The trouble with honduras

So I came to Honduras with some concerns, but also some hopes that it wasn't as bad as people said. But a week after being here I was robbed at gun point on a bus, infact the entire bus was held up. This has left a lasting impression on my mind of what to expect from Honduras. I don't know if I just had bad luck, I've certainly met people who say they have lived here all their lives and nothing has happened, but the majority of people in my view seem to have had something happen to them. Infact most people on the bus seemed to not be surprised by what had happened as if it was normal.

Also no one was surprised at the lack of effort from the police to do much. They had big guns and cars and they could have gone after or looked for the criminals but they didn't. I believe they fear the criminals because they are not lone robbers but part of a larger organised crime network, that probably has the police on the payroll so they won't do anything. And if they do the gangs will kill them. They fear them.

I also believe the bus companies are on the take from organised crime here. I have heard that the companies and the bus drivers must pay the gangs money to be left alone, (i.e not kilked) a kind of a tax. Perhaps on this specific journey the company had not been paying. Or maybe the bus driver was paid to let this happen. Either way you will never really know the truth. All i know is facts of what happened. And that is everyone felt this was normal, the police did nothing and i didn't feel they were able or willing to.

I believe the police are impotent in Honduras. I believe that corruption has gone so far in Honduran society that everyone from the government down to the police and the people on the street believe the only way of bettering their lives is by being corrupt and taking as much as possible for themselves. I believe the rise of the Mara's is directly attributable to the corruption of the government and that the only way to better themselves is to steal off the people also. I don't think i would go a far as saying the gangs are altruistic and care for the poor and weak in society, as they basically steal off them, but Pablo Escobar in Columbia definitely tried to help the poor with his drugs money. Could the gangs here in central America also be trying topple the government's here because they believe if they have the power of government in their hands they can also do better?

It's a crazy messed up situation. The government seems unwilling and unable to stop these criminals. For example recently the gangs decided (in retaliation to government arrests of narco-traffickers) that women with blonde hair were not allowed in certain gang controlled territories, with a threat of violence against those who did dye their hair blonde. The gangs did this to make a point they controlled the country.

Speaking to many people in Tegucigalpa it seems the threat of robbery is an every day occurrence. I saw a man have his bag snatched in the street. People tell me they carry most of their money in their shoes or pants and only a little in their wallet so they have something to give if they get robbed, the robbers expect something else you could get hurt. I even bought a crap phone that i carry in my pocket so if i get mugged i give the robbers that instead of my good phone. However people don't see it as a huge problem, merely this is the way life is and you have to learn to navigate these waters. They see gang robbery as a kind of tax. It happens occasionally so you just have to tale precautions and be smart, not walk around with your expensive phone out (one guy had his snatched off him in a shopping mall in broad daylight) or carrying loads of money (have two wallets one with less in).

For example in San Pedro Sula, people don't walk the streets, if they can, they take taxis or they drive. A lot of robbery occurs from cars. So robbers look for people walking who have something and jump out of their cars and rob them. Also when people are driving they have their windows wound up and the doors are locked from the inside so no one can open them from the outside. People have been car jacked by gangs on bicycles before who stuck a gun through an open window of their car while stopped at traffic lights.

But you see many of these things i have just said are just stories. I haven't seen this i have just heard this. This doesn't make it any less true, but perhaps people are told all these things so that they take precautions, and if they do then these things will not happen to them. I also don't feel people should fear too much coming here. Just be smart. Don't bring loads of expensive things. Take note of how to act.

Still it is wrong that you should fear these things. The threat of robbery and violence, i feel, is tiring for the Honduran people. It stagnates their economy because business don't want to start here, so there is no or very little work. It makes the educated people leave for a better life in Europe or America. Without any control on the power of organised crime here what is to stop the security situation getting worse?

I believe the only solution to Honduras' problems, and actually a lot of the problems in all the other countries of Central america is simply education, education, education. If you educate a population then you open their minds to all the things they can do with their lives. I saw this first hand in the rubbish dump school in Tegucigalpa where the kids aspired to be doctors or lawyers or something equaling their abilities not just working on a rubbish dump. Also then they don't turn to crime to better themselves or become corrupt to have more. An educated population also questions a corrupt government more and asks, is this the only way we can do things? Maybe we need to change things.