pack to consult on questions of security, or to rely on for safety in numbers. I fall back on instincts honed in war zones, but they are not always sufficient when you are covering a failing state.

When you are in the trenches of Libya, you generally know where the shooting comes from. But in Honduras, you never know where danger lurks.

Three weeks after I arrived, I attended a ceremony in the capital where U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield delivered 30 motorcycles to President Porfirio Lobo to help Honduras fight crime. A neighborhood leader, however, had complained to me that the narcos had bribed some police officers to look the other way. I asked the officials if they weren't afraid the motorcycles would end up in the hands of the bad guys.

I got no answer. Instead a Honduran reporter wrapped his arm around my shoulder and whispered, "We don't ask questions like that here." If I wanted to survive in Honduras, he said, "Keep a low profile."

More than two dozen Honduran journalists have been killed in the last two years. Some reporters carry weapons to protect themselves, others use the armed guards that President Lobo offered after a prominent Honduran radio journalist was assassinated last May — reportedly in retaliation for a government crackdown on cartels.

It is not hard to become a fatality. A few months ago, I interviewed a lawyer, Antonio Trejo, who was defending the peasants of Aguan Valley in a land dispute against agribusiness tycoon Miguel Facusse, one of the most powerful men in the country. Trejo had warned repeatedly that he would be killed for helping the campesinos. Two days after I interviewed him, he was shot six times as he was leaving church by two men on a motorcycle.

In August, I took a walk on a Sunday with a couple of friends in a sad dilapidated park — one of only two in the city. I got a call on my iPhone. I stepped away from friends and began to walk as I talked, as you would in a normal city, a normal park. Suddenly two teenagers approached me, asking first for a cigarette, then for the phone. I hung up, put the phone in my pocket and shouted over to my friends, who helped me chase the young men away — once we realized they weren't armed.

But I learned my lesson. Unwritten rule: Do not walk around talking on an iPhone, which costs about three times a monthly salary in Honduras. And forget the park.

Like most Hondurans who can afford it, my family and I live behind high gated walls with a guard out front. After the park episode, I gave up my morning ritual of newspapers and espresso at an outdoor cafe. I don't go out at night.

In the daytime, I use trusted drivers like Jose to guide me through Tegucigalpa's chaotic streets, past its barbed-wire fences, mounds of garbage and packs of dogs. I keep the tinted windows up, the doors locked, and we don't stop at the lights, so we won't get carjacked.

I vary my routes. I try not to fall victim to the permanent sense of danger that hangs over the capital, where the conversation is invariably about whose relative was just killed, or what atrocity happened on the corner. Yet I constantly check the rear and side mirrors of Jose's car for approaching motorcycles. Honduras has the world's highest murder rate, and paid gunmen almost always travel by motorcycle to make a quick getaway through impossible traffic.

The violence is a stark contrast to the friendly feel of a land where many have a Caribbean attitude about life, happy and easygoing. Once you leave the cities, the landscape is amazing — wild, healthy, and savage, from the waterfalls of La Tigra National park, just half an hour from the capital, to the islands of the Caribbean and the world's second largest coral reef.

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[Jetexas]

I know its true my husband is in Honduras his first month back . He had a gun put to his head and they robbed him of his wedding ring and tennis shoes. He has lost many family members due to the gang violence. Whenever he leaves his street/block they have to go in a group but but things still happened. He cant work due to the violence , the gangs attack them in the Market, buses its horrible. He has told me of many horrific events the one that bothered me the most was when he was 9 years old he was living where ever he could because his step father tried to kill him. So he was sitting with a group of men to keep warm and hoping for some food- they had a fire going they were playing cards and they cut a mans head off he was so close to my husband he had blood on him.You can not trust the police they have there own form of justice.He says if it isnt the gangs its the police killing the people.The normal people live in fear daily.I am trying to get him out of there as quick as I can but the process is so slow.

