Chaos in the land. (News in Brief: Honduras).

San Pedro Sula--The two bishops of the San Pedro Sula diocese in Honduras issued a pastoral letter on violence in their diocese in December 2002. They report that, in the past four years, 4,500 murders have been reported in their diocese alone, of which 12% were of young people. Youth gangs clashing with one another have committed a large number of the murders. Over 60% of the crimes go unsolved.

Gangs in fact, are responsible for many victims. But a U.N. Report cites the "executions of street children carried out by members of the national police," the alarmed bishops said. "It is known that 85% of the murders resulted from the use of firearms." The impunity of crimes hovers around 60%, and the fact of not finding the culprits creates an atmosphere of anxiety in the society." This trend was aggravated in recent years by the great wave of kidnappings and the connections of national groups with international mafias, they added.

This Central American country of 6.5 million has a poverty rate of 70%, and family violence, including the abuse of women and children, makes the atmosphere truly devastating. There is a large drug problem, an illegal arms trade, and a lack of education among the people, which contribute to a "cheap labour" syndrome.

"The legal and illegal arms trade, which has filled our country with over half a million firearms of different calibers and potency, makes the coexistence of citizens that more dangerous," the document adds. The bishops appealed to the people to be conscious of how "aberrant, repugnant, and harmful for the collectivity is the wave of violence in which we find ourselves and how urgent it is to emerge from it, to protect the community from what already seems the uncontrolled elimination of peoples' lives." The two prelates call for social, economic, and spiritual changes, to diminish the effects of the extreme poverty and the violence, and to build up solidarity and social justice (Zenit, Dec. 5/02).