File photo: Honduran President Xiomara Castro attends a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, 13 June 2023;
Credit: Jade Gao/Pool via Reuters/File Photo
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - On Sunday 25 June 2023, the Honduran government announced curfews in two northern cities after more than 20 people were killed overnight in separate attacks amid escalating violence in the country.
Heavily armed men opened fire on Saturday night in a billiards hall in a neighbourhood in the northern manufacturing city of Choloma, killing thirteen people and seriously wounding another, police press person Edgardo Barahona told Reuters.
He added that at least eleven other murders had taken place on Saturday 24 June 2023 in separate episodes across the northern Valle de Sula zone, including in the industrial city of San Pedro Sulay.
President Xiomara Castro announced a fifteen-day curfew in Choloma between 21:00 and 04:00, effective immediately, and another in San Pedro Sula, effective 4 July 2023.
"Multiple operations, raids, captures and checkpoints are initiated," Castro said via Twitter.
There has been a partial state of emergency in parts of Honduras since December 2022 in a bid to confront violent gangs and turf wars.
Security Minister Gustavo Sanchez announced later on Sunday that the government would be sending a proposal to Congress to "classify members of a criminal structure, maras or gangs as terrorists" in the coming days.
The minister, speaking at a press conference, added that 1,000 additional police and military are being sent to the Sula Valley, where Choloma and San Pedro Sul are located.
The government is also offering a cash reward of 800,000 Lempiras (approximately €29,900) to help identify and capture those responsible for the killings in Choloma, the president said.
The attacks over the weekend follow a deadly incident earlier this week at a women's prison near the capital Tegucigalpa that killed 46 people amid a reported break-in by gang members.
