AMERICA/HONDURAS - Domestic violence, poverty, organized crime for the children of one of the most violent countries in the world

Tegucigalpa (Agenzia Fides) - Poverty and domestic violence force Honduran children to abandon their homes and live on the streets, subject to enormous risks such as forced recruitment by organized crime. This is what is said in a statement by the head of the humanitarian international organization Casa Alianza that assists about 20,000 children in need in Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua every year. In Tegucigalpa alone young children who live on the street are about 3000. Criminal gangs take advantage of the fact that the laws in Honduras, home to over 3 and a half million children, do not provide reports for the recruitment and exploitation of children such as killers or drug dealers. The defenders of childrens’ human rights are also alarmed by the abuse of approximately 400,000 young victim workers. In addition, domestic violence affects 1 million and 800 thousand children, and poverty makes them the main victims of organized crime that exploits them as carriers of weapons and extortionists. Honduras is home to 8 and a half million people and often there are cases of children who flee to the United States, undocumented, due to the poverty and the violence they suffer in the Latin American Country. It is one of the most violent countries in the world, where every day there are at least a dozen deaths. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 06/09/2013)