TEGUCIGALPA, May 22: At least 19 people were killed at a palm plantation in northern Honduras, authorities said Thursday, as the Central American nation prepares for a resurgent wave of anti-gang militarization.
The killings took place the previous night in Rigores, in the restive Bajo Aguan region, where rival gangs have fought over control of palm plantations and drug trafficking routes.
The attack comes shortly after the national legislature approved a series of reforms to confront criminal violence in Honduras, where the homicide rate is 24 killings for every 100,000 inhabitants.
The new measures authorize the military to participate in public security tasks and create a new anti-organized crime unit. It also opens the possibility of categorizing gangs and drug cartels as terrorist groups.
Honduras's new conservative president, Nasry Asfura, has vowed to work with US President Donald Trump in his initiative to crack down on organized crime in Latin America.
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In a separate incident on Thursday, near the border with Guatemala, four officers and a civilian died after a shootout broke out when an elite anti-gang squad attempted to enter a home belonging to supposed narcotraffickers.
The bodies of the agents had yet to be recovered and the toll could likely rise, a police official told local reporters.
- 'Dante-esque' -
The farmers killed in the Aguan valley were employed by an armed group that controlled the plantation, a local rural group leader told AFP by phone.
The leader, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said local residents heard widespread gunfire.
Frequent threats from armed groups mean "one sleeps with one eye open and another closed," the person said.
A local news outlet shared a video showing at least nine bloodied bodies scattered through the vast palm plantations.
"For now, what you can see (in the images) is a Dante-esque scene where various people apparently were executed with high-caliber weapons, probably rifles and shotguns," Security Minister Gerzon Velasquez told reporters.
Yuri Mora, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said later on local television that two teams working at the crime scene had discovered 13 people in one area and six in another.
Velasquez said the crime, though unclear, nonetheless took place in an area "in conflict for many years" due to the activity of armed groups participating in narcotrafficking and palm oil extraction.
The police chief in nearby Trujillo, Carlos Rojas, told local media that the groups occupy and illegally exploit several large African palm plantations, using the money from the crops to obtain weapons.
Local farmer groups however accuse transnational agribusiness corporations of sponsoring the criminal groups to carry out land occupations and prevent residents from reclaiming disputed lands.
A senior government investigator, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, dismissed the idea that the massacre was over a land dispute.
"This has to do with drug trafficking," the official said.
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