[CatrachoInUSA]

As a native Honduran, now an American citizen, who has been working and living in the US for many years; I am ashamed that my country of origin is considered the most dangerous in the world even when compared to Middle Eastern or African countries, which are in almost constant state of war or turmoil. However, in most of these comments, I see a very simplistic and childish set of "solutions". It is true that firearms abound in Honduras, but they are generally in the hands of criminals and police (who are criminals in uniforms). The law-abiding citizen is usually unprotected. Even if drugs were legalized, insecurity would continue rampant. Gangs and common criminals rule the country. There are many neighborhoods in which every family and small business has to pay "war taxes" to gangs. People are subject to extortion by threatening their lives, kidnapping family members, or burning their businesses. Sadly, I see no simple or easy solutions to this big mess.

[mariarobinson1]

AS an ex- Peace Corps volunteer who served in Honduras, and has been back quite a few times since, I almost wept on reading this. I am tempted to put it on my Facebook page, but am afraid it would cause my family concern on reading it.I believe I read this reporter's accounts of the Ahuas massacre in HOnduras in May, and felt at the time(having just traveled to the site myself as part of a Human Rights delegation) that his reporting was by far the most comprehensive and accurate of any, including the New York Times. Thank you,sir,for your heroism and your sacrifice. Stay safe!!

[Seulment]

I am actually grateful for this article. Without your willingness to sacrifice I would not have been able to read such a compelling article. It is very easy as a US citizen to walk openly and freely in most parts of our country. The question here is not gun control it is drugs. Would a legalization of hard drugs reduce the amount of violence in the Honduras or would the gangs find something else to target and smuggle? Would the cost to American culture by the use of heavy drugs be worth legalizing? Would an increase in foreign aid for security do a better job of clearing up the violent crimes and gangs? Finally, is it worth the financial cost to do it? Does Honduras provide an ample economic promise that would benefit the cost to clean it up? It is easy for me to make judgments and accusations but, am I willing to make the sacrifice to help a country in need personally? Or, is this something I read, think glad I am not there, sucks to be them and then continue living my American Dream and not make any changes in my own community? Again, thank you for the article. A very sobering experience and I hope for a safe stay for you and your family.

[pammmmmm]

Canada is reversing its laws on gun control. They have found that it isn't working. The gangs in Canada are scary, the UN gang, the scorpions, the white boys and on and on it goes. These gangs are killing each other and innocents as well. Now why is it that these gangs are not disarming, maybe someone needs to talk to them about gun control... hahahhaha

[Upstate_SC]

Canada has 4.78 deaths due to firearms per 100,000 people. The US has 10.2. Canada doesn't want to trade this for what we have.

[USSAmerikan]

Great article showing where gun control can lead a nation... In Honduras, we see how the tracking of gun ownership all but ensures that corrupt police officers know whom to target and it gives thugs access to information on where to go rob and get more weapons and ammunition.

[bilrobi1]

Have you done any research re. gun laws in Honduras?

[bilrobi1]

Have you done any research re. gun laws in Honduras? In Honduras, a person can own up to 5 firearms. They do have access guns. It doesn't seem to help except having the knowledge that anybody can shoot you.

[Bonster53]

It is my opinion that bringing your family, a small child, to live there is unconscionable. I hope you all survive. You think you will be safe if you follow the rules - stay in at night, live with an armed guard at your door. But you have said yourself there are no rules in this city, so you are not safe at all. You send your daughter to preschool - ever cross your mind someone might try to harm you by harming her? This is an assignment for no one, but especially not for a person with family attachments. Your ego in getting this "story" has blinded you to the danger that YOU TELL US is all around you. Good luck - you need it, since you don't seem to have any common sense.

[CreedenceLeonoreGielgud]

Thank God everyone owns a gun in Honduras. Criminals don't attack people with guns. Just ask Wayne LaPierre.

[bilrobi1]

996ducati. If you bothered to check, an individual is allowed to own up to 5 personal fire arms in Honduras. Try doing some research It may even lend some credibility.

[Weallhaveone]

What ever they are paying this reporter, it is not worth it. Neither is the life of family. Get out, let it rot.

[bradlarochelle]

how much aid money do we (USA) send annually to Honduras? and what kind of aid does it buy?

The first and best solution is to legalize all victim-less crimes. Take the money out of the equation and the gangs and corruption disappear (except the ultimate gang, the Governments). That gives a starting point to begin working on liberty, justice and a decent set of leaders.
Whatever $ are sent in aid will be immediately and completely overshadowed by the income gained by everybody in the world traveling there to experience liberty. The money spigots will open and life will improve.