A Death in Honduras

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:00:22. > :00:32.Honduras is the most murderous mission in the world. Someone dies

:00:32. > :00:35.

:00:35. > :00:40.The capital is home to a unique organisation. The People's Funeral

:00:40. > :00:50.Service helps poor families when they lose a loved one where every

:00:50. > :01:16.

:01:16. > :01:21.Another day, another death. A community struggles to understand

:01:21. > :01:28.the killing of a young man, just one of 20 people to meet a violent

:01:28. > :01:38.end every day in Honduras. This man was gunned down to the day before

:01:38. > :01:39.

:01:39. > :01:44.as he dropped his children off at school. He was just 26 years old.

:01:44. > :01:54.His funeral has been funded by the People's Funeral Service, set up by

:01:54. > :01:54.

:01:54. > :03:56.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 122 seconds

:03:56. > :04:01.the mayor of Tegucigalpa. This man It is certainly in demand. In

:04:01. > :04:06.Honduras a toxic mix of guns, gangs and corruption has engineered the

:04:06. > :04:16.highest homicide rate in the world, over a key times that of most

:04:16. > :04:24.European countries. -- 80. The shade is will come under a tropical

:04:24. > :04:29.sun. This is no picnic. It is the city's morgue. All of these people

:04:29. > :04:33.are waiting for the body of a loved one to be released for burial.

:04:33. > :04:37.Johnny and his colleagues from the People's Funeral Service are here

:04:37. > :04:42.often and most of those Broughton have died of a violent death

:04:42. > :04:47.somewhere in a Tegucigalpa. -- brought in. There is no shortage of

:04:47. > :04:50.them. This couple are waiting for news about the remains of a

:04:50. > :04:57.brother-in-law. They say he was shot in a dispute with a neighbour

:04:57. > :05:05.and died this morning in hospital. It is another example of the

:05:05. > :05:11.everyday instance of gun violence in the country. Nearly seven has

:05:11. > :05:17.and 50,000 illegal firearms our own. Stay strong, says Tony, God will

:05:17. > :05:22.help you. -- Johnny. The People's Funeral Service does not just help

:05:22. > :05:27.the families of victims of violence. At the funeral home of the founder

:05:27. > :05:35.is visiting. The mayor of Tegucigalpa is the President of the

:05:35. > :05:43.ruling party. He is teasingly called Richard Gere and he has a

:05:43. > :05:47.celebrity author as he confronts the mourners. This is a wake for

:05:47. > :05:53.this lady. The mayor learns that she died from complications in

:05:53. > :05:57.hospital. She was just 51 and sold sweets on the steps of a local

:05:57. > :06:04.church. For families like this one made an impression on the mayor in

:06:04. > :06:09.2005. I was running for mayor. One day I encountered a little child,

:06:09. > :06:14.crying from the door of his house. I went to him and asked him what

:06:14. > :06:20.happened. My mother left me. I asked the neighbour what was going

:06:20. > :06:27.on. They told me that she took her television set to a porn shop to

:06:28. > :06:31.get some money to put his father to rest. To get a coffin and some

:06:31. > :06:35.things. I said this is something that is happening every day in the

:06:35. > :06:40.capital. We have to do something about it. And then I started

:06:40. > :06:46.promoting that if I became mayor we would have funeral homes to give

:06:46. > :06:52.dignity to the poorest people of the city. It in a culture where

:06:52. > :06:59.community ties are strong that may mean taking everything they needed

:06:59. > :07:09.for a way. With an empty coffin on board, the pick up heads to the

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:07:12. > :07:22.gunshot victim. We joined them later. His family were taking him

:07:22. > :07:34.

:07:34. > :07:39.We are heading north now behind the pick-up drug it has the coffin on

:07:39. > :07:49.top. As you come off out of the city the scenery begins to change.

:07:49. > :07:57.

:07:57. > :08:07.It becomes poorer. There are many The body in the coffin is that of

:08:07. > :08:21.

:08:21. > :08:31.Ramon. -- Roman Orlando Borella. We It was just yesterday her son was

:08:31. > :08:55.

:08:55. > :09:01.Do you have any idea who may be Friends and family will keep a

:09:01. > :09:11.vigil here through the night. In the morning we will need them at

:09:11. > :09:17.

:09:17. > :09:22.the cemetery for their sick's We have come back to the funeral

:09:22. > :09:26.home here and we find another wake going on. This is another young man

:09:26. > :09:30.who is 19 years old. Apparently killed in a drive-by shooting. He

:09:30. > :09:36.was not the only one to die, somebody else died with him. I

:09:36. > :09:46.asked his uncle if these kinds of killings happen often in the area

:09:46. > :10:04.

:10:04. > :10:14.What is it like living with that kind of fear? Every day of your

:10:14. > :10:14.

:10:14. > :11:03.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 122 seconds

:11:03. > :11:06.It is not only poor people who are being killed in the country. The

:11:06. > :11:10.campus of the National University feels very different to the poor

:11:10. > :11:14.areas of the capital. The students relax here with their friends and

:11:14. > :11:19.could be anywhere. These young people are not safe either. Last

:11:19. > :11:25.year in October, Honduras was shocked by the killing of two

:11:25. > :11:31.students, allegedly at the hands of the police. The mother of one of

:11:31. > :11:41.the victims is a vector of the university. Her son and his friend

:11:41. > :11:41.

