Honduras to send soldiers into streets to aid police in combatting wave of violent crime

Honduran army to help combat violent crime wave

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Troops will be sent into Honduras’ streets to help police combat a wave of violent crime, the government said Tuesday.

Defense Minister Marlon Pascua told reporters that soldiers will be assigned to search vehicles and pedestrians and pursue criminal suspects. He did not specify when the troops would be deployed.

He said the decision was announced by President Porfirio Lobo at a Cabinet meeting.

This Central American country of 7.7 million people suffered more than 5,300 homicides in 2009 while grappling with a political crisis touched off by a coup.

The country’s army was harshly criticized after soldiers hustled then-President Manuel Zelaya out of the country aboard an airplane last June.

All six members of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff were charged with abuse of power in January, but all were later cleared by a Supreme Court judge. Lawmakers approved amnesty for both Zelaya and all those involved in his removal.

On Monday, Lobo’s administration announced it was sending more than 2,000 soldiers and police officers to the Atlantic coast region around the Aguan River to seize drugs and illegal weapons. Drug cartels are increasingly using the coasts of Central America to move drugs toward the U.S. market.

Zelaya’s supporters expressed fear the security buildup might be used in a crackdown on a peasant squatter movement in the area.

Just before the coup, about 3,000 farm workers seized almost 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) in commercial plantations used to grow African palms.

The pro-Zelaya National Popular Resistance Front said the Aguan deployment posed a serious threat of raids to clear the squatters.

Lobo’s administration is negotiating with the squatters and has offered them each about 5 acres (2 hectares) of land elsewhere and some financial assistance if they agree to leave. The squatters are demanding greater amounts of land.