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Honduras
Honduras Gangs Leave Grisly Warning AP
Sun Feb 22, 7:53 PM ET
By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The disfigured body of a young man was found in northern Honduras along with a message threatening the Honduran president, police said Sunday. The discovery marks the 10th such slaying apparently carried about by gangs protesting a government crackdown.
Guatemala's new president received a similar threat last month, warning him that if his government continued to target gangs, "more people will die."
Honduran authorities said three local prostitutes discovered the body of the latest victim Saturday in the city of San Pedro Sula, 110 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Investigators estimated the victim was between 18 and 21 years of age. His assailants had gouged out his eyes, cut off his ears and nose and removed his heart, police spokesman Ivan Mejia said. His head was wrapped in a red shirt and stuffed inside a plastic garbage bag.
"We're dealing with another macabre discovery," Mejia said.
Attached to the body was a threatening message aimed at President Ricardo Maduro. Police would not reveal its contents.
The threats appear to be a backlash against Maduro's crackdown on gangs in the past six months. Last year, the Honduran Congress followed the president's recommendation to outlaw the youth gangs and established prison penalties of up to 12 years for their members. More than 1,000 gang members have been detained.
In the first stiff prison punishments imposed since the law was passed, a legal tribunal on Saturday sentenced two gang members to 86 years each for killing three people, wounding two others and robbing a house in the capital.
The Honduran government has warned that gang members angered by the new penalties have targeted public officials.
A message attached to the body of a victim found in January read, "Happy New Year to President Maduro. This is another challenge ... and the next victims will be police and journalists."
Also in January, two weeks after his inauguration, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger received a similar message, attached to the body of a dead man. "If you continue going after gang members, more people will die," the message said. "Mara Salvatrucha," the name of one of Central America's fiercest gangs, was written on the back of the dead body.
Shortly after taking office, Berger pledged to crack down on the gangs. El Salvador also passed a law criminalizing gang membership last year. Since then, the gangs — called maras after an ant that devours everything in its path — have moved into Mexico, where they often are accused of drug trafficking and robbing Central American migrants.
Police in southern Chiapas state, where many of the gang members are concentrated, on Saturday announced the capture of three Mara Salvatrucha members.
Also Saturday, the president of Mexico's national human rights commission, Jose Luis Soberanes said his group is working with national migration and Interior Department officials to prevent gang attacks on the Central American migrants.
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