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By declaring a security emergency, the Honduran government announced 14 drastic measures against gangs and organized crime, becoming the first country that as a State replicates the Territorial Control Plan (PCT) that President Nayib Bukele implemented on June 20 of 2019 and which has allowed El Salvador to be positioned as the safest in the Western Hemisphere.

The plan was announced last Friday on national radio and television by the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, after a meeting with officials of the Security Council made up of the three branches of government.

The first measure was the deployment of security forces. «They must immediately plan and execute emergency interventions in all the municipalities of the country identified with the highest incidence of crimes of hitmen, drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, arms trafficking, illicit association and money laundering related to these crimes, “which are committed by gangs, gangs and organized crime gangs,” the National Defense and Security Council of Honduras highlights in a statement.

Other measures have to do with the construction of megaprisons, including an insular one for 2,000 gang leaders (in Islas del Cisne, 500 km from San Pedro Sula), reforms to the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as designating terrorists Maras, gangs, drug traffickers and members of criminal gangs, let them all face collective trials.

Castro has ordered the immediate construction of the Emergency Detention Center (CRE) with capacity for 20,000 gang members in a depopulated area between the departments of Olancho and Gracias a Dios. Gang members, drug traffickers and members of organized crime organizations will be transferred to that prison. They are already in prison.

While 2,000 ringleaders will be taken to a prison that according to Xiomara Castro will be built in the Swan Islands archipelago located 500 kilometers from the coast.
The Honduran authorities assure that the only way to communicate with the Swan Islands is by satellite and by taking the ringleaders to that prison it will prevent them from continuing to direct from the prisons, it is also mentioned that fleeing from that prison will be impossible, only to reach to the archipelago by boat takes almost a day.

Since last Friday, the Honduran Government also ordered the immediate capture of intellectual authors, leaders and members of gangs, criminal structures, drug traffickers and extraditables.

Likewise, take control and recover order in the physical spaces taken over by criminal structures in colonies and neighborhoods with the highest crime incidence.

Measure number six states that “the National Congress must reform the Penal Code so that gang members and members of organized crime gangs who commit homicides, drug trafficking, extortion, arms trafficking, illicit associations and money laundering are classified as terrorists.

It is also ordered to reform the Penal Code to toughen penalties for homicides to the detriment of operators of the security and justice system. [policías, militares, jueces y fiscales].

Another amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code consists of incorporating the measure of collective trial for gang members and members of other organized crime structures, as El Salvador already does.

The Supreme Court of Justice has appointed judges who will work with the security forces for recovery and control operations in gang areas, as has the Prosecutor’s Office.

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