:11:41. > :12:52.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 122 seconds

:12:52. > :13:02.were shot as they drove home from a There was a huge reaction from

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:13:02. > :13:44.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 122 seconds

:13:44. > :13:49.Honduras people when this happened So far no office has been charged

:13:49. > :13:59.in relation to the killings, but they did put police reform right at

:13:59. > :13:59.

:13:59. > :14:03.the top of the political agenda in Honduras. This is one of hundreds.

:14:03. > :14:07.For a long time a lot of us working in human rights has said, no-one

:14:07. > :14:11.can do this, no-one can come into the communities armed like this and

:14:11. > :14:18.hunt young people down and kill them. No-one can do this except

:14:18. > :14:23.police officers. I asked the mayor of Tegucigalpa what the national

:14:23. > :14:32.government is doing about police reform. We have to purify the

:14:32. > :14:37.police as quickly as possible. We cannot demotivated t

:14:37. > :14:42.It will not be easy. There are too many links between police and other

:14:42. > :14:45.things. You have to take it in a way that the people doing it don't

:14:45. > :14:48.lose their lives because they are going. Something needs to be done.

:14:48. > :14:53.Everything is conscious about it. The Government is conscious about

:14:53. > :14:59.it. I am conscious about it but you have to do it the right weight in

:14:59. > :15:04.order that it doesn't hit you back stronger.

:15:04. > :15:09.Cleaning up the police is critical. The capital's many small business

:15:09. > :15:12.owners feel vulnerable as if they have no protection. One a young

:15:12. > :15:22.Honduran who wants to remain anonymous tells us what happened at

:15:22. > :15:26.

:15:26. > :15:31.his parents' restaurant last year. Someone came in. They hit two

:15:31. > :15:35.clients. One died. One survive but has a problem with his late. One of

:15:35. > :15:45.them was captured one month later and he was actually a policeman in

:15:45. > :15:50.Yes. But he came in his uniform? Yes, in his uniform. You don't know

:15:50. > :15:57.if you can trust in the police. does that make you feel as a young

:15:57. > :16:02.person here? Hopeless. Honduras is a really nice country and we have

:16:02. > :16:12.really nice people, hard-working people. But the situation that

:16:12. > :16:15.

:16:15. > :16:19.really difficult. In two or three years I will be gone. My sister is

:16:19. > :16:24.leaving it to Canada this year. My other brother, maybe in five years

:16:24. > :16:27.he will move to Panama. They want to keep you safe? They want me to

:16:27. > :16:33.go out of Honduras because the situation is getting worse every

:16:33. > :16:39.day. We cannot trust anybody. Only family. You look really depressed

:16:39. > :16:49.as you are telling me this story. Now you open the newspaper and

:16:49. > :16:51.

:16:52. > :16:56.there is best everywhere. -- death. Tegucigalpa looks almost trampled

:16:57. > :17:06.from up here, the highest point overlooking the city. -- tranquil.

:17:07. > :17:11.

:17:11. > :17:14.But at street level, extreme levels of violence have become endemic. In

:17:14. > :17:21.2009 a military coup against President Manuel Zelaya sparked a

:17:21. > :17:28.wave of political killings. But the murder rate had already begun to

:17:28. > :17:32.rise rapidly. In fact it has doubled since 2005. Many blame

:17:32. > :17:38.Mexico's drug war, which has forced the cartel's down into Central

:17:38. > :17:41.America. Around 80% of cocaine smuggling flights from the south

:17:41. > :17:48.now touchdown in Honduras before moving to markets in the United

:17:48. > :17:55.States and Europe. You have a country in which corruption is

:17:55. > :18:01.deeply set at all levels. This is corruption on the one hand, and

:18:01. > :18:06.then you have drug-related gang as well involved in getting into the

:18:06. > :18:11.police and the military. And then you have a coup d'etat that tells a

:18:11. > :18:15.place that it is absolutely OK to go above the law, to break the law.

:18:15. > :18:21.You have the situation that we Irene now. It is not new. This is

:18:21. > :18:28.not caused by the coup. -- that we are in. But it has been worsened by

:18:28. > :18:32.it. Radio Globo is firmly identified with the anti-coup

:18:32. > :18:36.political opposition in Honduras. Its journalists follow a radical

:18:36. > :18:45.agenda. They talk of land rights, corruption and the links between

:18:45. > :18:55.authorities and violent crime. But talk comes at a price. This is one

:18:55. > :18:55.

:18:55. > :19:37.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 122 seconds

:19:37. > :19:43.of Radio Globo's presenters. She is 23 Honduran journalists have been

:19:43. > :19:47.murdered since 2010. Assassins have also killed lawyers, gay and

:19:47. > :19:51.lesbian campaigners, and political activists. The People's Funeral

:19:51. > :20:01.Service sees only victims who are poor. It is simple humanity,

:20:01. > :20:12.

:20:12. > :20:22.Today with the help of the team, Ramon is being played in his final

:20:22. > :20:36.

:20:36. > :20:39.Shot in the street, he died a sudden and savage death, one of

:20:39. > :20:46.that or all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination. Nobody