Live
Audio Only
The Honduran Human Rights Commission says that 153 lawyers have been murdered in Honduras between 2002 and 2018, and 90 percent of these cases have gone unpunished. The national commission released a statement on Monday after lawyer Reynaldo Barahona was found murdered.
RELATED:
UN: 'Machismo' in Honduras Driving Epidemic of Femicides
As many as 130 of the cases took place between 2010 and 2018 alone, said the rights body, that condemned the planned assassination of Barahona brutally shot at Monday morning by armed men wearing bulletproof vests who converged on the lawyer as he ate breakfast in a restaurant near the country’s Supreme Court in Tegucigalpa. Local media says the defender was riddled with bullets in the restaurant where police and military officials were also dining.
The Honduran state agency called on the authorities to establish effective security mechanisms to protect against these homicides.
"It is urgent that Honduran authorities establish security mechanisms to safeguard the physical integrity and life of legal professionals and their families," the commission underlined.
The commission also said the state should "drastically reduce the high level of impunity" in the Central American country. Around 95 percent of murders in Honduras, which has some of Latin America’s highest homicide rates, go unpunished
Anny Ochoa, president of the College of Lawyers of Honduras, demanded justice for Barahona’s death calling it "unfortunate.”
The slain lawyer had asked for state protection for the past several years during which time he had received constant death threats. He was even injured by a gun attack in 2014.
Newsletter
