by EFE
The Government of Honduras extended the state of emergency, in force since December 2022, for another 45 days in 123 of the country's 298 municipalities to combat criminal violence and extortion, the National Police reported on Friday.
The third extension was published in the official newspaper La Gaceta after being approved by the Council of Ministers, the Honduran Police said in a statement.
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With the new extension, the constitutional guarantees in 123 municipalities of Honduras will be suspended until May 21, he added.
The state of emergency, according to the police authorities, has allowed "the capture of more than a hundred members of criminal structures linked to maras and gangs, who commit crimes against the Honduran population."
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Honduras has also registered a reduction in the homicide rate in the last year, police said, without specifying figures.
The executive decree allows the National Police and other security entities to carry out targeted operations in the municipalities considered to be the most violent in the country.
The government of Xiomara Castro decided to extend the state of emergency to continue attacking "frontally criminal structures linked to the crimes of extortion, hit men, drug trafficking, money laundering, among others," according to the authorities.
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People will be able to circulate normally, since the state of emergency is a tool designed to combat violence and other crimes, including extortion, according to the Police.
In recent years, extortion has increased in Honduras, where it has left hundreds dead and thousands of micro, small and medium-sized businesses in ruins, who had to close their businesses, while others left the country.
Many of the fatalities were urban, interurban and taxi drivers.
According to their own complaints, some micro, small and medium businessmen are victims of extortion by up to three criminal gangs.