Honduras continues to witness heinous crimes amid surge in gang violence

Ana Luz, the sister-in-law of Ronald Blanco, looked on grimly as neighbours of the murdered Honduran man washed away the rills of blood left where his bullet-ridden body had lain outside his house in a troubled barrio on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. It was just one of many scenes I witnessed this year while on assignment in Honduras, where thousands of people seeking to escape violence and poverty by joining a migrant caravan in hope of making it to safety across the Mexico-U.S. border. The problems in this small Central American country grabbed international attention as U.S. President Donald Trump cracked down on illegal immigration.

Honduras has for years been one of the world's most murderous countries. Though official data show the homicide rate has fallen sharply, it continues to be a highly challenging environment in which to work. According to Honduran government figures, the homicide rate reached 86 per 100,000 people in 2011-2012. This year, the rate should end below 40 per 100,000, the security ministry says. This compares to the latest statistics in the United States, where there were 5.3 murders per 100,000 in 2017, according to the FBI's most recent report on its website.

The danger in Honduras is never far away. During my roughly three months spent in Honduras in 2018, I photographed mothers waiting at the morgue for the bodies of murdered sons and daughters, police keeping watch over corpses left lying on streets after shootouts and families wailing over the coffins of loved ones. Blanco, 37, lived in the Japon neighbourhood, a breeding ground for gang violence, according to local authorities. It was here that I experienced the tensest moment of my time in Honduras, as I moved between police, soldiers, gang members, forensic experts, hearse drivers and pastors.

At Blanco's funeral, I was stopped by a young man with piercing eyes, one green and one blue. He demanded to know why I was there. I explained that I was a journalist taking photographs of the event. But the youth kept pressing me with questions about what had brought me to Blanco's funeral. As I continued taking the photos, I felt increasingly uncomfortable. Finally, the tension eased when one of Blanco's friends intervened, saying that the grieving family had authorized my presence.