TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Women are being murdered in Honduras – already deemed the world’s deadliest country by the United Nations — at a skyrocketing rate, according to figures released Sunday.
More than 3,000 women were killed in the last decade – but more than 40 percent of those murders happened in just the last two years, the national commission for human rights said.
In 2010, about 36 women were killed each month. In the first half of this year, that figure rose to 46, or about three women every two days.
The head of the rights commission, Ramon Custodio, called “femicide” – the murder of women – one of Honduras’ most serious human rights issues.
He added that the victims come from all walks of life, including university professionals, housewives, students, textile workers, venders, and even girls just months old.
Sunday’s report noted that “more than 90 percent of the cases have never been investigated.”
In March, the UN announced Honduras had the world’s highest murder rate, at 82.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
The impoverished Central American country, along neighbors Guatemala and El Salvador, has seen violent gang crime intensify in recent years with incursions from Mexican drug cartels.
Around 90 percent of the cocaine which arrives in the United States passes through Central America and Mexico.
