How People in Honduras Cope With Crime

Twenty people are murdered daily in Honduras and everyone says that they must have been "into something". Then your friend or neighbor gets murdered, and you realize that it isn't always about what the victim did to deserve it.

By La Gringa
As a general rule, the Honduran people are resilient. They stoically accept the injustices for which they have been subject for centuries and just try to live their lives as best they can without expecting anything from their government and without worrying about things that they don't have the power to change. Public opinion polls generally show that Honduran people are among the most pessimistic about their country, but unexpectedly show that individually they are among the happiest in Latin American countries. That might be because their expectations are lower. I think that is now changing to some degree because of the fear of crime.

How Much Crime is Related to Narcotrafficking in Honduras?
There is no doubt that the majority of murders in Honduras are related to narcotrafficking and organized crime. The manner of killing often points to that. The Observatorio de la Violencia of Spain reports that 33.9 percent of the homicides in 2010 were committed by hired assassins. Other categories of motives (murders committed in connection with robbery, rape, domestic violence, etc.) barely rate a blip in the statistics.

Some authorities estimate that 80 percent of the crime is related to organized crime, but in a whopping 50.7 percent of murder cases the police never even came up with a motive, much less a suspect. I do not know the official definition of a 'massacre' (dictionaries indicate it is "a large number"), but according to the director of the Observatorio, there are at least three massacres per week in Honduras.

Blame the Victim
What I invariably hear from friends, family, neighbors, and expatriates, and read in the comments on news articles is that people are quick to blame the victim. "The victim must have been involved with something", or "He/she must have made someone mad", or "He/she shouldn't have resisted".

That view is often reinforced by the police who most often report that the latest killing was probably an "ajuste de cuentas" (adjustment of accounts or revenge killing) or a territorial dispute among gangs or some product of organized crime. These statements are often issued within hours of the killings before any real investigation has occurred. What is worse, a proclamation of "ajuste de cuentas" seems to be synonomous with "The victim(s) deserved it. Case closed."

I sense that a 'blame the victim' mentality in Honduras helps us to deal with all the violence. We all want so badly to believe that murder only happens to bad guys or people who do stupid things but that just ain't so. With this dark cloud of violence hanging over our heads, people just have to believe that the victims must have had some fault in the matter; ergo, if I am not involved in drugs and if I don't do anything to make anyone mad, I'll be safe.

But in a country where human life holds no value, where a 'hit' can be bought for Lps 500 (about US$26 -- ask anyone), making someone mad can be much easier than you would imagine. Standing up for yourself or for what is right in even the most mundane situation can result in retaliation -- take the case of the stale bread for example. A teenage boy was sent by his mother to return a loaf of stale bread bought earlier in the day. He was shot and killed by the bakery's guard for insisting on an exchange.

So that's something to think about every time you think about complaining about goods or services. Intimidation also results in more victimization of the Honduran people who are apt to not stand up for themselves in any unjust situation. Unfortunately, they've learned that 'justice' in any situation is hard to attain.

Even robbery or burglary victims are often said to have done something dumb. "They shouldn't have been carrying their cellphone... or laptop... or whatever." Or... "They shouldn't have taken that taxi or walked on that road." Or... "They shouldn't have been out at night."

Safe Areas
We also want to think that all the crime is in the big bad cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, and that just ain't so either. It's everywhere as far as I can tell. There are just more people and more reporters in those cities so we read about it more.

The less we know about an area, the safer we feel. For example, I've been to San Pedro Sula many times and never felt unsafe or threatened. Many people would laugh about that because it is the Honduran city about which travelers are most warned. But when we are in San Pedro, we are usually in our car, in a store, or in someone's house. The extent of our worry about crime has a lot to do with our personal knowledge.

Like a lot of people, we are less likely to go out at night. In some neighborhoods, many people do not walk or visit with their neighbors at night as they used to. Assassinations of patrons have occured outside two of our favorite restaurants in La Cebia, as well as the Pizza Hut -- none of which is in a known high crime or dangerous area. One acquaintance whom we used to run into at parties said that she does not see anyone anymore, that no one is giving parties and that everyone is busy simply trying to make a living.

Robberies and burglaries are so commonplace that many just shrug it off as the price of living in Honduras, thankful because "it could have been worse". Everyone who can, lives behind bars and walls. The rich have armed guards and the very rich drive bullet-proofed vehicles and carry bodyguards with them at all times.

The poor do what they can with barbed wire fences and some never leave their home unless someone can be left behind to 'guard' the house, because no matter how comparatively little you might have, there is always someone who wants to take it away from you. The working poor and middle class are particularly susceptible to crime during the period of the 13th and 14th month cash payments, when the robbers are out in full force to relieve them of their hard-earned extra money.

Perception of Crime
There may be someone who has been in Honduras 20 years and never been a crime victim, and someone else who was robbed their first day. Since the statistics are so unreliable, all any of us can do is talk about our experiences and those of the people we know. None of us can predict what will happen to you.

