00:00The National Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras has released new figures of forced displacements in the country,
00:05revealing that at least 500 minors have had chief leader homes this year due to the presence of criminal organizations.
00:13From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Gerardo Torres Celaya has the details.
00:20According to the National Commissioner of Human Rights, CONADE,
00:24at least 400,000 Hondurans have experienced some form of displacements in 2019.
00:30And this year, a new surge is emerging, primarily involving minors who are fleeing to avoid being recruited by criminal
00:37organizations.
00:38A través de la unidad de desplazamiento forzado interno.
00:42CONADE, 3S Units for Internal Forces Placement, has been monitoring and addressing cases of displaced families,
00:54including children.
00:59And our records from 2019 to 2026 showed that 4,383 children and adolescents have been affected by internal force
01:08displacement.
01:12The causes include extortion, the homicide of a family member, gender-based violence, sexual violence, and discrimination.
01:24Human rights organizations argue that the authorities have failed to take sufficiently decisive action.
01:31In recent months, there have been reports of several families forced to abandon their homes
01:36due to threats from maras, and police officers have been observed assisting with these evictions.
01:46We saw this a couple of months ago, when the police, instead of protecting the victims of forced displacement,
01:53were actually facilitating their escape and flight, helping them get away to save their lives.
01:59When what they should have been doing was taking more substantive measures to ensure their safety.
02:06Forced displacement signifies the collapse of their parents' lifelands,
02:10which in turn impacts the future they had envisioned for their children.
02:15Children are forced to leave their schools and, for a time, withdraw their education entirely.
02:24For community organizations like ARCA, the problem is not just the maras,
02:29rather that criminal organizations have seized control of the government,
02:32preventing any action that would benefit the population.
02:39Since 2010, drug trafficking has become part of the state.
02:43This means that we are no longer dealing merely with conventional street-level violence,
02:47but also drug trafficking has seized control of the Honduran states across all its structures.
02:52This has resulted not only in the violence we experience here in the neighborhoods
02:56and the streets of our major cities, but also in violence at the state level.
03:02If violence is not properly addressed and criminal structures continue to operate with such freedom,
03:09people will be forced to keep fleeing to protect their lives and the future of their children.
03:14Behind the massive caravans of 2016 and 2017 in Honduras,
03:19violence was the main reason why thousands choose exile.
03:22From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Fortere Surin English, Gerardo Torres-Zalaya.
