Two nationwide street gangs in Honduras - Calle 18 and Mara Salvatrucha - called for a peace and immediate end to violence in the streets of the Central American country. The deal, which was ushered in by a local bishop, was first announced by a member of Mara Salvatrucha, from a prison in San Pedro Sula, a city in the north of the country. Calle 18's announcement came moments later.
The Honduran gangs have become a large problem for the country, which has fallen into a period of extreme violence. According to the United Nations, the 87 murders per 100,000 people in Honduras makes it the most violent country on earth. San Pedro Sula, likewise, is the world's most violent city. As a geographic isthmus between North and South America, much of the bloodshed in Honduras stems from increased drug and human trafficking, which has been booming in Mexico. As merchandise flows northward from processing facilities in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, Hondurans are caught in the crossfire.
Both gangs called upon the government of Honduras to aid in the process by bringing jobs to rehabilitating members. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa did not immediately respond to the request.
The future of Lobo's National Party may be tied to his ability to usher in a longstanding ceasefire and cash in on the political capital that the increased security would bring; a similar ceasefire between the gangs in neighboring El Salvador last year cut that country's murder rate in half in four months time.
Honduras holds a presidential and general election in November of this year. National Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez will be fighting his party's reputation of human rights abuses, as well as competing against candidates Mauricio Villeda of the Liberal Party and Xiomara Castro de Zelaya of LIBRE. Zelaya is the wife of deposed leftist Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who lost the presidency in a 2009 Honduran coup d'etat.