HomeNewsBrief80% of Homicides in Honduras Result of Gun Violence: Report
BRIEF

80% of Homicides in Honduras Result of Gun Violence: Report

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 27 JUL 2016 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

Firearms are reportedly used in more than 80 percent of all homicides in Honduras, almost double the global average, an epidemic fueled in large part by the ease with which criminals can obtain weapons and ammunition. 

Of the 48,094 murders registered in Honduras between 2008 and 2015, 39,111 were committed using a firearm, according to data from the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) accessed by La Tribuna. At 81.3 percent, the ratio of gun deaths to overall homicides in Honduras is almost twice the worldwide average of approximately 41 percent (pdf), according to the Igarapé Institute . 

Honduras was at one time the most violent peacetime nation in the world and remains among the most homicidal. Murder rates peaked at over 90 per 100,000 residents in the early 2010s before falling to their current levels of around 57 per 100,000.

The northern department of Cortés -- home to San Pedro Sula -- saw the most violence during the recent eight-year stretch, according to the Observatory, registering 31 percent of the murders nationwide. Tegucigalpa's Francisco Morazán and La Ceiba's Atlántida were the second and third most violent departments, accounting for 17 and 8 percent of the total homicides, respectively. 

InSight Crime Analysis

The high rate of gun deaths is closely linked to the large black market for weapons that is supplying Honduras' powerful criminal groups. In 2014, a Honduran congressional commission estimated that over 1 million weapons were in circulation, and that more than 700,000 of those were unlicensed.

Many of the illegal firearms are trafficked from the United States and from neighboring countries such as El Salvador or Guatemala. Still more are sourced from Honduras' own security forces, which do not register their weapons with the state, according to an anonymous source consulted by La Tribuna. This lack of regulation facilitates the movement of weapons from police and military stockpiles into the hands of criminal groups. 

SEE ALSO: Honduras News and Profiles

Ammunition also appears to be inexpensive and in abundant supply. The head of the Violence Observatory, Migdonia Ayestas, noted with alarm that up to 400 bullet casings have been found at some crime scenes, and that bodies are found riddled with as many as 10 bullet wounds. This shows "that the bullets or projectiles would appear to be so cheap that they don't care about using as many as it takes to demonstrate their lethal power," Ayestas told La Tribuna.

To be sure, gun violence is a serious problem across the region. In Central America, firearms are used in 73 percent of all homicides, according to Igarapé, while in South America that number is 53 percent.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 1 FEB 2022

In 2021, most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a marked increase in murders. Resurgent violence was to…

ECUADOR / 7 OCT 2022

Any chance of peace between warring gangs in Ecuador appears to be defunct after another two massacres.

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 4 OCT 2022

Corruption, no supervision, and poor legislation have led to Latin American military weapons ending up in criminal hands.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…