Three women from ethnic minority found slain in Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA - The bullet-riddled bodies of three women from an Afro-Caribbean minority group were found slain on a beach, the National Human Rights Commission of Honduras said on Sunday.

The women were all members of the Garifuna community, whose members live along coastal Honduras and Belize and are descended from an Afro-Indigenous population that migrated from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent more than two centuries ago.

"The three Garifuna women were found shot to death on a beach in the village of Travesia in Puerto Cortes," Commission Director Blanca Izaguirre said.

A commission statement said the women were sitting on the beach "when heavily armed men arrived and shot them without saying anything."

The three new slayings bring to 17 the number of women murdered in Honduras so far in 2023, the commission said.

According to the commission's tally, between 2002 and 2022, more than 7,500 women in Honduras lost their lives "in violent circumstances."

Honduras has the highest homicide rate in Central America. Last year, the country tallied 35.8 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to official figures. - AFP