Browse Honduras Daily Stories

Former deputy security minister Semma Julissa Villanueva did not appear Monday for a scheduled testimony with the Special Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office in the investigation of missing woman Angie Peña, whom Villanueva had publicly commented on.

Police and anti-kidnapping units rescued a 5-year-old girl and her caregiver in Las Vegas, Santa Bárbara, after kidnappers demanded 7 million lempiras (about $280,000) and abandoned them when officers flooded the area.

National Police arrested a 26-year-old engineering student in San Manuel, Cortés, after a court-ordered raid on a home where officers seized 15 kilograms of marijuana valued at approximately 500,000 lempiras (about $20,000) and equipment used for packaging drugs for distribution across the Sula Valley.

The National Police graduated 20 officers as specialists in anti-drug tactical operations after completing a training course designed to strengthen capabilities against drug trafficking and organized crime.

Honduras recorded 20 traffic fatalities and 106 accidents over the weekend as the National Road and Transport Authority intensified enforcement operations, seizing 3,011 driving licenses and citing 326 drivers for drunk driving.

Pedro Alexander Díaz Franco, a 15-year-old Honduran TikTok content creator, was kidnapped on July 5 in Choloma and later found dead in plastic bags along a highway, sparking international media coverage and outrage on social media.

The family of Angie Samantha Peña Melgares, missing for four and a half years, says investigations point to a transnational human-trafficking network operating in the Bay Islands and accuses authorities of delays and irregularities in the case.

The Honduran Armed Forces and Public Ministry dismantled ten coca plantations, a marijuana crop, and three drug-processing facilities in Botaderos National Park in Tocoa, Colón, seizing over 125,500 coca bushes and chemical precursors used in narcotics production.

A 16-year-old boy died at a Tegucigalpa hospital after being shot by police during a June 30 operation in La Esperanza, Intibucá; his mother says officers beat and shot him, while police say they are investigating the officers involved.

An explosion at a home-based fireworks and powder-products facility in Copán killed two people—a woman and a 4-year-old child—and injured three others with severe burns; authorities said high temperatures and a possible lack of safety measures likely contributed to the blast, though investigations are ongoing.

Evin Noel Sales Ayala was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for the January 2022 murder of Pablo Hernández Rivera, a broadcaster, indigenous Lenca leader, and human-rights and land-rights advocate in Lempira.

A man aged 20–30 was discovered shot more than 20 times with his hands and feet bound on a street between Monte Fresco and El Tablón in eastern Tegucigalpa; authorities have not yet identified the victim or located suspects.

A woman died after being hit by a vehicle on the CA-5 highway at El Pajonal while attempting to cross; the driver fled without providing aid, and authorities are investigating.

Honduras's Public Ministry seized 104 illicit assets—including 40 vehicles, 38 financial products, 19 real-estate properties, and seven businesses—linked to a fugitive with ties to the criminal organization Los Pinto, after detecting an unexplained gap of 418 million lempiras (about $16.7 million) in his financial movements.

Pedro Alexis Matamoros Sánchez, the fourth person charged in the 2019 killing of Tegucigalpa's former mayor Óscar Acosta, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after accepting guilt in the crime.

Police arrested a 26-year-old security worker from Santa Rita in connection with the April 23 shooting death of a guard and wounding of another at a residential complex in El Progreso, Yoro.

A motorcycle collided with a public bus in the Barandillas neighborhood of San Pedro Sula on Thursday, igniting both vehicles; the motorcycle driver suffered severe burns but was rescued by bystanders and the bus driver before firefighters arrived.

Following a deadly dump-truck accident in Tegucigalpa, Honduras's road police are launching nationwide operations to verify that heavy-truck drivers hold proper licenses and to check for speeding and impaired driving.

Police say armed groups in the Los Rigores area of Trujillo have been firing heavy-caliber weapons to intimidate and provoke the security forces deployed there after a massacre of 20 farmers on May 21, and authorities say suspects have been identified.

Security Minister Gerzon Velásquez confirmed the creation of the National Agency to Combat Crime (ANC), which will combine the National Police, military police, prosecutors, and intelligence services to target high-violence areas under a Honduras-specific security model distinct from El Salvador's approach.

A judge conducting case proceedings visited Honduras's criminal investigation agency as part of ongoing judicial work into the 2022 disappearance of Angie Peña, a high-profile missing-person case whose family recently filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court.

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.