A Honduran Mayor was arrested for “assassination and illicit association” by Honduran authorities and the politician in turn, swore on his recently deceased “mother and father” that he had nothing to do with the crime.
Mayor Delvin Salgado was picked up by the police for his alleged role in two murders at some point in 2013 or 2014. In response to the charges that have been brought against him, Salgado said he had, “nothing to do with this.”
Salgado, mayor of El Negrito, is just one of 35 elected officials that have gotten mixed up with criminal ties since 2015 and likely will not be the last. Honduras is the second-poorest country in Central America.
The Central American country for years has been home to a long-running gangland civil war between the MS-13 and 18th Street Gang. Both gangs are fighting for control of the country’s drug trade as well as actual territory for racketeering and other illegal activities they can conduct through the black market and informal economy.
Honduras’ San Pedro Sula is the second-most-murderous city in the world in large part because of gang violence and the inability of government to adequately tackle the challenges posed by the warring organized crime outfits. As a country in Latin America, Honduras has the third highest murder rate in the region with 57 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Salgado’s arrest comes at a time that Honduras’ legal system is undergoing a major transformation as corruption is becoming less tolerated than it used to be in previous years. At the moment, 300 senior police officers were let go for criminal activity and 10,000 cops are under investigation.
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