Gang Violence

Olvin Reynaldo Arriaga Baca, alias "Porking," was released on conditional liberty in April 2014 after being deemed a model prisoner, but killed two children six days later for refusing to work as gang lookouts; in 2025, he was convicted alongside other Pandilla 18 members in the deaths of three gang leaders in prison.

Juan Carlos Flores, shot by gunmen on a motorcycle on July 7 in Comayagüela, died at Hospital Escuela from his wounds; video of his final moments kneeling on the street went viral and drew national outcry.

On March 6, 2016, five armed men dressed as police officers entered a billiard hall in Tegucigalpa's Primero de Diciembre neighborhood and opened fire with AK-47s, killing 12 people and wounding three in one of Honduras's deadliest massacres.

Fifteen members of the Pandilla 18 gang have been convicted and sentenced to over 1,000 years in prison for the June 2023 attack on the female prison in Támara that killed 46 women, many of them burned alive in locked cells.

Women's rights activists warn that femicides in Honduras are increasingly linked to gang territorial disputes, with women killed to send messages rather than in domestic violence contexts.

Residents of the Smith neighborhood in San Pedro Sula alerted police to an unusual odor from a trash pile, where authorities discovered the dismembered remains of a man estimated at 35 years old, showing signs of torture; he has been taken to the morgue unidentified.

César Edgardo Ordóñez Aguilera, 18, an alleged 18th Street gang member, was arrested at a San Pedro Sula hospital — where he was being treated after a traffic accident — in connection with the May 2025 shooting death of Maycol Josué Osorto Reyes.

Jesús Humberto Mancía, accused of participating in armed attacks on public buses in San Pedro Sula on August 30, 2003 that killed 17 people in a single day, faces trial on charges of 17 counts of murder and other crimes; the prosecution presented a protected witness who identified him among the gunmen.

Police arrested three suspects allegedly linked to the 18th Street gang following an armed confrontation in the 15 de Septiembre neighborhood of Chamelecón, San Pedro Sula, where officers also seized high-caliber weapons.

A court found five members of Pandilla 18 guilty of murdering a girl in the Santa Teresita neighborhood, according to the Public Ministry.

Authorities are investigating whether the May 21 massacre of 20 people in Rigores, Trujillo, was retaliation for the February killing of Ruth Nohemy Monroy, 17, the wife of recently arrested gang leader Alexis Molina Mencía.

El Progreso, Yoro held a mass funeral on May 28 for Gerald (15), Jonathan (15), and Carlos (16), shot dead on May 26 by armed men who police believe killed the students by mistaken identity amid rival gang territorial disputes.

Authorities are investigating whether armed gunmen killed three young students riding a motorcycle in El Progreso after mistaking them for gang members.

Three of Honduras's five massacres so far this year have occurred in Yoro department, where rival criminal gangs, maras, drug-trafficking networks, and land-invasion groups are competing for territory across municipalities including Olanchito, El Progreso, and Sulaco.