Homicide Nation: Why does Honduras have the highest murder rate in the world?

Days before she was set to fly to London for the Miss Universe Pageant, Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister went missing. Both bodies have been found and the world is asking, what happened?

Regardless of the high profile murder of Miss Alvarado, Honduras is not unfamiliar with murder. A 2013 world report marked Honduras with the highest murder rate in the world and security institutions are being largely blamed. But why is the murder rate so high in Honduras?

A number of reasons seem to contribute to the country’s crime, particularly the government. The Honduran government undermines the power given to Supreme Court Judges and has passed legislation to remove them whenever they feel like it, or perhaps when the judge’s are doing their job too well. Reality in Honduras is that many government officials are part of the criminal underworld. The country is so familiar with political corruption that it flows over to the police force. Perhaps frustrated with their lack of judicial power, there have been cases of police taking crime into their own hands with leading members of gangs going missing and being linked back to particular police members.

But the high crime rates in Honduras are not only severely affecting its society; they are also affecting its economy. Tourism in Honduras is taking a battering because it is publicized as the murder nation of the world, and with headlines like the abduction and murder of Miss Alvarado its hard for the world to think otherwise. Honduras has seen a 2.24% drop in tourism between the years of 2010 and 2011 all because tourists are too scared to travel there. Journalists, activists for lower income workers, and members of the gay and lesbian community are targeted in particular.

Although Honduras offers tourists a rich culture and a beautifully spectacular landscape, it seems tourism is set to continue on the decline if the country keeps spitting out headlines like the murder of a potential Miss Universe winner.

BY Taylor-Jayne Wilkshire

Source:

http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/honduras

http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/honduras/international-tourism

Image: foter.com