Browse Honduras Daily Stories

Honduras's Supreme Court has recommended that Congress reinstate the Effective Collaboration Law, a mechanism allowing prosecutors to work with organized-crime figures to dismantle criminal structures and reach higher-level leaders with verifiable evidence.

Congress will advance a motion supporting the government's push to build a high-security prison for gang and organized-crime members, with plans to define the site, costs, and funding sources to begin construction within eight to ten months.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano has not ruled out a popular referendum to let citizens decide whether minors involved in gangs and organized crime should be tried as adults, a proposal drawing debate among legal experts about constitutional limits and international child-protection obligations.

Marco Paz, president of Congress's Security Commission, says lawmakers have passed anti-extortion reforms, given the security council power to designate criminal groups as terrorist organizations, and reformed prison regimes, while acknowledging that deputies have received threats for their action.

Honduran congressional security committees will travel to El Salvador to study the CECOT high-security prison model as lawmakers weigh penal reforms to combat organized crime.

Garífuna communities on Honduras' Caribbean coast fighting to reclaim ancestral land face intimidation from drug traffickers and organized-crime charges from the state, two years after a 2024 government land-demarcation mission was abandoned under threats.

Tomás Zambrano, president of the National Congress, said Honduras will combat gang violence and organized crime through new anti-terrorism legislation and reforms rather than declaring a state of exception, which he said suspends rights for the entire population.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano announced a proposed reform that would allow funds seized from organized crime to fund police, prosecutors, courts, and the military even before final conviction, rather than holding them during ongoing trials.

Attorney General Pablo Emilio Reyes is requesting a budget increase to L2.9 billion (about $116 million) and roughly double or triple the current 796 prosecutors to strengthen the Public Ministry's capacity to investigate organized crime and pursue serious offenses.

Gang and organized-crime conflicts rank as the second leading cause of homicides in Honduras at 13% of killings from 2014 to April 2026, with one in three violent deaths in Francisco Morazán and 26% in Cortés attributed to gang violence.

The National Defense and Security Council declared three criminal organizations terrorist associations in an overnight meeting at the presidential palace on September 18, with the groups' names to be announced once enforcement actions begin.

A Honduran court sentenced Mauricio Cárcamo León, Isaías Gómez García, and Pedro Edil Carías González to five years in prison for criminal association as members of the 'El Mango' gang, which was dismantled in February 2025 and included former police officers.

Videos from the funeral of a drug lord killed by the Army alongside his wife showed armed attendees firing weapons; the president posted on social media identifying those in the footage as criminals seeking to intimidate the public.

A judge ordered nine suspects held in pretrial detention on charges of trafficking cocaine and marijuana as part of an organized distribution network spanning Colón, Francisco Morazán, and Choluteca departments.

Honduras's telecommunications authority reports that Israeli-made signal-blocking technology deployed across 21 prisons has cut outgoing calls by 99%, though inmates continue to evade restrictions by smuggling mobile devices and using Wi-Fi messaging apps.

Police have neutralized at least 10 self-kidnapping hoaxes from January through July, in which perpetrators—often family members—fake abduction to extort money, documents, or property from relatives, a crime criminologists attribute to eroding social values and economic desperation.

A Honduran court approved the extradition of 30-year-old Humberto Eliseo Sánchez Baca, known as "El Chevo," to El Salvador, where he faces charges of aggravated extortion, organized crime, and conspiracy to commit murder.

A National Court judge suspended abbreviated proceedings against Gloria Judith Hernández Zelaya after she retracted her statement before the court in a case involving organized crime, environment, and corruption charges.

The Judicial School held a national gathering of specialized judges on organized crime, environmental, and corruption cases, aimed at strengthening judicial capacity and rule-of-law enforcement with support from the U.S. Embassy's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau.

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.

A judge held an initial hearing against Wilmer Alexander Mejía Medina on charges of extorting a protected witness, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 21.

Experts say about 20% of Honduras's homicides involve attackers on motorcycles, a tactic that allows rapid execution and escape; a 2012 law banning two men per bike in certain municipalities remains poorly enforced.

More than 8,000 Honduran women have been murdered since 2005, with 139 cases recorded through June 2026, and the OV-UNAH warns crimes are growing more brutal, with patterns linked to organized crime.

National Police Director Rigoberto Oseguera Mass has reinstated officers previously removed by a 2016–2018 purge, including Francisco Javier Leiva Gamoneda, accused in a 2016 investigation of involvement in the 2009 killing of a drug-enforcement director, and Jorge Alberto Barralaga Hernández, convicted of money laundering in 2021.

A specialized national tribunal convicted six people of drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, and criminal association; sentencing is scheduled for August 7.

Honduras's public-transport sector reports paying roughly 500 million lempiras (about $20 million) annually to criminal gangs, with some bus and taxi routes in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula now shuttered due to threats and attacks on drivers.

Honduras's Congress unanimously passed a law requiring businesses to disclose their true beneficial owners in a new centralized registry, aiming to combat money laundering, corruption, and terrorist financing.

Congress expects to vote soon on security reforms including measures to deny substitute sentences to gang members, regulate gang tattoos, and extend detention-hearing deadlines to 48 hours, pending a Supreme Court legal opinion due next week.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano said three criminal organizations have been designated terrorist groups so far and more designations are possible, as the government announces new measures to tighten control in prisons and prevent gang leaders from directing crimes from detention.

Former President Juan Orlando Hernández's defense filed a motion to keep his case in the Supreme Court rather than transfer it to the specialized organized-crime court, with a scheduled appearance set for August 3 on fraud and money-laundering charges in the 'Pandora II' case.