Highest Murder Rate in Honduras
A United Nations human rights commission has recently reported that Honduras has the world’s highest murder rate. A killing takes place roughly every 74 minutes, even though Honduras is a small country with a population of only about 7 million people. 82 people are killed for every 100,000 people, compared to 1 in the UK.
There are many reasons for such a high murder rate in Honduras. A few years ago there was a coup against the government which led to a number of political killings in the country. Mexican drug cartels are pushing farther south and trying to expand their territory and business to Central American countries. According to the United Nations many Hondurans carry a gun, about one in ten people. The police cannot stop crime because most officers are also corrupt.
The government of Honduras has launched Operation Lightning, a program that aims at stopping crime with the help of the army.
Words:
- according to = as said by …
- aim = try, intend
- commission = group of people who have the job of finding out facts
- corrupt = to use your power in a bad way, mostly by taking money to do something illegally
- drug cartel = group of people who agree to sell drugs at a certain price and control a part of the market
- eventhough = while
- expand = to make bigger
- government = the people who rule a country
- human rights = the rights that everyone should have, like the right to vote or the right to speak freely
- launch = start
- officer = policeman
- push = move
- recently = lately, a short time ago
- roughly = about