When she was 13, someone drugged her drink at a wedding and she was discovered a dozen hours later in a garbage dump, naked, unconscious, bound at the feet and hands, teeth marks and bruises all over her body. Me llevo buenos recuerdos de todos. There are so many needs in this area, says Assaf, who lives in nearby San Pedro Sula. And it is by no means a problem limited to that neighborhood. In cooperation with the Honduran Ministry of Health, this free and confidential service has treated patients at two health centers and Tegucigalpas main hospital since 2011. Villanueva was deported about two months after he arrived. Domestic and sexual violence are also widespread, with women and children bearing the brunt. In these places, gangs often become a parallel or replacement authority with tight control over movement, business transactions and more. On Aug. 8, 2019, about a month after his sons birth, Villanueva got up around 5 a.m., as he did every day of the week, to go to work driving his red mototaxi with the Jordan Jumpman logo emblazoned on the side. Latin American nation of Honduras is the most violent country in the world, with 5,581 murders in 2014 . According to official statistics, 380 Honduran women were murdered last year (slightly fewer than in recent years), in a country with roughly the population of New York City. Domestic violence was the leading reported crime in Honduras, according to a March 2015 report by the United Nations' special rapporteur on violence against women. Get free map for your website. She said she would be back in 10 minutes; she just wanted to chat with her friends at the corner. A representative of the hermanas speaks over a PA system, welcoming the arrivals and explaining the procedures. Ms. Hernndez was a 28-year-old agent for the Agencia Tcnica de Investigacin Criminal, or ATIC, Hondurass F.B.I., the agency charged with investigating the killings of women. President Trump calls immigrants criminals drug dealers and rapists intent on plundering America. When I learn someone is leaving, I try to change their minds, Perez Castro said. Choloma Tourism: Tripadvisor has reviews of Choloma Hotels, Attractions, and Restaurants making it your best Choloma resource. When he sits down to listen to the speaker, only the first words remain visible across his narrow shoulders: Lifes short.. Gangs are violent, but they target different groups in specific ways.. At the edge of the clinics sandy parking lot, chickens scratch in the wet grass by the fence. Northwest of Tegucigalpa, near the industrial hub of San Pedro Sula and the border with Guatemala, lies the city of Choloma. And worse. Get Essential San Diego, weekday mornings. Por fin y despus de casi una dcada de buscarle una salida al problema de contaminacin que genera la basura en el municipio, las autoridades municipales inauguran la primera fase de un . La cooperacin espaola, en colaboracin con la Cruz Roja, activ ayudas por valor de 478 mil 308 euros, destinadas a Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador y Honduras para frenar las consecuencias socieconmicas de la COVID-19. One of seven colleagues at my drivers taxi stop was murdered while I was in town. 160815-N-CJ186-0647 (28566185553).jpg. The going rate to travel with a coyote from Honduras to the US has risen sharply, from around $6,000 to as much as $10,000and many have begun offering packages of three chances to reach the US. Do I have to bring you a corpse for you to actually do your job? her sister said to them. Today, in a world ruled by gangs and narco groups, its about engendering maximum terror in your enemies, and you do that by showing how macabre you can be in the way you torture or kill. At the offices of the Womens Movement of the Neighborhood of Lpez Arellano and Surroundings, a steady stream of women arrive each day to ask for help with domestic violence claims or child support. Yes, photos taken by ATIC showed her lying on her bed, holding a pistol to her temple. But their first recourse, the police, are often less than helpful. But torture and mutilation arent as routine an aspect of these killings as they are for women. It is the third-largest city in Honduras with a population of 202,000 (2020 calculation). Your gift helps us provide medical humanitarian aid for hundreds of thousands of people each year. 1 activity. Victor J. Gang activity appears to be a major driver of violence in this city, which has had the highest murder rate in the world for the past four years. The WRC's work at the Jerzees Choloma (JCH) and JDH factories was initiated in September 2007, pursuant to allegations that the both facilities - which are located nearby each other in the city of Choloma, Honduras - had dismissed large numbers of workers in retaliation for their decision to form unions. Edelsa Muoz Nuez, 47, lives in an apartment near the two murder victims, Irma Quintero Lpez, 21, and Dunia Xiomara Murillo Reyes, 34. Alex Diaz Zavala worked with his three sons in another town near San Pedro Sula. Nilsa Rosibel Estrada Villanueva folds her laundry in the evening after work at the home she shares with her mother and her sisters family. Womens murders arent investigated or prosecuted because of a toxic stew of corruption, incompetence, and a lack of both resources and interest. Villanuevas friend Enamorado, known as Shino Rock, who raps in addition to breaking, wrote a song called El Sueo Hondureo, The Honduran dream. To address these issues, MSF launched its servicio prioritario, or priority service, to offer emergency medical and psychological care to victims of violence. Unlike in much of the world, where most murdered women are killed by their husbands, partners or family members, half in Honduras are killed by drug cartels and gangs. Ms. Velsquez, a regal mother of nine with short black hair, founded the group in 1992. Today it has 680 members. He pulled the machete out from under their bed and swung the blade into the back of her legs. The hermanas estimate that some 40 percent of deportees who arrive at La Lima will