Violence Against Women

Five women were murdered in separate incidents across Honduras, including a triple killing in El Porvenir, Francisco Morazán, bringing the year's total of violent female deaths to 186 according to official security data.

Génesis Acosta Morales, 20, was shot and killed outside a plaza in San Antonio de la Cuesta, San Jerónimo municipality, on the night of August 22; authorities are investigating and have not yet identified a motive or suspects.

Daniel Meraz received an 18-year, 9-month prison sentence after admitting to the aggravated femicide of his ex-partner, nurse Elvia Mercedes Gómez López, 30, who died on June 3 in San Manuel, Cortés.

Honduras's national human-rights ombudsman cited an average of 29 violent deaths of women per month over 24 years and warned that legal penalties alone cannot stop gender violence without stronger investigations, prevention policies, and institutional safeguards for vulnerable women and girls.

Between January 2019 and mid-June 2026, Honduras recorded 2,904 homicides of women, averaging over 360 deaths per year, with Cortés and Francisco Morazán departments accounting for 37% of cases.

Rights groups have recorded 108 femicides in Honduras through late May 2026, with activists noting more mutilated victims and a 95% impunity rate that leaves killers largely unpunished.