The National Defense & Security Council of Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced in a national broadcast June 14 a sweeping plan to crack down on crime and safeguard public security. The Crime Solution Plan calls on the Defense and Security secretaries, the Armed Forces, and the Military Police are to immediately plan and execute interventions in municipalities with the highest incidence of major gang-related crimes, such as assassination, drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering.

The plan additionally calls for construction of an Emergency Detention Center with a capacity for 20,000 prisoners. Inmates who have been processed for major gang-related crimes and confined in the national prison system will be immediately transferred to this new detention center. Finally, the plan directs the National Congress to reform the Penal Code to classify those who commit major gang-related crimes as "terrorists," and mandate pretrial detention for those who commit such crimes.

Less than a year ago, President Castro implemented measures to address the crisis of violence, such as training more prison guards, establishing a national curfew, and giving more power to the Armed Forces to intervene in internal security matters. Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America.

From Jurist, June 16. Used with permission.

See our last report on the crisis of gang violence in Central America.