Since many people in Honduras do not read the newspapers every day or do not read the crime section, often their perception of crime correlates with how many people they know who have been crime victims or how much crime and violence is in their neighborhood.

If you have been a crime victim, crime is bad; if you haven't, well, maybe it's not that bad. Others downplay crime as "no worse than any place else" or "no worse than any large city in the United States". But most people do not live behind bars, walls, and barbed wire in the US and there is no city in the US or virtually anyplace else in the world whose murder rate comes anywhere near Honduras' rate of 82.1 per 100,000 people or the rates of the country's major cities. Most people in developed countries do not have to worry about being re-victimized by the police. And some folks just can't bear to know the facts. They downplay crime as a personal insult to their country or as a threat to their business or organization interests.

We hear about kidnappings on television and we think, "Well, those people must be rich, it doesn't affect me." Then your middle class neighbor or his child gets kidnapped, and you start worrying about your own.

Twenty people are murdered daily in Honduras and everyone says that they must have been "into something". Then your friend or neighbor gets murdered, and you realize that it isn't always about what the victim did to deserve it.

Our Tolerance Depends Upon How Close to Home Crime Hits
One expatriate described our tolerance for crime as "a cup that will hold only so much before most folks who can, will simply say they're ready to move on". Most Hondurans do not have the luxury of being able to move to another country. But more and more I'm hearing from professional Hondurans, who do have the means and a marketable talent for making a life in another country, that they are making plans to take their families and emigrate.

Others who have been educated in foreign countries at universities as prestigous as Harvard have told me that they will never return and they specifically point to crime and corruption as the reasons. I know many Hondurans who are legal residents of other countries whose dream was always to retire and return to the homeland to live out their golden years. Some are reconsidering that decision because of the fear of crime.

Mistrust
One of the side effects of so much crime and so much narcotrafficking activity is that people are just a little or a lot suspicious of anyone who has a new car, a bigger house, or has moved from a less desirable neighborhood to a better one. It does appear that there are many, many people involved with organized crime, but I refuse to believe that everyone who has been able to improve their standard of living is involvled.

Often, reader comments on news stories indicate that it is not a such bad thing that the narcos and gangs are killing each other off. It is easy to blame the people who stoop so low as to get involved with narcotrafficking and gangs. While some do it for greed -- the "easy" money -- or the inability to find work elsewhere, it's not always by choice.

Unless you were in the helpless position of being offered plomo o plata (lead or silver -- bullet to the head or payment for services) or maybe even having the lives of your children threatened, it is hard to imagine what you would do, when you know full well that they have the power to follow through with their threat, and they know they would almost certainly not get caught and punished for the crime. I consider myself an honorable law abiding citizen, but I cannot honestly say what I would do were I to find myself with a gun pressed to my head, or if my loved ones were threatened.

Even without threats, some of those not otherwise involved in organized crime are tempted by huge rewards for being a "mule" (transporting drugs or money from one location to another). We often see arrests of ordinary people at the airports because they have been caught carrying huge amounts of money strapped to their body or in their luggage. In one case, a whole family traveling with children, was arrested when caught with their luggage stuffed with packages of US dollars.

Desensitization
A recently published article indicated that treatment for depression is increasing among Ceibeños. I think a lot more people are worrying about crime more than they used to. I know I do.

My personal opinion is that we become desensitized to crime. I used to jump when I heard gunshots; now they barely rate a blink unless they sound very close to our house. Last Saturday night, we heard what sounded like gun fights on three separate occasions. The first time we wondered about what was happening, but were glad that it sounded far enough away. The second and third time, it was just... "There they go again." The first time that I was subjected to a decapitated body on the news, I was horrified and felt sick to my stomach. The fourth time, I said... "Not again"! Before long, you start turning off the TV and skipping the crime section of the newspaper because you do not wish to know anymore.

We have to become desensitized because what is the alternative? To quake with fear every waking moment? No one can live like that. We take what sensible precautions* we can. Depending upon where we live, we may not go out at night as frequently. We might not visit areas that we consider to be higher crime areas -- unless we happen to live in one and have no choice, which is the unfortunate situation of many of the poor in big cities. A relative of mine happens to live in a high crime rate zone. She will never be able to sell her house and move because no one would buy it. In some particularly bad areas, houses are just abandoned.

One of the best examples (or saddest) of desensitization is a photo I have of two young school girls calmly buying strawberry flavored ice drinks from a street vendor right outside the crime scene tape while a bullet-ridden dead body lies close by. Children should not have to be desensitized like that.

* The US State Department has a long list of common sense safety precautions, both specifically for Honduras and for international travelers in general. While some believe that the State Department's warnings are excessive, I think that most can agree that these precautions are common sense measures.

Note: The author has been blogging from Honduras since 2006, covering a wide variety of topics from cultural differences to corruption to everyday life. A longtime resident of La Ceiba, she has been dubbed "la gringa mas catracha" by some of her Honduran readers. Her sometimes controversial La Gringa's Blogicito is widely read by both expatriates and Hondurans. The above piece was previously published on her blog.