try again to reach the US, even though its common knowledge that deportations are on the rise and many of these people have already suffered horrific violence, kidnapping, or worse during earlier attempts. The patients I see are mostly young women between 15 and 35 years old. Denis vila Maradiaga, head of the homicide unit at the Directorate for Police Investigations in San Pedro Sula, told me the police had put out an order to arrest Mr. Claro. Louis-Alexandre Berg . Villanueva was targeted for two reasons: because he drove a mototaxi, and because he witnessed a killing. Many of the people living in San Pedro Sula rely on public transit to get to and from work. She was shot five times in the head right next to the Catholic church down the street, probably by gangsters. We cant change the situation here, but we can support people who have to live with the violence. Do you live in Choloma? San Pedro Sula is ground zero for violent homicides in Honduras. In its advisory about Honduras, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees recommended that countries conducting asylum screenings consider both transport workers and witnesses of violent crimes who were targeted by gangs as potential refugees. Barrio Reparto. You dog!, he said. Government workers who dont do their jobs should be fired; those on the take should be fired. Were trying to confront it in a positive way. Neighborhoods in and around San Pedro Sula grew in haphazard ways with little support from the government. Whatever the Trump administration says, the women are not criminals; they are victims. The sadism is the point. Glenis Vanessa Ramirez Hercules was 17 when she met Jairo Mauricio Claro Burgos, and 26 when he killed her, her family says. His hair and beard had grown long. Its difficult to live in Nueva Capital, she says. The state of Corts is by far the worst. Choloma "A new form of organized crime has arisen. Its a fundamental state problem.. At Villanuevas funeral, those close to him in the hip-hop community came to pay their respects. Most are women and childrensome very youngbut there are a few men among them as well. Norma Adeli Carranza walking home in Choloma, Honduras, one of the most dangerous cities for women in the world. The conditions that Villanueva fled have uprooted thousands of people in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. During World War II, the United States blocked a ship with hundreds of Jewish refugees from docking at our shores, sending many back to their deaths. Women like her have no place to hide: There are no domestic violence shelters in Choloma or nearby San Pedro Sula. Some people also arrive with injuries, particularly those deported from Mexico. In 2013 the Honduran government passed a law imposing harsher sentences for femicides gender-motivated killings in which the perpetrator was a partner, a family member, an ex, or had committed domestic violence; in which sex preceded the death; or in which the victims body was degraded or mutilated. Its so rotten, said Karol Bobadilla, the head of investigations for the nonprofit group Womens Forum for Life in Honduras, when I met her at her office. Maybe you didnt give him what he needed last night? Heidy Hernandez lost her feet and part of her right leg after her husband attacked her with a machete. Altitud: 20 metros sobre el nivel del mar. It sends a message to other women, to rival men that the killer is all powerful and never to be trifled with. At the end of October, I sat with my friend Graciela, counting up all the murders we'd heard about over the last week in her sector of Choloma, a city in Honduras. Find unique places to stay with local hosts in 191 countries. [3] Feb 24, 2023 - Rent from people in Choloma, Honduras from $20/night. But the family is still faced with an impossible choice, one familiar to many people in Honduras: Stay and risk your life at home, or risk your life on the move, gambling on a better future. See Choloma photos and images from satellite below, explore the aerial photographs of Choloma in Honduras. Jan 9th, 2023. La CCICH es una organizacin gremial sin fines de lucro, prestadora de servicios de desarrollo empresarial que busca el fortalecimiento de su gremio, See more 19,953 people like this They dont have a well-founded fear of persecution, the officers said of those asylum seekers, but they have a well-founded fear of death.. He asked for an immigration judge to review the decision. Most times hes left without even enough money for transport. Tengo que tener en mi mente todo lo que l era, his mother said through tears. She wondered whether her only real chance at safety was to leave in the next caravan north. Villanuevas murder was not an isolated incident. Es una decisin seria, Enamorado explained. Every week, hundreds of these men and women pass through La Lima Centro de Atencin del Migrante Retornado (CAMR) at Ramn Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula. The MSF outreach team worked with the children to provide emotional support and build coping mechanisms as they mourned the loss of their father. According to people involved in the case, at some point Ms. Hernndez seems to have come to believe that instead of working to take down MS-13, the nations largest gang, her lover was married to the sister of an MS-13 leader, and was aiding the criminals. 153. We will follow your case and help you. But Ms. Castellano doesnt trust the authorities to do anything. Learn how you can support MSFs lifesaving care with a gift. If we turn our backs now on Central American women who are running for their lives, we will be failing to meet the lowest possible bar for human rights. We could use it as a bargaining chip to force reforms. Choloma recently became Honduras's third-largest city. People usually consider making a quick stop here before heading to the neighboring cities. Their governments are corrupted by drug trafficking routes that feed the addictions of U.S. consumers, and they are struggling under U.S. exports of gang violence and capitalist sweatshops.