In Honduras, violence is never far away
As I approached a youth outreach center on the outskirts of this capital city, I didn’t notice the man behind us.
Officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development were escorting me to this center in San Martin, one of the city’s most dangerous hotbeds of gang violence, to show the progress that’s been made there. USAID has helped convert an old building into a safe zone for children to do their homework, learn job skills and unwind in an indoor, fenced-in soccer field. Police presence is on the rise and violent crime is down.
As we neared the area, surrounded by a half-dozen local police officers, an official from the Alliance for Honduran Youth stopped short.
“We should switch to English,” said Salvador Stadthagen, as his eyes quickly darted over his shoulder. “The walls have ears.”
Confused, I looked behind him and realized a man was leaning against a railing about 50 feet away. He wasn’t hiding, he wasn’t trying to be sneaky. He was just there, following us, staring straight at us. The officials weren’t sure which gang he belonged to, but his message was clear: You’re being watched.
As the U.S. braces for another surge in children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the debate is on over why they’re coming and how to stop them. That’s why I’m visiting Central America: to better understand the raging violence that’s gripping the region and to learn about the programs that will receive some of the $750 million Congress has approved for those three countries in 2016.
Some in the U.S. argue that the nearly 100,000 unaccompanied minors who’ve crossed the Southwest border since 2014 are coming simply to take advantage of laws that allow them to stay in the country while their refugee claims are processed. But after landing here last week, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the threat of violence is very real and never far away.
As our friend stood outside, I entered the community center in San Martin and sat down with the director and nine teenagers from the neighborhood. They were all nice and cheerful as they introduced themselves, teasing each other and giggling over the adults who had come to visit them.
And then, one by one, they explained the horrors they had seen and asked to remain anonymous to protect their safety.
When asked how many of them had a relative killed by gang members, six raised their hands. One said he had lost an uncle and two cousins. Another said he’d lost six uncles.
When asked how many of them had seen a dead body, seven raised their hands. Their teacher asked what kinds of guns were used, and the kids started calling out bullet sizes like they were seasoned gun aficionados: .22-caliber, 9-millimeter, .257-caliber.
They talked about the usual places where they take cover in their homes whenever gunshots ring out nearby. “Under the bed.” “Under the crib.”
Despite all that they’ve endured, some of the teens said the security situation had started to improve since U.S. and Honduran officials teamed up two years ago to target crime in their neighborhood. The shootouts are a little less frequent, the dead bodies a little less numerous.
That, according to James Watson, is the slow, gradual process that needs to start happening throughout this crime-ridden country.
When Watson became USAID’s Honduras director four years ago, he said the security situation was so bad that he had to ride in Red Cross vehicles and wear a Red Cross jacket just to visit La Ceiba, a port city on the country’s Caribbean coast. The Red Cross had helped there in the past after natural disasters, so they were welcome while U.S. officials – and many Honduran ones – were not.
Ever since, he’s been focusing on some of the most dangerous parts of the country. That’s the only way he believes they can figure out what programs and practices can truly help the Hondurans get themselves on a sustainable road to building a more secure country.
“The atmosphere has improved,” he says. “It’s not that the work is done. It’s not that we’re declaring success and moving on. But what we’re trying to do is show what can work.”
The numbers are starting to show it. Honduras recently had the world’s highest homicide rate for four straight years, peaking at 92 homicides per 100,000 people in 2011, according to data from the United Nations. (El Salvador now has that dubious honor.) By 2015, Honduras’ murder rate had dropped to 61 homicides per 100,000.
That shows significant progress, but that’s still far above the world average and still 15 times higher than the U.S. homicide rate. In other words, the threat of gang violence here is still lingering right over your shoulder.