Former president Ricardo Maduro took on Honduras' street gang problem with a zero-tolerance campaign, ordering police to arrest anyone who appeared likely to be part of a gang -- even if they had not committed any crime.
But the widespread roundup of suspected gang members led to overcrowding and violence in the Central American nation's ill-equipped prisons.
Maduro's successor, Manuel Zelaya, who took office in January, is trying conciliation. He has urged gang members to turn in their weapons in exchange for a chance to enter rehabilitation programs that offer alternatives to the criminal life, including job training and education.
PHOTO: AP
Still, the old zero-tolerance policy has left many young men with the stigma of being viewed as gang members despite having no record of criminal offenses. Many struggle to find work and live in society after photos identifying them as criminals appeared in the news media.
Even before joining the violent street gangs, young men know there is no way back to ordinary society. Honduras' gangs recognize only lifetime membership and trying to drop out is considered a death sentence.
The only exception is if a gang member proves he has become a churchgoing Christian.
The former gang will keep watch to ensure that the dropout is not drinking, using drugs or hanging out on the streets and that he is always carrying a Bible.
Former gang members have found refuge in discreet shelters, some of which are run by a local church. Fear is a way of life for them. They run from the police, rival gangs, death squads and above all, their old companions.
While Honduras gets nearly US$60 million a year from international donors for the gang rehabilitation programs, many of the young men live in misery, with little chance of going to school, finding a job and rejoining society.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS