More than 100 residents of a neighborhood in Honduras’ capital grabbed their belongings and fled from their homes following threats from a gang, authorities said on Thursday.
It was at least the second such exodus this week in the Central American nation.
People in El Hoyo on Tegucigalpa’s south side told local television that masked gang members armed with semi-automatic rifles appeared on Wednesday night and announced that residents had 24 hours to abandon their homes or face the consequences.
They also distributed flyers.
Earlier in the week, residents of a neighborhood in the northern city of San Pedro Sula left their homes after gang threats.
Authorities said those people had not returned, even though about 300 soldiers have been deployed in the district.
Tegucigalpa police spokesman Selkin Arita said at a news conference that more than 140 people fled El Hoyo.
“Gang members have the people of El Hoyo terrified, but we are here to re-establish order,” he said.
Honduran Army Colonel Tito Moreno also tried to reassure residents they would be kept safe.
“We urge residents to return to their homes because we have posted police and soldiers to protect their lives and possessions,” he said.
About 100 police and soldiers patrolled the neighborhood on Thursday.
A young man carrying a mattress on his shoulders, Juan Martinez, said on local television that the gang members had shouted in the street: “In 24 hours, everyone who lives here has to go.”
“If we don’t go, they’ll kill us,” Martinez said.
People loaded beds, refrigerators, televisions and other possessions into an assortment of vehicles on Thursday.
The small neighborhood clinging to a hillside was occupied by squatters about 20 years ago.
The Barrio 18 gang members allegedly issued the threat.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not