Honduras: 15 women murdered in first two weeks of 2020
From Democracy Now, 15 January 2020
In Honduras a new report by the Violence Observatory at the
Honduran National Autonomous University says that at least 15 women have been
murdered in the first 14 days of this year. Violence against women, LGBTQ
people, indigenous leaders and environmental activists has skyrocketed in
Honduras under the US-backed government of President Juan Orlando Hernández. Honduran
media reports that another migrant caravan has congregated in San Pedro Sula
and is preparing to head northwards, as violence and poverty continue to push
Hondurans to flee the country.
El Salvador: 17 assassinations in one weekend
From a report by Beatriz Calderón in La Prensa Gráfica, 15 January 2020
After a period of relatively low homicide numbers which has marked the early part of Nayib Bukele’s presidency, the director of the National Civil Police (PNC) Mauricio Arriaza Chicas described the weekend of the 11th and 12th January as ‘atypical’ and very different from the the average figure of 2.7 assassinations that the government announced during the previous week. Six people were assassinated on the Saturday and another eleven on the Sunday. Monday 13th also turned out to be a murderous day with another six assassinations. In total 56 people were assassinated during the first 15 days of January. Moreover another 65 – 70 people have disappeared in that same time period, although Arriaza Chicas suggested that these were accounted for either by them having lost their phones or having gone away with their partners.
Arriaza Chicas also gave the comparative figures for 2018 and 2019: 2019 – 2,383 assassinations.