Honduras human rights body warns of criminal recruitment of minors

The National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH) in Honduras has urged the state to strengthen prevention and protection policies to prevent children and adolescents from being recruited by organized crime, gangs, and mara structures. Cándida Maradiaga, coordinator of the CONADEH Children's Defense Office, stated that poverty, family abandonment, sexual violence, and social exclusion increase the vulnerability of minors to criminal networks.

Currently, 157 adolescents are held in the five pedagogical centers of the National Institute for the Care of Juvenile Offenders (INAMI). Maradiaga noted that while the age of juvenile criminal responsibility in Honduras is 12 to 18, detention should be a last resort focused on education and social reintegration rather than punishment. She highlighted that between 2014 and 2024, approximately 25 adolescents died violently while in state custody.

Additionally, Wilmer Vásquez, director of COIPRODEN, warned that extortion and violence from criminal structures are affecting Honduran educational centers. He noted that students may be coerced or blackmailed into committing infractions, and that structural violence is forcing families into forced displacement to escape criminal presence in their communities.