From the other side of the screen, the smile of Rodrigo Pineda (fictitious name to preserve his safety), director of a Honduran public educational center, cuts the distance and spreads calm even in virtual space.
He lives in Tegucigalpa and 20 years ago, when he chose to listen to the teaching vocation, in addition to the educational challenges, he also assumed the personal risk that this profession entails, at least if it has to be practiced in the poorest settlements of the Honduran capital, controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs.
Every time Professor Pineda entered his school, before the pandemic forced online education, he had to summon the courage to face the two gangs that, for some years, have been in the habit of besieging the educational centers of the slums to store drugs and weapons, or forcibly recruit schoolchildren and youth.
Children and young people who reject forced recruitment defy, even unintentionally, the gang leaders, who punish this audacity with death. Emerson García
The two rival criminal gangs dictate law in Honduras, especially in Tegucigalpa and the border city of San Pedro Sula, fueling an internal conflict for the monopoly of drug and arms trafficking, extortion and human trafficking.
To ensure the growth of the gang, gang leaders used to approach the gates of public schools in marginal neighborhoods, trying to convince students between the ages of 10 and 14 to enter organized crime, by hook or by crook. bad.
This recruitment strategy worked until March 2020 and could become a reality again, since since April 18 of this year, Honduran students and teachers have returned to school in person, after two years of virtual classes.
“One day a gang member told me that schools are his
hotbeds
.
These criminals recruit the poorest boys, orphans or from broken homes.
Almost half of my students live with a grandparent or uncle, because the parents have died or immigrated to the United States.
Some children see the gang as the only option to get ahead, but the others cry out for our help.
So we went out into the streets and tried to persuade the gang leaders to let the students go free,” says Rodrigo Pineda.
A gang member one day told me that schools are his hotbeds
Many teachers have tried to protect their students, especially younger students and girls, who are often trafficked for sexual exploitation.
However, this bravery has cost the lives of more than a hundred teachers to date.
According to data from the Honduran National Human Rights Commissioner, there are 90 teachers murdered between 2010 and 2017 alone.
Director Alberto Herrera (not his real name), 52 years old and has been teaching for 32 years, knows this well. He has heard the sad news of the murder of a colleague more than once in his life.
“Some students are children of gang members and the parents insult us, threaten us or assault us if we give the boy a bad grade.
A few years ago, a teacher tried to discipline a fight between two young girls and one of her relatives came to the school and shot her,” he says.
Added to those killed is the number of teachers who have left their homes due to threats.
In the last five years, 269 teachers have been victims of internal displacement due to gang violence, a phenomenon that has affected 247,090 Hondurans between 2014 and 2018, which corresponds to 2.7% of the country's population.
According to data from the Honduran National Human Rights Commissioner, 90 teachers were murdered between 2010 and 2017 alone.
“Gang members enter schools at night to hide drugs and firearms, and in some cases the children have come across bullet casings.
Sometimes we hear gang members shooting each other on the street in front of the school.
Some younger teachers can't stand it and leave”, continues Pineda.
Rodrigo Pineda and Alberto Herrera are part of the Teachers' Committee, an organization of teachers who fight to promote education and eradicate violence in schools.
The Committee is supported by UNHCR and Save the Children, which in 2018 launched a report to denounce the serious situation of violence that affects educational centers.
“Teachers are among the most affected by gang violence, along with carriers and businessmen,” says Vanessa Paguada, coordinator for Save the Children of the project to strengthen environments for children and young people in collaboration with UNHCR.
“They are victims of extortion, physical or sexual violence, and the gangs see them as an obstacle that needs to be removed because they oppose the recruitment of young people,” she adds.
In the last two years, 40% of students dropped out of school in 2020 due to insecurity and increased poverty. Emerson García
During the pandemic, many teachers were victims of cyber violence and online extortion.
"The gang members asked us to recharge their credit cards, pay for their children's internet," says Pineda.
“But for us it is useless to denounce these events because we know that the police are in
collusion
[in collusion]
with the gang members."
The lack of trust in the institutions finds one more reason in the recent arrest of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was extradited to the United States on April 21, where he will face trial for alleged drug trafficking and possession of weapons in a New York court.
During his mandate, Hernández ordered the militarization of numerous educational centers, after some episodes of violence.
“The State has palliative measures, but it does not attack the root of the problem.
The police stay for a while and then leave, leaving the field open to the maras, who return stronger;
and the violence towards us and the students is increasing”, explains Alberto Herrera.
Children and young people who reject forced recruitment unintentionally defy the gang leaders, who punish this audacity with death.
A similar fate falls to those who choose to join a gang, who often die in robberies and confrontations with the police.
With a rate of 30 homicides of children under 18 per 100,000 inhabitants, Honduras holds the world record for murders of children, according to Save the Children's Stolen Childhoods report.
During the pandemic, many teachers were victims of cyber violence and online extortion
Caught in a situation of violence with no way out, many Honduran boys leave school and their homes to flee to rural communities or to the United States, adding to the already huge number of unaccompanied minors leaving from northern Central America.
From October to February 2022, more than 58,000 unaccompanied children have arrived at the southern border and 23% are Honduran, according to the latest data from the United States Customs and Border Protection Office.
In the last two years, the school dropout rate skyrocketed and approximately 40% of students dropped out of school in 2020, due to social insecurity and the increase in poverty up to 70% due to the pandemic and the effects of hurricanes Eta and Iota.
A good number of Pineda and Herrera students dropped out of school, others stayed and some migrated, but managed to connect to online classes from migrant camps in Mexico.
“Teachers try to do a good job in the middle of a mined field.
It's nice when we find former students who are already professionals or we see that a child who leaves Honduras participates in our classes even from the migratory route.
For them we continue to take risks and fight to give them the best possible education”, concludes Alberto Herrera.
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